My Teaching

The father of psychoanalytic philosophy's invaluable introduction to his own thought, available in English for the first time

What does one discover in this book? First of all a language which, far from being jargon-heavy, has the ring of luminous clarity. Next, a sense of humour which delights in paradoxes, hops from one subject to another and takes the reader from the most elementary level to the most complex. A thought, of course, which cannot be easily summarized. A benevolence too, which reassures the layperson and helps when following the course of the talk. Finally, an immense fidelity which never ceases to invite us to reread Freud.

This is certainly a book to recommend to all those who want to have a look at what Lacan has to say but who are reluctant to tackle his Écrits or his Seminars .

The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) was one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers. His many published works include Ecrits and The Seminars.

David Macey translated some twenty books from French to English. He was the author of Lacan in Context, the acclaimed The Lives of Michel Foucault, The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory and Frantz Fanon: A Biography. He died in October 2011.

Jacques-Alain Miller is Director of the Department of Psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII and editor of Lacan's Seminars.