Bruce Fink is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He trained as a psychoanalyst in France for seven years with—and is now a member of—the psychoanalytic institute Lacan created shortly before his death, the École de la Cause Freudienne in Paris. He is also an affiliated member of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

"In this important book, Bruce Fink shows with characteristic elegance and thoughtfulness how Lacanian psychoanalysis is no mere intellectual abstraction but a real and powerful framework for clinical practice."Darian Leader, Psychoanalyst, Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, London, UK"Bruce Fink provides us here with an impressive exploration of the Lacanian approach to psychoanalysis, in which the epistemic specificity of psychoanalysis starting with Freud is never forgotten. The clarity and the alertness of the style, the numerous and always instructive clinical cases, and the enlightening commentaries on difficult texts, provide easy access to the most complex and controversial topics: the effectiveness of speech, the pathways of interpretation, semblance, and the aims of treatment as regards desire, jouissance, love, violence, and even … men and women!"Colette Soler, The School of the Forums of the Lacanian Field, Paris, France"Bruce Fink is arguably the foremost commentator and interpreter of Jacques Lacan’s work in the United States today, and the publication of a new set of commentaries and case vignettes by him foregrounding the principles of Lacanian practice is thus something of an event for practitioners in the field…Against Understanding provides us with perhaps the best practical sourcebook to Lacanian theory and practice that we currently have. It is often said of the good analyst that he or she knows how to keep the patient talking. The two volumes of Bruce Fink’s Against Understanding evince a different skill: they keep the reader reading." Derek Hook, Psychodynamic Practice

• Contents. Preface. Acknowledgments. Commentary. On Clinical Practice. 1. Analysand and Analyst in the Global Economy, or Why Anyone in their Right Mind Would Pay for an Analysis. 2. What’s So Different about Lacan’s Approach to Psychoanalysis? 3. Fantasies and the Fundamental Fantasy: An Introduction. 4. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. 5. Why Diagnose? A Few Reflections on Diagnosis. On Reading Lacan. 6. An Introduction to Lacan’s Seminar XVIII: D’un discours qui ne serait pas du semblant. 7. Lacan on Personality from the 1930s to the 1950s. 8. An Introduction to "Kant with Sade". 9. Freud and Love on Love: A Preliminary Exploration. On Translation. 10. The Task of Translation. Cases. 11. In the Wake of Medea: A Case of Obsession from a Lacanian Perspective. 12. The Role of Semblance in "Identity" Construction. 13. The Freud Man and the Fundamental Fantasy. 14. Contours of Trauma. Critique. 15. Interview: Lacan in America (Loren Dent). 16. Interview: A Few Words with the Editors of MonoKL. 17. Violence in Psychoanalysis. References. Index.

Bruce Fink is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He trained as a psychoanalyst in France for seven years with—and is now a member of—the psychoanalytic institute Lacan created shortly before his death, the École de la Cause Freudienne in Paris. He is also an affiliated member of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

"In this important book, Bruce Fink shows with characteristic elegance and thoughtfulness how Lacanian psychoanalysis is no mere intellectual abstraction but a real and powerful framework for clinical practice."Darian Leader, Psychoanalyst, Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, London, UK"Bruce Fink provides us here with an impressive exploration of the Lacanian approach to psychoanalysis, in which the epistemic specificity of psychoanalysis starting with Freud is never forgotten. The clarity and the alertness of the style, the numerous and always instructive clinical cases, and the enlightening commentaries on difficult texts, provide easy access to the most complex and controversial topics: the effectiveness of speech, the pathways of interpretation, semblance, and the aims of treatment as regards desire, jouissance, love, violence, and even … men and women!"Colette Soler, The School of the Forums of the Lacanian Field, Paris, France"Bruce Fink is arguably the foremost commentator and interpreter of Jacques Lacan’s work in the United States today, and the publication of a new set of commentaries and case vignettes by him foregrounding the principles of Lacanian practice is thus something of an event for practitioners in the field…Against Understanding provides us with perhaps the best practical sourcebook to Lacanian theory and practice that we currently have. It is often said of the good analyst that he or she knows how to keep the patient talking. The two volumes of Bruce Fink’s Against Understanding evince a different skill: they keep the reader reading." Derek Hook, Psychodynamic Practice

• Contents. Preface. Acknowledgments. Commentary. On Clinical Practice. 1. Analysand and Analyst in the Global Economy, or Why Anyone in their Right Mind Would Pay for an Analysis. 2. What’s So Different about Lacan’s Approach to Psychoanalysis? 3. Fantasies and the Fundamental Fantasy: An Introduction. 4. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. 5. Why Diagnose? A Few Reflections on Diagnosis. On Reading Lacan. 6. An Introduction to Lacan’s Seminar XVIII: D’un discours qui ne serait pas du semblant. 7. Lacan on Personality from the 1930s to the 1950s. 8. An Introduction to "Kant with Sade". 9. Freud and Love on Love: A Preliminary Exploration. On Translation. 10. The Task of Translation. Cases. 11. In the Wake of Medea: A Case of Obsession from a Lacanian Perspective. 12. The Role of Semblance in "Identity" Construction. 13. The Freud Man and the Fundamental Fantasy. 14. Contours of Trauma. Critique. 15. Interview: Lacan in America (Loren Dent). 16. Interview: A Few Words with the Editors of MonoKL. 17. Violence in Psychoanalysis. References. Index.