Product Description

Ecrits is the essential source for anyone who seeks to understand this seminal thinker and his influence on contemporary thought and culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #298749 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-17
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'Lacan's work marks a crucial moment in the history of psychoanalysis, a moment which will perhaps prove as significant as Freud's original discovery of the unconscious.' - Colin MacCabe 'Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Georges Bataille had often urged Lacan to publish the text of his seminars: the influence of his teaching can be observed in works by Maurice Blanchot and Michel Foucault... in Roland Barthes's studies on semiology and Louis Althusser's "reading" of Marx. But it can be felt still more basically [in] the current revival of interest in psychoanalysis... the desire for a return to origins which is a common factor in so many avenues of modern thought.' - The Times Literary Supplement

From the Back Cover
Genius and charismatic leader of a psychoanalytic movement that in the 1950s and 1960s provided a focal point for the French intelligentsia, Jacques Lacan attracted a cult following. Écrits is his most important work, bringing together twenty-seven articles and lectures originally published between 1936 and 1966. Following its first publication in 1966, the book gained Lacan international attention and exercised a powerful influence on contemporary intellectual life. To this day, Lacan's radical, brilliant and complex ideas continue to be highly influential in everything from film theory to art history and literary criticism. Écrits is the essential source for anyone who seeks to understand this seminal thinker and his influence on contemporary thought and culture.

About the Author
Jacques Lacan (1901-1981). Psychoanalyst and critical thinker.

Customer Reviews

The quintessential volume of Lacan's writings
Ecrits is one of the few pieces of work that Lacan prepared specifically for publication. He selected the papersd to be published from among his work and did most of the editing himself. This is in stark contrast to his published seminars which were edited by his son-in-law, Jacques-Alain Miller, although with the Master's approval. Lacan also selected the reduced number of papers that Alan Sheridan translated for his 'selection'. However, more recent reading of Lacan's work has cast doubt on Sheridan's translations. In many cases it was not entirely his fault, tied as he was to James Strachey's translations of many of Freud's concepts. However, the work of modern Lacanians, such as Bruce Fink has made a number of Sheridan's passages appear extremely suspect. It can also be argued that Sheridan and Lacan did not necessarily select the best papers from the original, Lacan's analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's short story 'The Purloined Letter' is a case in point here. With Bruce Fink's new retranslation of the selected Ecrits now available, and his translations of the remaining works hopefully soon to appear then these books could well be a better choice.

Try the new translation instead-spare yourself a lot of pain
It's time to stop reprinting this old translation. Sheridan made a brave attempt some 25 years ago to render Lacans difficult prose into English, but Sheridan's command of French left a great deal to be desired, and his knowledge of Lacans numerous seminars (that form the backdrop of most of his writings) was non-existent; after all, almost none of them were available even in French at that time. This old translation should no longer be reprinted: it is virtually incomprehensible at times and is often quite inaccurate. Readers seeking to study the Ecrits should consult the 2002 translation by myself; the paperback version will be out very shortly, will be competitive in price with this old translation, and is vastly superior in readability and accurary.