Jacques Lacan's Return to Freud: The Real, the Symbolic, and the Imaginary(Psychoanalytic Crossroads)

Among the numerous introductions to Lacan published to date in English, Philippe Julien's work is certainly outstanding. Beyond its conceptual clarity the book constitutes an excellent guide to Lacanian psychoanalytic practice. --Andr Patsalides, Psychoanalyst and President, Lacanian School of PsychoanalysisFrom 1953 to 1980, Jacques Lacan sought to accomplish a return to Freud beyond post- Freudianism. He defined this return as a new convenant with the meaning to the Freudian discovery. Each year through his teaching, he brought about this return. What was at stake in this renewal?Philippe Julien, who joined Lacan's Ecole Freudienne de Paris in 1968, attempts to answer this question. Situtated in the period after-Lacan, Julien shows that Lacan's return to Freud was neither a closing of the Freudian text by responding to questions left unanswered nor a reopening of the text by giving endless new interpretations. Neither dogmatic nor hermeneutic, Lacan's return to Frued was the return of an inevitable discordance between our experience of the unconscious and any attempt to give an account of it. For the unconscious, by its very nature, disappears at the same moment as it is discovered. It is in this sense that the author can claim that Lacan's return to Freud will have been Freudian.Constantly challenging the reader to submit to the rigors of Lacan's sinuous thinking, this penetrating work goes far beyond being a mere introduction. Rendered into elegant English by the American translator, who added numerous footnotes and scholarly references to the French original, this study brings Lacanian scholarship among English readers to a new level of sophistication.Neither dogmatic nor hermeneutic, Lacan's return to Freud was the return of an inevitable discordance between our experience of the unconscious and any attempt to give an account of it. For the unconscious, by its very nature, disappears at the same moment as it is discovered. It is in this sense that the author can claim that Lacan's return to Freud was Freudian.

About the Author :
Philippe Julien is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Paris and is co-founder of the Ecole Lacanienne de Psychanalyse. He is the author of Le Manteau de No: Essai sur la paternit. Devra Bech Simiu received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University and is currently working on a book about Lacan's theory of the mirror stage.

Review :
"In this book, Shirley Jennifer Lim argues that scholars too foten conflate "agency" with overt--or at least convert--oppostition to the status quo. Lim seeks to demostrate a more nuanced application of the terms, one in which Asian American women do not merely mimic their majority counterparts in an effort to gain acceptance but rather adapt their behavioral patterns and institutions in ways that make sense within an Asian American context."-George Anthony Peffer, "American Historical Review" ""A Feeling of Belonging" breaks new ground in examining the cultural practices of Asian American women in U.S. popular culture. By uncovering their activities in sororities, the movies, beauty contests and magazines, it considers how these women negotiated places for themselves as ethnic Americans in an era dominated by race and Cold War politics. In the process, it expands the study of race, gender, culture, and citizenship." -Shirley Hune, editor of "Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology" ""A Feeling of Belonging" yields fresh insights into Asian American women's participation in U.S. popular culture. Drawing on a rich array of sources, Shirley Lim illuminates young women's efforts to claim citizenship and gain access to social and economic opportunities, whether in the 1930s film industry or ethnic beauty pageants of the Cold War era. Her study highlights both the emergence of Asian American women as significant symbolic representatives of their communities and the complexities they faced in fulfilling this role." -Valerie Matsumoto, UCLA "Offering imaginative interpretations, Lim's work brings to the fore the everyday acts Asian American women used to claim cultural citizenship, and it paves way for more cultural histories of Asian Americans informed by gender and race, as well as by class and sexuality, as categories of analysis." -"The Journal of American History",