Lacan and the Concept of the 'real'

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in the work of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Philosophers and political theorists have engaged Lacan's concept of the 'Real' in particular, with Slavoj zizek and Alain Badiou deriving profound philosophical and political consequences from what is the most difficult of Lacan's ideas. This is the first book in English to explore in detail the genesis and consequences of Lacan's concept of the 'Real', providing readers with an invaluable key to one of the most influential ideas of modern times, combining as it does a seemingly paradoxical attention to the contingency and impossibility of human existence.

Tom Eyers is Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, USA.

Acknowledgements

Introduction – Approaching the Real
The Imaginary and the Real
The Symbolic and the Real
Space and the Real
Psychopathology and the Real
Lacanian Materialism?
Conclusion

References

Index