After Lacan: Clinical Practice and the Subject of the Unconscious

by Willy Apollon, Kareen Ror Malone (Editor)

After Lacan combines abundant case material with graceful yet sophisticated theoretical exposition in order to explore the clinical practice of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Focusing on the groundbreaking clinical treatment of psychosis that Gifric (Groupe Interdisciplinaire Freudien de Recherches et d'Interventions Cliniques et Culturelles) has pioneered in Quebec, the authors discuss how Lacanians theorize psychosis and how Gifric has come to treat it analytically. Chapters are devoted to the general concepts and key terms that constitute the touchstones of the early phase of analytic treatment, elaborating their interrelations and their clinical relevance. The second phase of analytic treatment is also discussed, introducing a new set of terms to understand transference and the ethical act of analysis in the subject's assumption of the Other's lack. The concluding chapters broaden discussion to include the key psychic structures that describe the organization of subjectivity and thereby dictate the terms of not just psychosis, but also perversion and obsessional and hysterical neurosis.

Genres: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Kali · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally don't rate psychoanalytic criticism very highly, because I feel that it's flawed at the root. However, this was a less worthy volume than others. As an editor, I usually feel that if the essays I've collected are of high quality, I don't need to use up 25% of the book introducing them and specifically telling the reader what each author has done. This is not uncommon in anthologies of psychoanalytic criticism, but in this case the framing was quite aggressive: this collection was geared to show the authors' "North American colleagues" the error of their ways, and did so in high psychoanalytic style. So expect a lot of analyzing the (inferior) analysts. As for the substance of the argument, it is that when the pedal of Lacanian psychoanalysis meets the metal of psychotic patients, a certain "savoir" is generated -- a knowledge of the lack -- which underlies the ethic of the psychoanalyst. The usual arguments for patriarchal authority are advanced, and patient's problems are universally described as emanating from an inability to recognize the rightful place of the Father (represented by the Phallus). As is generally the practice in psychoanalytic texts, the role of the therapist is writ large, and the fate of the patient is hardly the issue. And, as always, there is not simply an omission of, but a rejection of empirical methods.

And if you're going to ask why I read this sort of work if I dislike it so much, my answer is that, sadly, psychoanalytic criticism is still the fashion in many literature departments, and thus I read it to keep abreast of the arguments that take place within the psychoanalytic heuristic.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times this is an extremely dense read, but unpacking it can be similarly rewarding.