Customer Reviews

The Lacanian Subject

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Along with his book "A Clinical Introduction into Lacanian Psychoanalysis," this book by Bruce Fink makes us THE best introduction into Lacanian theory one can find in English. After reading this book I got a very good snap shot into what Lacan's entire project in fact is. To be sure, this book is not the end all of Lacan, for Lacan's project is vast in itself, nor does Fink intend it to be so. Rather, this book gives one some footing to engage the Seminars of Lacan. The strength of this book HAS TO BE its LUCIDITY and CLARITY. Fink certainly is a pedagogue and is very intend on explaining what Lacan is talking about. He is not going into obscurities to sound academic and difficult. NO: Fink is intending to give the English reader a picture of what is going on. He does this by grounding Lacan's theory in Freud. By doing this, we get a very good picture of how Lacan performed his now famous "return to Freud," and what that actually entails. After reading this book you will get the picture that one cannot read Lacan without Freud and that Freud himself loses something without Lacan. I highly recommend this book for anyone trying to get a foot into the door in Lacanian theory.

Bruce Fink has done English speakers a great service in his works on Lacan. "The Master" is often disregarded and maligned for being impossible to understand, and whether or not you agree with those descriptions Lacan is made wholly intelligible in Fink's thoughtful studies.

The Lacanian Subject is a great intro to Lacan. The only better one that I've read is Fink's own A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, which is aimed at clinicians but is a little bit gentler in its exposition of Lacanian theory. But The Lacanian Subject is a fantastic book, maintaining a balance between being comprehensible and challenging. It is neither a crude popularization or a bloodless academic treatise, instead being an engaging mix of theoretical exegesis and lively engagement.

Keep the title in mind when reading this book: more than anything it's a course in what subjectivity consists of for Lacan. Fink takes you through the concepts of the unconscious structured like a language, Lacan's three registers (imaginary, symbolic, and real), alienation, seperation, object (a), the phallus, the four discourses, and more with an eye towards the subject in Lacan: what is it and how does it differ from its conceptions in other schools of thought, psychoanalytic and otherwise.

I highly recommend reading this in conjunction with Fink's A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis. The two reinforce and illuminate each other, as the analytic situation makes more sense in light of the theory offered herein, and some of the complex formulations in this book will be easier to understand in light of how Lacanian analysis is practiced. The two works will provide a strong foundation for you to start tackling Lacan's famous seminars (and keep your eyes open for Fink's long-awaited new translation of Ecrits).

This book is accused of being an oversimplification AND the only book on Lacan you'll ever need. It's neither. What you'll find in "The Lacanian Subject" is a very nice introduction written in very clear, succinct terms. It will not, of course, prepare you to be a practicing Lacanian, nor is it definitive. Fink, the author, says as much in his introduction. Think of the book as a first step towards a deeper understanding.

I believe the idea is that you read this book before moving onto Lacan's words themselves. Lacan is notoriously difficult and no matter how much some readers feel this misrepresents his ideas, I believe Lacan misrepresents his ideas even more when beginners attempt to understand what he is talking about without proper background knowledge. Read this, get some nice explanations that you can understand easily, and THEN pick up "Ecrits" and you'll read it much easier and get more out of it.

I'm putting all this emphasis on arguments saying the book is an oversimplification or a misrepresentation, but I'm not even sure I agree with those arguments at all. I've found this book to be quite consistent with my readings from Lacan directly, as well as the general theoretical discourse that surrounds him. Fink is extremely qualified to write this, as he is one of the foremost translators of Lacan's work in English. I will take his word over that of most others who merely "claim" to have an intimate understanding of Lacan.

The whole point is this: read critically - don't just passively absorb all the information. If you approach the book this way, I think you'll find a wealth of useful information. My specific interest in Lacan deals with psychoanalytic film theory and I can definitely recommend this to anyone interested in Lacan from that angle. It is certainly a great primer on Lacan so that when you go to read psychoanalytic film theorists directly (e.g. Metz, Mulvey, McGowan), you'll get much more out of the experience.

"The Lacanian Subject" is an extremely useful, accessible book. I recommend it to anyone interested in Lacan.

The best short introduction to Lacan in English so far. It might have its simplifications but it is inevitable in a book of 200 pages which covers so huge a subject. As for May 21, 2006 one star review see his/her review of "The Puppet and the Dwarf" -- if you have read it, it will tell you more than you want to know.

Bruce Fink, though a practicisng lacanian psychoanalist, has outlined quite a an oversimplifed version of the Lacanian theoretical edifice. Not so surprisingly, oversimplified means erroneous for much of the time. Especially, when it comes to giving examples for what abstract theory holds, the author comes very close to misrepresentation. Take for example his definition of the Other as "collection of all the words and expressions in a language", his constantly naming of "unconscious as foreign to the self" and this ridiculous (fictious) example of Einstein remembering the words of his father he heard when he was in pre-language stage. It may be, i dont know, a not-a-bad book for a starter who is supposed to develep no furher interest (desire?) for Lacan and but certainly a misguiding for a demanding reader.