12. See M. Safouan, Lacaniana: Les séminaires de Jacques Lacan, 1953–1963(Paris: Fayard, 2001 ),
p.13 5.
13. This does not imply that the difference between neurosis and perversion stricto sensuis
eliminated in Lacan’s late work.
14. See, for example, Seminar VI, “Le désir et son interpretation,” 1958‒1959, unpublished,
lesson of June 3 , 1959.
15. See, for example, the enduring significance of the three kinds of lack with regard to the
issue of identification as treated in Seminar IX, “L’identification,” 1961‒1962, unpub-
lished (especially the lessons of February 28 , 19 62and March 7 , 19 62), and the central-
ity of castration with respect to anxiety in Le séminaire livre X. L’angoisse, 1962–1963(Paris:
Seuil, 2004 ), especially pp.55‒68.
16. J. Lacan, The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959–1960(London: Routledge,
199 2), p. 129 (my translation).
17. Ibid., p. 101.
18. J. Lacan, The Seminar. Book III. The Psychoses, 1955–56(London: Routledge, 1993 ), p.18 0.
19. “Today, Lacan’s own reinvention [of Freud’s invention] is progressively hindered by its
routine usage and it would be our duty to find again the space for reinvention” (J.-A.
Miller, “I sei paradigmi del godimento,” in I paradigmi del godimento[Rome: Astrolabio,
2001 ], p. 36 ).Chapter 1 The Subject of the Imaginary (other)
1. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book I, Freud’s Papers on Technique, 1953–1954(New York: Norton,
1988 ), p. 193.
2. The most important text of “ego psychology” remains H. Hartmann’s Ego Psychology and
the Problem of Adaptation(New York: International Universities Press, 1958 ). Lacan always in-
sisted on the anti-adaptive aims of psychoanalysis (see, for example, J. Lacan, Écrits: A
Selection[London: Tavistock, 1977 ], p. 24 ; J. Lacan, Écrits[Paris: Seuil, 19 6 6], pp.144‒146),
yet his attacks against the “autonomous ego” promoted by ego psychologists became in-
creasingly explicit and caustic only in the mid-195 0s (see, for example, Écrits: A Selection,
pp.131‒133; Écrits,p. 490 ).
3. See, for example Écrits: A Selection,p. 22. Lacan thus also decisively distinguishes his notion
of the ego from Kant’s notion of the transcendental ego, of which Freud had not yet rid
himself completely.
4. The ego is considered to be self-contained and self-identical by Cartesian philosophy,
which Lacan repeatedly attacks for this reason (see, for example Écrits: A Selection,p. 1 ;
Écrits,pp.162‒177). This critique of the Cartesian subject’s self-transparency is notin-
compatible for Lacan with a “return to Descartes” (ibid., p. 163 ). Zˇizˇek has insisted upon
the way in which, according to Lacanian psychoanalysis, it is possible to think the sub-
ject of the unconscious only against the background of the Cartesian subject (see, for ex-
ample S. Zˇizˇek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology[London and New York:
Verso, 1999 ], pp.1‒2). For an excellent reading of Lacan’s (and Freud’s) Cartesianism,
see the work of A. Sciacchitano, especially Wissenschaft als Hysterie(Vienna: Turia+Kant,
2002 ).notes to pages 7–17