The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance

by Bruce Fink

Overview

This book presents the radically new theory of subjectivity found in the work of Jacques Lacan. Lucidly guiding readers through the labyrinth of Lacanian theory unpacking such central notions as the Other, object a, the unconscious as structured like a language, alienation and separation, the paternal metaphor, jouissance, and sexual difference Bruce Fink demonstrates in-depth knowledge of Lacan's theoretical and clinical work. Presenting Lacan's theory in the context of his clinical preoccupations, Fink provides the most balanced, sophisticated, and penetrating view of Lacan's work to date invaluable to the initiated and uninitiated alike."The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan's conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan's work." Slavoj titek, Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society"Fink provides the first clear, comprehensive, systematic account of Lacan's work in English. The influence of this book is certain to be immense on theorists and therapists alike as it provides the fully articulated foundations for a Lacanian pedagogy, and makes generally available a radically new understanding of the analyst's role. A magnificent piece of intellectual synthesis, an imposing and original contribution to psychoanalytic thought." Richard Klein, Cornell University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691272955
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Bruce Fink is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor and a leading expert on and translator of Jacques Lacan’s work. His books include A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Against Understanding, and Miss-ing.

Table of Contents

	Preface
Pt. 1	Structure: Alienation and the Other
1	Language and Otherness	3
	A Slip of the Other's Tongue	3
	The Unconscious	7
	Foreign Bodies	11
2	The Nature of Unconscious Thought, or How the Other Half "Thinks"	14
	Heads or Tails	16
	Randomness and Memory	19
	The Unconscious Assembles	20
	Knowledge without a Subject	22
3	The Creative Function of the Word: The Symbolic and the Real	24
	Trauma	26
	Interpretation Hits the Cause	28
	Incompleteness of the Symbolic Order: The (W)hole in the Other	29
	Kinks in the Symbolic Order	30
	Structure versus Cause	31
Pt. 2	The Lacanian Subject
4	The Lacanian Subject	35
	The Lacanian Subject Is Not the "Individual" or Conscious Subject of Anglo-American Philosophy	36
	The Lacanian Subject Is Not the Subject of the Statement	37
	The LacanianSubject Appears Nowhere in What Is Said	38
	The Fleetingness of the Subject	41
	The Freudian Subject	42
	The Cartesian Subject and Its Inverse	42
	Lacan's Split Subject	44
	Beyond the Split Subject	46
5	The Subject and the Other's Desire	49
	Alienation and Separation	49
	The Vel of Alienation	51
	Desire and Lack in Separation	53
	The Introduction of a Third Term	55
	Object a: The Other's Desire	59
	A Further Separation: The Traversing of Fantasy	61
	Subjectifying the Cause: A Temporal Conundrum	63
	Alienation, Separation, and the Traversing of Fantasy in the Analytic Setting	66
6	Metaphor and the Precipitation of Subjectivity	69
	The Signified	70
	Two Faces of the Psychoanalytic Subject	72
	The Subject as Signified	72
	The Subject as Breach	77
Pt. 3	The Lacanian Object: Love, Desire, Jouissance
7	Object (a): Cause of Desire	83
	"Object Relations"	84
	Imaginary Objects, Imaginary Relations	84
	The Other as Object, Symbolic Relations	87
	Real Objects, Encounters with the Real	90
	Lost Objects	93
	The Freudian Thing	95
	Surplus Value, Surplus Jouissance	96
8	There's No Such Thing as a Sexual Relationship	98
	Castration	99
	The Phallus and the Phallic Function	101
	"There's No Such Thing as a Sexual Relationship"	104
	Distinguishing between the Sexes	105
	The Formulas of Sexuation	108
	A Dissymmetry of Partners	113
	Woman[crossed off] Does Not Exist	115
	Masculine/Feminine-Signifier/Signifierness	117
	Other to Herself, Other Jouissance	119
	The Truth of Psychoanalysis	121
	Existence and Ex-sistence	122
	A New Metaphor for Sexual Difference	123
Pt. 4	The Status of Psychoanalytic Discourse
9	The Four Discourses	129
	The Master's Discourse	130
	The University Discourse	132
	The Hysteric's Discourse	133
	The Analyst's Discourse	135
	The Social Situation of Psychoanalysis	136
	There's No Such Thing as a Metalanguage	137
10	Psychoanalysis and Science	138
	Science as Discourse	138
	Suturing the Subject	139
	Science, the Hysteric's Discourse, and Psychoanalytic Theory	141
	The Three Registers and Differently "Polarized" Discourses	142
	Formalization and the Transmissibility of Psychoanalysis	144
	The Status of Psychoanalysis	145
	The Ethics of Lacanian Psychoanalysis	146
	Afterword	147
	Appendix 1: The Language of the Unconscious	153
	Appendix 2: Stalking the Cause	165
	Glossary of Lacanian Symbols	173
	Acknowledgments	175
	Notes	177
	Bibliography	207
	Index	213

What People are Saying About This

Richard Klein

Fink provides the first clear, comprehensive, systematic account of Lacan's work in English. The influence of this book is certain to be immense on theorists and therapists alike as it provides the fully articulated foundations for a Lacanian pedagogy, and makes generally available a radically new understanding of the analyst's role. A magnificent piece of intellectual synthesis, an imposing and original contribution to psychoanalytic thought.
— Richard Klein, Cornell University

From the Publisher

“Fink provides the first clear, comprehensive, and systematic account of Lacan’s work in English. The influence of this book is certain to be immense on theorists and therapists alike as it provides the fully articulated foundations for a Lacanian pedagogy and makes generally available a radically new understanding of the analyst’s role. A magnificent piece of intellectual synthesis and an imposing and original contribution to psychoanalytic thought.”—Richard Klein, professor emeritus, Cornell University

“The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan’s conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan’s work.”—Slavoj Žižek, Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society

“A remarkably clear, competent, and indeed fascinating account of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.”—Susan Buck-Morss, author of The Origin of Negative Dialectics

Editorial Reviews

"The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan's conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan's work."—-Slavoj Zizek, Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society

From the Publisher

The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan's conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan's work.

Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society - Slavoj Zizek

The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan's conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan's work.
— Slavoj Zizek

Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society