Bloomsbury Home
- Home
- ACADEMIC
- Literary Studies
- Comparative Literature
- Analyzed by Lacan
Analyzed by Lacan
A Personal Account
Analyzed by Lacan
A Personal Account
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
Analyzed by Lacan brings together the first English translations of Why Lacan, Betty Milan's memoir of her analysis with Lacan in the 1970s, and her play, Goodbye Doctor, inspired by her experience.
Why Lacan provides a unique and valuable perspective on how Lacan worked as psychoanalyst as well as his approach to psychoanalytic theory. Milan's testimony shows that Lacan's method of working was based on the idea that the traditional way of interpreting provoked resistance.
Prior to Why Lacan, Milan wrote a play, Goodbye Doctor, based on her experience as Lacan's patient. The play is structured around the sessions of Seriema with the Doctor. Through the analysis, Seriema discovers why she cannot give birth, namely, an unconscious desire to satisfy the will of her father who didn't authorize her to conceive. She ceases to be the victim of her unconscious, grasps the possibility of choosing a father for her child and thus becoming a mother. Goodbye Doctor has been adapted into a film, Adieu Lacan, by the director Richard Ledes.
Analyzed by Lacan features an Introduction by Milan to both works as well as a new interview with Mari Ruti about her writing and Lacan.
Table of Contents
Translation from French by Chris Vanderwees
1. Why Lacan (a memoir)
Translation from French by Chris Vanderwees
I. Preliminaries
II. I want to do an analysis
III. I want to be a mother
2. Goodbye Doctor (a play)
Translation from Portuguese by Cliff Landers
3. An Interview with Mari Ruti
Translation from French by Chris Vanderwees
Index
Product details

Published | 02 Nov 2023 |
---|---|
Format | Ebook (PDF) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 144 |
ISBN | 9798765106228 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
Illustrations | 2 b&w illustrations |
Series | Psychoanalytic Horizons |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
Betty Milan's portrait of Lacan destroys the clichés collected about him like his antics and opaque riddles. Using both memoir and theatrical staging, Milan defines the conditions for a successful psychoanalysis, that exercise in mutual trust and openness. In the end, Lacan appears as wise but not infallible, a human being like us all, yet determined to let the truth speak.
Jean-Michel Rabaté, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, USA, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
-
It is astonishing and almost miraculous that Milan has succeeded to evoke her analysis with Lacan with such clarity and precision. She has managed to turn it almost into a thriller. I read the book with curiosity, interest, and pleasure. It responds to all the questions that the non-initiated might have about the mysterious analytic sessions that Lacan conducted. In addition, as a writer, Milan transforms her analytic testimony into a literary feat.
Michèle Sarde, Georgetown University, USA
-
Milan is telling her own story, and for her analysis was revelatory. It changed her life and produced the person she has become ... Analyzed by Lacan is the first time Milan has written factually about her experiences with Lacan.
The Times Literary Supplement
-
A stunning introduction to Lacan's theoretical and clinical work. How better to appreciate the thinking and practice of this exceedingly important theoretician and clinician than to bear witness to an insider's experience, to feel it almost as one's own? Captivating reading not only by a former analysand but by a seasoned writer who truly knows her way around words.
Lois Oppenheim, Montclair State University, USA

ONLINE RESOURCES
Bloomsbury Collections
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.