Introducing Lacan: A Graphic Guide

By Darian Leader and Judy Groves

Jacques Lacan is now regarded as a major psychoanalytical theorist alongside Freud and Jung, although recognition has been delayed by fierce arguments over his ideas. Written by a leading Lacanian analyst, "Introducing Lacan" guides the reader through his innovations, including his work on paranoia, his addition of structural linguistics to Freudianism and his ideas on the infant 'mirror phase'. It also traces Lacan's influence in postmodern critical thinking on art, literature, philosophy and feminism. This is the ideal introduction for anyone intrigued by Lacan's ideas but discouraged by the complexity of his writings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Release date: Dec 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781848318793

Reviews for Introducing Lacan

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This series of books is heavy on illustrations, and does a good job of explaining complicated ideas while being fun, concise, and accurate. This one on Lacan provides a nice introduction to his some of his psychological theories, but due to the complexity of his ideas it is not quite as easy to follow as some other books in the series, so some sections benefit from re-reading.A lot of Lacan's work was based on extending or refining some of Freud's theories, so some familiarity with these helps a lot. Apart from Freudian stuff, Lacan also had some interesting ideas on Language, so there's really a lot of ideas packed into this short book. Lacan isn't the easiest thinker to get to grips with, but this intoduction does a good job of explaining his theories so that they can be understood by the general reader. Definitely recommended if you want to start learning about Lacan, but for those who haven't read much psychology then Freud would be a better starting place.

[rubya_32 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book literally got me through grad school. After days and days of reading sentences of Lacan over and over in the hopes of understanding something, anything- even if it was wrong- this book came and created light out of darkness! Highly recommended to anyone studying Lacan!

[Ozgurcakmak · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The text is good, but it could be better if it was plain PDF. The text layout on scribd is painful to read.

[meisterpfriem · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) highly influential and hugely controversial French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Using methods from structural linguistics and topology he built on and developed further Freudian theory. This text gives a glimpse of Lacan’s ideas, their development over a lifetime and their roots with Freud and in his own clinical practice. Notwithstanding the title much remains obscure. That may be a good thing: over-simplification of complex ideas is no help to understanding. The text comes alive in the graphic images. It is enjoyable to follow even if getting lost at times. If this short outline tempts further study it has achieved its aim. (VIII-10)