Roudinesco follows the development of Lacana s career from his early clinical practice and conflicts with the establishment, as he constantly pushed the boundaries of psychoanalysis from its roots in biology and neurology to a powerful critical tool that resonated in fields ranging from literary theory to feminist politics.

List of Illustrations. Foreword. Part I: Father Figures:. 1. Vinegar Merchants. 2. Faces on the Ward. 3. Psychiatry Teachers. Part II: Crazy Ladies: . 4. The Story of Marguerite. 5. In Praise of Paranoia. 6. Reading Spinoza. 7. The Papin Sisters. Part III: Man's Estate:. 8. Private Life and Public Life. 9. Fascism: The End of the Viennese Epic. 10. Marienbad. Part IV: Family Histories:. 12. Georges Bataille and Co. 13. Between Lucien Febvre and Edouard Pichon. Part V: War and Peace: . 14. Marseilles, Vichy, Paris. 15. Thoughts on Human Freedom. 16. Double Life. 17. An Unsatisfactory Encounter with Melanie Klein. Part VI: Elements of a System of Thought:. 18. Theory of Treatment: Kinship Structures. 19. A Resounding Tribute to Martin Heidegger. 20. Intersecting Fates: Jacques Lacan and Frangoise Dolto. 21. The Symposium and the Storm. 22. Structure and the Name-of-the-Father. Part VII: The Power and the Glory:. 23. Dialogue with Louis Althusser. 24."I hereby found...": Kant with Sade. 25. The Ecrits: Portrait of an Editor. 26. Revolution: Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Lacan, Alternate Contemporaries. Part VIII: In Search of the Absolute:. 27. Oriental Yearnings and a Series of Bereavements. 28. Mathemes and Borromean Knots. 29. Psychoanalysis Reduced to Zero. 30. Time for a Pharaoh. Part IX: Legacies. . 31. History of the Seminar:. 32. Freudian France: The State of Play. Appendix A: Members of the International Psychoanalytical Association (1993). Appendix B: IPA: World Distribution. Appendix C: IPA Congresses (1908-1993). Appendix D: Societies and Groups Not Belonging to the IPA. Appendix E: Principal Reviews Established After 1985. Appendix F: Bibliography for Jacques Lacan's Article on the Family for the Encyclopidie française (1938). Appendix G: Jacques Lacan's Report Card. Appendix H: Facsimile of Lacan's Corrections to "Discours de clöture des journées sur les psychoses de l'enfant". Appendix I: Genealogy. List of Abbreviations. Notes. General Bibliography of the Works of Jacques Lacan. References. Index.

Elisabeth Roudinesco gives us a life Balzacian in its sweep: the story of a young man from the provinces determined to leave his family fortune and its old-fashioned values behind; the young doctor in Paris who set out to reinvent clinical psychotherapy and ended up transforming fundamental notions of the self, sexuality and the culture that shapes it all. Roudinesco follows the development of Lacan's career from his early clinical practice and conflicts with the establishment, as he constantly pushed the boundaries of psychoanalysis from its roots in biology and neurology to a powerful critical tool that resonated in fields ranging from literary theory to feminist politics.

'This [is an] extraordinary book about the most flamboyant French neo-Freudian of the 20th century...' The Times 'She acknowledges Lacan's personal absurdity and literary extravagance while simultaneously showing why and how he matters. Ms. Roudinesco captures the freshness of the intellectual world in which Lacan's developing notions were concocted ... Ms Roudinesco's biography, solidly translated by Barbara Bray, is a welcome aid to keeping him in perspective.' The New York Times 'The English translation of this biography is ... an event of the first importance.' The Times Higher Education Supplement 'It is the richest and fullest biographical study of Lacan to date, and it is unlikely to be bettered for a long time.' Radical Philosophy 'She provides perhaps the best, and certainly the most detailed, account of Lacan's life and work to date.' New Formations 'A riveting and illuminating account of the life and thought of Freud's most controversial posthumous rival. An accessible introductin to a demanding thinker.' Dennis Hollier, Yale University 'For anyone seeking to understand what is distinctive about the French psychoanalytic tradition this book is simply indispensable.' Malcolm Bowie, Oxford University 'Elisabeth Roudinesco takes us on a fascinating journey ... fascinating like Lacan himself.' Michael Kajman, Le Monde '[This book] is a wonderful success: clear and detailed, it will be read with interest by everyone - including those who do not worship the Master.' Luc Ferry, L'Express

List of Illustrations. Foreword. Part I: Father Figures. Part II: Crazy Ladies. Part III: Man's Estate. Part IV: Family Histories. Part V: War and Peace. Part VI: Elements of a System of Thought. Part VII: The Power and the Glory. Part VIII: In Search of the Absolute. Part IX: Legacies. List of Abbreviations. Notes. General Bibliography of the Works of Jacques Lacan. References. Index.