This is the first collection of essays to offer a comprehensive analysis of, and reflection on, the major themes emergent in Jacques Lacan’s seminars of 1955-56 and 1956-57: Seminar IV – the object relation, and Seminar V – formations of the unconscious. Assessing the value of a clinical approach orientated around the question of the object lack in the contemporary clinic, the book comprises 16 chapters which follow the development of a range of concepts elaborated by Lacan in these seminars, including sustained engagement with his critique of object relations theory. It considers the effectiveness of these early ideas in clinical practice in relation to hysteria, phobia, fetishism, obsessional neurosis, and of the so-called "Borderline" case. Lacan’s early concepts are also subjected to critique for engagement with Queer theory, and research in asexuality or the operation(s) of the signifier Phallus. The chapters build to provide an invaluable resource to interpret and evaluate Lacan’s early teaching, and to find in his early concepts a fresh utility and scope for both clinical work and psychoanalytic research and enquiry. The book will be of great interest to Lacanian scholars and students, as well as psychoanalytic therapists, and analysts interested in Lacan’s early work. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS PREFACE RUSSELL GRIGG INTRODUCTION CAROL OWENS AND NADEZHDA ALMQVIST PHOBIA/FETISH CHAPTER ONE Drawing the Urinary Trait: Fantasy and Analytic Technique in Ruth Lebovici’s Treatment of a Transitory Perversion Dany Nobus CHAPTER TWO The lessons of little Hans Leonardo S. Rodríguez CHAPTER THREE "Once Bitten, Forever Smitten": phobias, fetishes, and small boys Carol Owens CHAPTER FOUR The Phobic and Fetish Objects Stephanie Swales
LACK CHAPTER FIVE Privation: A Logical Step between Castration and Frustration Rolf Flor CHAPTER SIX Asexuality, Absence, and the Dialectic of Substitution Kevin Murphy CHAPTER SEVEN Much Ado about More than Nothing: Thoughts on "difficult" cases and Lacan’s Seminar IV Manya Steinkoler PHALLUS CHAPTER EIGHT The Phallus of the Fifties – Those Years of ‘‘Tranquil Possession’’ Olga Cox Cameron CHAPTER NINE The Phallus: Crossroads or Impasse? Queering Desire via Seminar V Sarah Meehan O’Callaghan CHAPTER TEN To be or not to be the phallus: Lacan, Genet, and Wilde Christine Gormley
WITZ CHAPTER ELEVEN Lacan reading Freud: on the relationship of Seminar V to Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious P. G. Young CHAPTER TWELVE "Did you hear that Tom’s dick was hairy?" Witz, Cure, and the Transmission of Psychoanalysis Jamieson Webster and Marcus Coelen GRAPH OF DESIRE CHAPTER THIRTEEN On the Development of Lacan’s Graph of Desire Dan Collins PATERNAL METAPHOR CHAPTER FOURTEEN Father Love - From Oedipus complex to Paternal Metaphor Megan Williams OBSESSIONAL CHAPTER FIFTEEN "Why Can’t a Woman be More Like a Man?" The Signifier and the Obsessional Nadezhda Almqvist CHAPTER SIXTEEN Obsessional Desire in Seminar V: The Exploits of Tantalus Lorenzo Chiesa APPENDIX Transitory Sexual Perversion in the Course of a Psychoanalytic Treatment Ruth Lebovici
INDEX About the Editors Carol Owens and Nadezhda Almqvist are psychoanalytic practitioners in Dublin. They are the founders of the Dublin Lacan study group. |