The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Freud's Papers on Technique (Vol. Book I) (The Seminar of Jacques Lacan) [Paperback]

Jacques Lacan (Author), Jacques-Alain Miller (Editor), John Forrester (Translator)

Book Description

Series: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan | Publication Date: January 17, 1991

A complete translation of the seminar that Jacques Lacan gave in the course of a year's teaching within the training programme of the Société Française de Psychanalyse.

The French text was prepared by Jacques-Alain Miller in consultation with Jacques Lacan, from the transcriptions of the seminar.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Seminar: Books I and II have a special place because of their value as an introduction to Lacan. . . . [They] are a sure path of entry into Lacan's critique of ego psychology. . . . Lacan's work underscores that part of Freud's message that is most revlutionary for our time. The individual is 'decentered'. There is no autonomous self. What sex was to the Victorians, the question of free will is to our new Fin-de-Siecle.” (Sherry Turkle - London Review of Books )

“A rare opportunity to experience Lacan as a teacher. . . . The publication of these two early seminars . . . may allow Lacan's work to do what it does most remarkably: she light on, and expend, the theoretical implications of psychoanalysis, but also to train a new generation of psychoanalysts by asking again: what exactly do we do when we do psychoanalysis?” (Lisa Kennedy - Voice Literary Supplement )

About the Author

The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) was one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers. His many published works include Ecrits and The Seminars.


Jacques-Alain Miller is Director of the Department of Psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII and editor of Lacan's Seminars.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (January 17, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393306976
• ISBN-13: 978-0393306972
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lacan for americans, March 15, 2008

By 

Case Quarter (CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Freud's Papers on Technique (Vol. Book I) (The Seminar of Jacques Lacan) (Paperback)

reports that the works of jacques lacan are difficult reading ring true, especially his first seminar. but, gentle reader, remember the seminars were talks, some of them interactive, and each seminar delivered over a period of 20 weeks for the training and edification of french speaking psychoanalysts, and the curiousity of the noted french intellectuals of the day and numerous students in attendance. the average american reader of the works of lacan is probably more interested in literary studies than psychiatry, psychoanalysis and psychology. and not without reason. in addition to explicating the word and works of freud, lacan, a voracious reader, sent to our shores, caught up in his texts, what could only be phrased as an enormous reading list of poets, philosophers, literary masterpieces, greek dramas, books of the bible, and the maxims of famous authors

the first 7 chapters, the first 7 weeks, aren't of much interest for the `american reader' searching for knowledge of the legend of lacan. but in the 8th week, the 8th chapter of the book, ms lefort shares a case of her own about a male infant hospitalized for various childhood illnesses in 25 different institutions for children before his 4th birthday before arriving at the denfert repository, confined `on account of an unclearly defined para-psychotic state,' to be treated by ms lefort. here lacan, and those in attendance, are presented with a case of a seminar's participant's own account, and it's her asking lacan for a diagnosis and the discussion which follows, that should remind the `american reader' of the purpose of the seminar(s), which it's sometimes easy to forget during the scintillating webbing of words spun by lacan.

as difficult as the text is, the seminars are the best introduction to lacan and his work, and worth the effort needed to get thru the first seminar for anyone truly in interested in lacan's work. once one learns the psychoanalytic terminology and the topics discussed and reads the texts suggested by lacan, reading the other seminars becomes easier.

jacques lacan presided over 27 seminars. his intention was to have his seminars published. lacan passed the publishing task on to jacques-alain miller. so far miller has published more than half of the seminars in french. english translations have proceeded at a slower pace. with the recent publication of seminar 17, the total seminars in print, under the norton heading, counting the `four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis' and `on feminine sexuality, the limits of love and knowledge', bring the number to 7. 7 translations by 6 translators. in the acknowledgements following the text of the 7th seminar the editor, jacques-alain miller welcomes any readers who would like to collaborate in the revision of texts for publication. unfortunately, jacques lacan's seminars have not found its james strachey. those of us who do not speak french can hope mr miller's invitation finds more ears attuned to french and english.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lacan before Lacan, June 11, 2000

By 

steven schwartzbard - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Freud's Papers on Technique (Vol. Book I) (The Seminar of Jacques Lacan) (Paperback)

There are still traces of Kojeve in the Lacan's first seminar, and Kojeve mixed with sociobiology (pigeons and the imaginary) and the ego and the id. The imaginary will at this point play a larger role than it will later, as will the ego (formed out of the imaginary and the mirror stage), but at the same time the origin of negativity and aggression, located in an alienating picture of ourselves. But is not negativity ultimately located in language (and even more specifically, in the word "not"), the word "elephant" that is more deadly to the the elephants than any machete? The word as the murder of the thing? It is curious that Lacan and Kojeve once planned to write a book on Freud, and Kojeve and Strauss planned a book on Hobbes and Hegel. The intersection is the state of nature, the humble theoretical origin of Kojeve's desire of another's desire.