Ellie Ragland presents a comprehensive analysis of Jacques Lacan's theories on gender and sexuality, arguing that his insights surpass current gender studies debates. By rereading Freud through Aristotle, she contends that Lacan's perspective promotes a pro-Woman stance, emphasizing the importance of embracing feminine logic in understanding sexual difference. Ragland clarifies complex Lacanian concepts like phallus, castration, and jouissance, asserting that recognizing sexual difference is essential for dialectical thinking. This work challenges essentialist views and redefines feminist interpretations of Lacan.
The study of topology examines the way something can change shape while still retaining the same properties. Jacques Lacan devoted the last part of his teaching to the topology of the subject. During the 50s, he gauged the topology of surfaces (torus, Moebius strips, Klein bottles, crosscaps) and from 1972 on, he studied the topology of knots (Borromean, the sinthome). Showing that bodily and mental life function topologically, he did what no one had done he added to the logic of how representations function, the logic of jouissance or libidinal meaning that "materializes" language by making desire, fantasy, and the partial drives ascertainable functions of it. For Lacan, topology is neither myth nor metaphor. It is the precise way we may understand the construction and appearance of the subject. Space is multidimensional in terms of both meaning and logic.Lacanian topology answers questions of post-structuralism while revealing the flaws in its theories. It also advances a 21st-century teaching that obviates symbolic logic and its positivistic assumptions. Applications are made to the clinic, to literature, and to the social sciences.The authors collected here include world renowned Lacanian topologists such as Jacques-Alain Miller, Jeanne Lafont, Jean-Paul Gilson, Pierre Skriabine, Juan-David Nasio, Jean-Michel Vappereau, and several new theorists from the United States and Europe.
Exploring the innovative ideas of Lacan, this book delves into his reimagining of psychoanalysis, highlighting its potential to illuminate the practice for analysts and enhance treatment for patients. Through a fresh perspective, it examines the implications of Lacan's theories on understanding the human psyche and the therapeutic process.
