This volume provides an excellent introduction to the work of Jacques Lacan, covering all of Lacan's major concepts such as the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real. Sean Homer draws on a number of examples from the fields of literary, film, gender and cultural studies to help explain these difficult concepts, and explores the ways in which Lacanian psychoanalytic theory has impacted on these areas. This is the ideal introduction to the work of one of the most important theorists and thinkers of our time for scholars working within a variety of disciplines. Jacques Lacan is one of the most challenging and controversial of contemporary thinkers, as well as the most influential psychoanalyst since Freud. Lacanian theory has reached far beyond the consulting room to engage with such diverse disciplines as literature, film, gender and social theory. This book covers the full extent of Lacan's career and provides an accessible guide to Lacanian concepts and his writing on: *the imaginary and the symbolic *the Oedipus Complex and the meaning of the phallus *the subject and the unconscious *the real *sexual difference. Locating Lacan's work in the context of contemporary French thought and the history of psychoanalysis, Sean Homer's Jacques Lacan is the ideal introduction to this influential theorist. --- from the publisher |