The Philosopher's Desire

This book is about interpretation as it pertains to literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. It argues against certain trends of thought that claim we should do without interpretation by demonstrating that interpretation, as described by psychoanalysis, is already a fundamental aspect of all human experience. Egginton examines the idea of interpretation developed by Freud; how that notion was in turn changed by Lacan; the debate around psychoanalytic interpretation staged by philosophers like Deleuze and Derrida; and finally how a psychoanalytic notion of interpretation is necessary for even the most basic experience of consciousness.

William Egginton is Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Perversity and Ethics (Stanford, 2006) and How the World Became a Stage: Presence, Theatricality, and the Question of Modernity(2003).