New, updated edition. This book describes how Freud attempted to chart hysteria, yet came to a standstill at the problem of woman and her desire, and of how Lacan continued along this road by creating new conceptual tools. The difficulties and upsets encountered by both men are examined. 290 pages.

Description

This lucid presentation of the dialectical process that carries Lacan through the evolution of Freud’s thought offers profound insights into the place of the “feminine mystique” in our social fabric. Patiently and carefully, Verhaeghe applies the Lacanian grid to Freud’s text and succeeds in explaining Lacan’s formulations without merely recapitulating his theories. The reader is informed, along the way, not only of Lacan’s take on Freudian ideas, but also of the array of interpretations emerging from other trends in post-Freudian literature, including feminist revisionism.

“This book comes as a miraculous answer to the confusions surrounding Freud’s and Lacan’s theory of feminine sexuality . . . After reading this book, it should be clear that, far from being outdated, psychoanalytic approach to feminine sexuality enables us to find our way in the confusions and deadlocks of our allegedly ‘permissive’ postmodern society . . . A must for anyone who wants to grasp what psychoanalysis has to say today.”

—Slavoj Zizek