In this first English translation of a classic text by one of the foremost commentators on Lacan's work, Nasio eloquently demonstrates the clinical and practical import of Lacan's theory, even in its most difficult or obscure moments.

American history as theater, and theater as the heart of American life

The book explores what it means for a human organism to be a â oesubjectâ and responds to what it sees as the contemporary ablation of subjectivity in favour of an impoverished â oebiopoliticsâ (a concept borrowed from Foucault). It is preoccupied with questions of ethics and education, arguing that Lacanian psychoanalysis, like Freirean literacy, constitutes first and foremost an education in responsible subjecthood. It identifies such an education as a very necessary intervention in what appears to be a global double bind between fanatical certainty and capitalist abstraction. The book asserts that, contrary to most trends concerning the appropriation of psychoanalysis or Freirean techniques for teaching, Freirean pedagogy and Lacanian psychoanalysis are not purely â oetoolboxesâ but profound epistemological and philosophical arguments. These arguments also combine to suggest a new socio-political conception of theology. In addition the book draws on examples from literature and popular culture to explicate certain ideas. In this regard the book primarily undertakes a reading of selected works by J.M. Coetzee.

Freud outlines two types of conflict; that between drives and reality; and that between the drives themselves. Adrian Johnston identifies a third; the conflict embedded within each and every drive.

Vols. 8-10 of the 1965-1984 master cumulation constitute a title index.