Let's Keep Talking: Lacanian Tales of Love, Sex, and Other Catastrophes

by Yael Goldman Baldwin

Let's Keep Talking: Lacanian Tales of Love, Sex, and Other Catastrophes is a collection of original Lacanian case studies of young people today as they struggle with their own modern existential dilemmas of sex and love, life and death. The context, background, and forms of expression may be contemporary, but the clients' problems, structures, and existential dilemmas are quite classic. The five narrative tales highlight the role a Lacanian orientation played in the interactions, formulations, and results, from initial meetings to terminations. Grounded in concrete clinical material, the case studies illuminate specific and universal themes of human suffering and how we can treat that suffering by speaking. Yael Baldwin argues that in our cultural milieu of "connective technologies", and the rise of biotechnology and psychopharmacology in particular, we are in need of mental health treatment methods that highlight talking and relationships as essential to our personhood, our suffering, and our healing and growth. Let's Keep Talking argues that now, more than ever, we need the endeavour of analytic talk therapy.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 31, 2015

Reviews

[Dries · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ach, die Amerikaanse Lacanianen toch

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile read for those interested in Lacan and psychoanalysis. I like the fact that the book explores theory through the case studies. There could have been more explanation of technique. One significant oversight was a lack of discussion about the death drive. One of the case studies presented the concept without really naming it outright. The book is well written and readable, though some times it comes off as a sales pitch for Lacanian psychoanalysis. Case studies are what makes Lacan legible, so this is a valuable contribution to the field.