Slavoj Žižek, How to Read Lacan

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One of Žižek’s most sustained engagements with the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan is

How to Read Lacan

(2006). This book (abbreviated

Lacan

below) elaborates the philosophical implications of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. In

Lacan —

as in most of his own works — Žižek focuses primarily on Lacan’s later theory and re-inscribes key Lacanian concepts in order to analyze our current social and libidinal predicament from his own (unorthodox) Marxist perspective. These Lacanian concepts include (among others) the unconscious, the big Other, symbolic performatives, desire, anxiety, the Real, the forced choice, the fundamental fantasy, the lamella, superego, and

jouissance

.

The thematic unity of the work is the law of desire as pointing toward an ethics of the Real. Žižek

2395 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "How to Read Lacan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23494, accessed 28 March 2024.]

23494 How to Read Lacan 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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