Introduction to the Reading of Lacan : The Unconscious Structured Like a Language (Lacanian Clinical Field) [Paperback]

Joel Dor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 1998 | Series: Lacanian Clinical Field

"A major and long overdue addition to the America/English psychoanalytic literature. . . . All major concepts—among them the mirror stage, the Name-of-the-Father, metaphor and metonymy, the phallus, the foreclosure of the subject—are developed in depth."
-Nicholas Kouretsas, Harvard Medical School

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Joel Dor

Joel Dor was a professor of psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VII and a member of the Association de Formation Psychoanalytique et de Recherches Freudiennes: Espace Analytique. He is also the author of Introduction to the Reading of Lacan and Structure and Perversions (both Other Press).


Susan Fairfield

Susan Fairfield is an editor, translator, and poet. She is also the author of papers on literary criticism, a psychoanalyst, and co-editor of Bringing the Plague: Toward a Postmodern Psychoanalysis. She lives in the Bay Area of California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Other Press (September 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892746042
• ISBN-13: 978-1892746047
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An optimal introduction to the (difficult ) reading of Lacan, February 27, 2003

By 

Roberto P. De Ferraz "ferraz9" (Sao Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introduction to the Reading of Lacan : The Unconscious Structured Like a Language (Lacanian Clinical Field) (Paperback)

I am not at all interested in Psychanalisys and bought the book just for its (non-misleading)sub-title : the Unconcious Structured like a Language. Having just finished the reading of Sigmund Freud's major work, The Interpretation of Dreams, which is superb and which is also the basis of all Lacan's comments in this book, I was attracted to better understand the idea , already present in Freud's opus in a disguised faction, that the Unconcious is structured like a language.
Monsieur Joel Dor does it good in the sense of trying to communicate to the non-specialyzed person like myself what are the basic tenets of Lacan's difficult to understand theory. Sure, if I tell my psychanalists friends they will tell me that there is a better book, that this is not the best, etc... But in my humble opinion, I got totally what I was looking for, thinking even in reading again the book to better understand some spetacular concepts like "The Name of the Father", "The phallic object", "Metaphor and Metonimy" (linguistics applied to Psyche Analisys) and the like.
THis is the kind of book one does not regret buying, specially if he (she) is interested in better understant the workings of the unconcious and the formation of the language process in the mind.
Lacan and Freud are Sacred Monster of it all.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Introduction to Lacan, September 1, 2003

By 

Dallas Jones (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introduction to the Reading of Lacan : The Unconscious Structured Like a Language (Lacanian Clinical Field) (Paperback)

Dor's text is a very user-friendly introduction to Jacques Lacan's groundbreaking rereading of Freud--(most importantly, this means the freeing of psychoanalysis from strict biological determinism). A master assimilator, Lacan re-shaped the notion of the human subject, and the author tackles the subject in piece-by-piece fashion without overwhelming the reader. Dor even tries to make sense of Lacan's borderline insane graphical representations of the primacy of the signifier over the signified, and to an extent he succeeds. Though I am new to Lacan, I found this text to be the most precise and readable introduction to his ideas.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rigorous and demystifying, January 7, 2002

By 

A Reader (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introduction to the Reading of Lacan : The Unconscious Structured Like a Language (Lacanian Clinical Field) (Paperback)

This is one of the few books on Lacanian psychoanalysis that address the questions of how the ego is formed and what the defensive function is masking. For me, it brought to light an entirely new explanation of Freud's oedipal complex and it offers telling clinical examples of how the signifier plays itself out in neurotic formation. Dor is clear and systematic and identifies with the uninitiated reader. You can tell that he enjoyed making Lacan clear. This book is a treat and you feel smarter after reading it.