Customer Reviews

Freud as Philosopher: Metapsychology After Lacan

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Boothby does two things: he interprets Freud (through Lacan) and clarifies at the same time key-concepts of Lacan's philosophy. The book is lucidly argued and shows a pedagogical skill of the author.
I have read several introductions to Lacan but this one is by far the best and will hopefully be called a "classic" one day.

It is hard to describe this as an introductory text to the concepts of Freud and Lacan, or as its own exposition of new ideas, probably more of the former, but it serves both purposes equally well. For the beginner like me, it was great to understand the philosophical underpinnings of Freud, gradually showing how Lacan elucidated certain controversial Freudian concepts and thus fully appreciating their impacts on subjectivity. Like Lacan once said, "I'm a Freudian, I leave it up to you to be Lacanians," this book's primary focus is showing the full depth of Freud, with Lacan chiming in. To do this, Boothby sticks to his strong background in phenomenology where Freud and Lacan-oustide of the introduction-are hardly even mentioned until about 30-40 pages in. This is what makes the book interesting and unlike any other intro text on Lacan (if that's what you want to call it), because the big Lacanian terminology (imaginary, symbolic, real) are not merely thrown around from the beginning assuming reader understanding. Rather, by the time Boothby approaches the term 'imaginary,' you've had many pages before explaining all of it's perceptual underpinnings, philosophic origins in Freud, as well as interwoven clinical examples. Definitely worth a read.