The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-1955 (Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Bk 2) [Hardcover]

Jacques Lacan (Author), Jacques-Alain Miller (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Bk 2 | Publication Date: June 1988

A complete translation of the seminar that Jacques Lacan gave in the course of a year's teaching within the training programme of the Socie'te' Francaise de Psychanalyse. The French text was prepared by Jacques-Alain Miller in consultation with Jacques Lacan, from the transcriptions of the seminar.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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 revolutionary 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: shed light on, and expand, the theoretical implications of psychoanalysis, but also train a new generation of psychoanalysts by asking again and again: what exactly do we do when we do psychoanalysis?" —Lisa Kennedy, Voice Literary Supplement --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 353 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc (June 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393018970
• ISBN-13: 978-0393018974
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Good a Place as Any to Plunge into Lacan's Work, January 30, 2010

By 

Matthew D. Jones (Melrose, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-1955 (Book II) (The Seminar of Jacques Lacan) (Paperback)

Any didactic review of Lacan's Seminars is, perhaps, deeply ironic. The seminars themselves were oral performances, and this volume, like all the other Seminars, consists of notes of Lacan's lectures, edited in French by his son-in-law, Jacques-Alain Miller. Lacan's pedagogical technique relied on the ambiguities of meaning in language, particularly spoken language, to evoke a quasi-poetic or religious sense that transcends words, while simultaneously he elaborated a structured psychoanalytic theory, which he insisted was merely an exegesis of what was implicit in Freud's work.

With that said, this volume, the second of his Seminars presented in the 1954 - 1955 academic year, is as good a place as any to plunge into his work. These lectures focus on Lacan's concept of the "symbolic order," and the radical alienation of the human subject from that order, while, simultaneously, the same order is constitutive of the subject, telling the subject who s/he "is" (to the extent s/he "is" anything!). In this and later Seminars, Lacan will develop these ideas into his notion of the subject's relation the Other (with a capital "O"), and the idea of the split subject, who is caught between his or her unconscious and the symbolic order, structurally separated from both, and who only appears momentarily when he or she speaks "I."

The reputation of Lacan's work for being extraordinarily obscure and difficult is well deserved. All I can say is that I have found it worth the effort to attempt to grasp his thinking. Some knowledge of Freudian theory is a prerequisite to make any sense of what Lacan is talking about, and a familiarity with continental philosophy, particularly Hegelian philosophy, is very helpful. I've also found Lacan For Beginners (For Beginners (Steerforth Press) and Introducing Lacan, 3rd Edition to be extremely helping starting points to make sense of Lacan's difficult material.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars where's the letter?, March 13, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-1955 (Book II) (The Seminar of Jacques Lacan) (Paperback)

one of the first luminaries, and not the first, lacan mentions here is socrates, father, i suppose, of the dialectic. this seminar is marked by participation, which lacan insists upon, everyone present must participate with questions. here those in attendance get a feel for things psychoanalytic.

discussed is poe's purloined letter. and discussed is the lacanic triad: the symbolic, the real, the imaginary.

the translator of this seminar is sylvana tomaselli, her identity as a countess overshadowing her role as a scholar. not that this has anything to do with her work here. merely a bit of trivia. now were she a queen....