Ecrits: A Selection
French psychoanalyst Lacan (1901-81) has generated more  excitement in cultural studies and literature than in  psychoanalysis. Known as a brilliant but confusing commentator,  he borrows freely from many disciplines, using analogy,  metaphor, self-contradiction, and other provocations with  reader-be-damned flamboyance. This is the first volume in a new  English translation of Lacan's landmark  crits (1966), which  comprises 29 major texts and six introductions and appendixes.  Herein, Lacan discusses nine facets of his psychoanalytic theory  and technique. He claims that the unconscious is structured like  a language and is known for his theory of the "mirror stage" in  child development. Those who want to decide for themselves  whether to praise or bury Lacan need look no further than this  careful translation by Fink (psychology, Duquesne Univ.; A  Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis), which belongs  primarily in academic collections. Intelligent lay readers will  be able to grasp some of the text, but they will need additional  assistance, e.g., Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen's Lacan: The Absolute  Master, a rich and relatively accessible overview by a native  French speaker, and Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Fashionable  Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science, which  devotes a chapter to Lacan's misuse of mathematics.E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington,  DCCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.