1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910831874103321

Autore

Harris Oliver <1978-, >

Titolo

Lacan's return to antiquity : between nature and the gods / / Oliver Harris

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Taylor & Francis, 2017

London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, , 2017

ISBN

1-317-59058-9

1-315-74392-2

1-317-59057-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (184 pages)

Disciplina

150.19/5092

150.195092

Soggetti

Psychoanalysis and philosophy

Civilization, Classical

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. 'Surprised by truth' : Socrates, Plato and the Lacanian seminar -- 2. The myth of sexual reproduction -- 3. Creating and castration : making something out of nothing -- 4. Exploiting tragedy : psychoanalysis, fate and free will -- 5. Unknown pleasures : orgasms and epistemology.

Sommario/riassunto

Lacan’s Return to Antiquity is the first book devoted to the role of classical antiquity in Lacan’s work. Oliver Harris poses a question familiar from studies of Freud: what are Ancient Greece and Rome doing in a twentieth-century theory of psychology? In Lacan’s case, the issue has an additional edge, for he employs antiquity to demonstrate what is radically new about psychoanalysis. It is a tool with which to convey the revolutionary power of Freud’s ideas by digging down to the philosophical questions beneath them. It is through these questions that Lacan allies psychoanalysis with the pioneering intellectual developments of his time in anthropology, philosophy, art and literature. Harris begins by considering the role of Plato and Socrates in Lacan’s conflicted thoughts on teaching, writing and the process of



becoming an intellectual icon. In doing so, he provides a way into considering the uniquely challenging nature of the Lacanian texts themselves, and the live performances behind them. Two central chapters explore when and why myth is drawn upon in psychoanalysis, its threat to the discipline’s scientific aspirations, and Lacan’s embrace of its expressive potential. The final chapters explore Lacan’s defence of tragedy and his return to Ovidian themes. These include the unwitting voyeurism of Actaeon, and the fate of Narcissus, a figure of tragic metamorphosis that Freud places at the heart of infantile development. Lacan’s Return to Antiquity brings to Lacan studies the close reading and cross-disciplinary research that has proved fruitful in understanding Freud’s invention of psychoanalysis. It will appeal to psychoanalysts and advanced students studying in the field, being of particular value to those interested in the roots of Lacanian concepts, the evolution of his thought, and the cultural context of his work. What emerges is a more nuanced, self-critical figure, a corrective to the reputation for dogmatism and obscurity that Lacan has attracted. In the process, new light is thrown on enduring controversies, from Lacan’s pronouncements on feminine sexuality to the opaque drama of the seminars themselves.