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autonoes's review against another edition
5.0
“to know what your partner will do is not a proof of love”
milo_rose's review against another edition
4.0
Five stars to the part when Lacan says, “God is a woman.”
cloaknquill's review against another edition
3.0
“The facts I am talking to you about are facts of discourse from which we solicit an exit in analysis - in the name of what? Of letting go of the other discourses” (11).
Advise: This can be a difficult read if you have not already been exposed to Lacan or other psychoanalytic research.
Advise: This can be a difficult read if you have not already been exposed to Lacan or other psychoanalytic research.
miguel's review
5.0
On reading Lacan, people offer a lot of advice. They say you must read him twice, or that perhaps you must know of what he speaks before you read. These are adequate suggestions, but far from exhaustive. My advice is to always keep in view the unholy alliance between Lacanian psychoanalysis, postmodernism, and surrealism.
With that aside, this seminar offers three crucial points that I can outline although they are far from exhaustive. Encore offers the most sustained meditation on Lacan's well known mantra: "Il n’y a pas de rapport sexuel" (often translated as: "there is no sexual relation" or "sexual relationship"). Encore also outlines the theory of sexuation and Lacan's theories of masculine and feminine jouissance. And, finally, this seminar portends of things to come with the theorization of lalangue (a play on one of the two French words for language, "la langue" literally translating into "the tongue," erroneously translated here as "llanguage"). Lalangue will come to be immensely important in Lacan's future seminars, namely Seminar XIII called The Sinthome.
Such a roadmap might help a prospective reader on the score of knowing of what Lacan speaks before reading his lecture. And yet, explicating what Lacan says sidesteps the jouissance of reading his work, a Barthesian pleasure if there ever was one. Lacan speaks with elastic humor and razor-sharp turn-of-phrase. Most, as I have suggested above, conceptualize his texts as difficult. But a difficulty describes something that inhibits the achievement of a particular goal. It is, in fact, a mistake to approach Lacan's teachings with a predetermined goal in mind. Understanding should be the least of the worries of a reader of Lacan.
To spend time with Lacan and his work is to begin to love the man, but of course the Other's jouissance is not a sign of love. And it is precisely Lacan's jouissance we experience here, despite his disavowal. At the end of the text Lacan says of delivering his seminars, "There are many who believe they know me and who think that I find herein an infinite satisfaction. Next to the amount of work it involves, I must say that it seems pretty minimal to me." And yet, Lacan also says of the truth, "The goal is that jouissance be avowed, precisely insofar as it may be unavowable. The truth sought is the one that is unavowable with respect to the law that regulates jouissance." Then, we know that a truth of the matter is that a jouissance ceases to be so when it is avowed. If that's true, then I'll admit I find reading Lacan quite unpleasant.
With that aside, this seminar offers three crucial points that I can outline although they are far from exhaustive. Encore offers the most sustained meditation on Lacan's well known mantra: "Il n’y a pas de rapport sexuel" (often translated as: "there is no sexual relation" or "sexual relationship"). Encore also outlines the theory of sexuation and Lacan's theories of masculine and feminine jouissance. And, finally, this seminar portends of things to come with the theorization of lalangue (a play on one of the two French words for language, "la langue" literally translating into "the tongue," erroneously translated here as "llanguage"). Lalangue will come to be immensely important in Lacan's future seminars, namely Seminar XIII called The Sinthome.
Such a roadmap might help a prospective reader on the score of knowing of what Lacan speaks before reading his lecture. And yet, explicating what Lacan says sidesteps the jouissance of reading his work, a Barthesian pleasure if there ever was one. Lacan speaks with elastic humor and razor-sharp turn-of-phrase. Most, as I have suggested above, conceptualize his texts as difficult. But a difficulty describes something that inhibits the achievement of a particular goal. It is, in fact, a mistake to approach Lacan's teachings with a predetermined goal in mind. Understanding should be the least of the worries of a reader of Lacan.
To spend time with Lacan and his work is to begin to love the man, but of course the Other's jouissance is not a sign of love. And it is precisely Lacan's jouissance we experience here, despite his disavowal. At the end of the text Lacan says of delivering his seminars, "There are many who believe they know me and who think that I find herein an infinite satisfaction. Next to the amount of work it involves, I must say that it seems pretty minimal to me." And yet, Lacan also says of the truth, "The goal is that jouissance be avowed, precisely insofar as it may be unavowable. The truth sought is the one that is unavowable with respect to the law that regulates jouissance." Then, we know that a truth of the matter is that a jouissance ceases to be so when it is avowed. If that's true, then I'll admit I find reading Lacan quite unpleasant.
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