Five Lessons on the Psychoanalytic Theory of Jacques Lacan

Juan-David Nasio is a psychoanalyst in Paris and former member of the École Freudienne of Jacques Lacan. He teaches at the University of Paris VII (Sorbonne) and is the director of the Séminaires Psychanalytiques de Paris, a major center for psychoanalytical training and the dissemination of psychoanalytical thought to nonspecialists. David Pettigrew is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University. François Raffoul is Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at California State University, Stanislaus. Pettigrew and Raffoul have cotranslated The Title of the Letter: A Reading of Lacan by Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, and coedited Disseminating Lacan, both published by SUNY Press.

"Nasio's Five Lessons provides an incisive entry into the densities of Lacan's difficult discourse. Focusing on the two principles of the unconscious as 'structured like a language' and of jouissance as signifying that 'there is no sexual relation,' Nasio takes up Lacanian theory in a refreshingly nondogmatic way. The complex role of the signifier, the vexing status of the subject of the unconscious, and the enigmatic object a are illuminated in the context of fantasy and the body. This is a remarkable work, as pithy as it is profound. The translation by Pettigrew and Raffoul makes Nasio's text—and thus Lacan's Écrits—lucidly accessible." — Edward S. Casey, State University of New York at Stony Brook

• Translators' Introduction Five Lessons on the Psychoanalytic Theory of Jacques Lacan Prefatory Remarks First Lesson: The Unconscious and Jouissance First Principle: "The unconscious is structured like a language"Second Principle: "There is no sexual relation"Second Lesson: The Existence of the Unconscious When can the unconscious be said to exist?The unconscious manifests itself in "lalangue"The unconscious is a structure that actualizes itselfThe unconscious is the displacement of the signifier between the patient and the analystThe subject of the unconsciousThird Lesson: The Concept of Object a The therapeutic goal of psychoanalysisObject aThe problem of the otherThe formal status of object aThe "corporal" status of object aThe breast as object aSummary on object a: the need-demand-desire triadFourth Lesson: Fantasy That which is proper to psychoanalysisClinical observations on fantasyThe body as a core of jouissanceFifth Lesson: The Body Sexual, symbolic, and imaginary bodyPartial body and jouissanceA clinical vignetteFormations of object aAppendix: The Concept of the Subject of the Unconscious Translated by Boris Belay The relation of the subject to unconscious knowledgeThe relation of the subject to logicThe relation of the subject to castrationThe layered subject of the unconsciousThe concept of unconscious knowledgeNotes Index