Psychoanalyzing: On the Order of the Unconscious and the Practice of the Letter

Scarcely any theoretical discourse has had greater impact on literary and cultural studies than psychoanalysis, and yet hardly any theoretical discourse is more widely misunderstood and abused. In Psychoanalyzing, Serge Leclaire offers a thorough and lucid exposition of the psychoanalysis that has emerged from the French return to Freud, unfolding and elaborating the often enigmatic pronouncements of Jacques Lacan and patiently working through the central tenets of the Ecole freudienne. As a concise but nuanced introduction to the subject, Psychoanalyzing will prove indispensable to anyone interested in psychoanalysis, especially those curious about its Lacanian reconceptualization and the linguistic theory of the unconscious and its effects. Leclaire s study is particularly valuable for the way its author links theoretical issues to psychoanalytic practice. The opening chapter on listening highlights the necessity, and the impossibility, of the floating attention required from the analyst, while preparing the reader for the following chapters, which deal with such topics as unconscious desire, how to speak of the body, and the intrication of the object and the letter (i.e. the signifier, the material support that concrete discourse borrows from language). The final chapter on transference shows how the analytical dialogue differs from other dialogues.