The informal tone of these ten lectures by Roberto Harari reflects their original character as classes held at El Centro de Extensión Psicoanalítica del Centro Cultural General, San Martín, Buenos Aires. Destined for a wider audience than just the psychoanalytical camp, Harari's work presents the Lacanian endeavor without presupposition of specialized knowledge--and yet without conceding intellectual subtlety. Harari provides an introductory display of essential themes developed in Lacan's Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, and offers his own insightful reading of the text's central ideas. These ten classes, sparked by the crucial Seminar XI within the teaching of Lacan, reframe a wide range of questions in psychoanalysis for the professional in the field, scholars and students across disciplines, and interested lay readers. Harari is so at ease with Lacan's oeuvre that he can dismantle and rebuild its structure so that order and logic suddenly appear inherent to Lacan's way of thinking. The unconscious, transference, repetition, and the drive are here reintroduced, not only to do justice to Freud's insights, but also to link these concepts to the larger question of the complex relationships between psychoanalysis, religion, and science. Harari's didactic approach and his analytic style come together to bring us one step closer to understanding Lacan and one step closer to understanding ourselves. --- from the publisher Praise for Lacan's Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis: "Roberto Harari's original lessons about Seminar XI have the merit to clarify and interconnect its difficult concepts. Harari is a clinician with ample analytical practice as well as a solid philosophical foundation. His expertise in both fields is very useful when deciphering obscure concepts presented by Lacan. Harari's clarification about tuche and automaton, the Theory of the Drives, the concepts of Das ding and the new concept of the Real, are of extraodinary value. Roberto Harari has a gift for theoretical understanding and for explaining these new theories in a way that makes them accessible to all." -Romulo Lander, Psychoanalyst and author of Subjective Experience and the Logic of the Other |
