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To review these publications is to review the series. Clearly Postmodern Encounters as a catch-all concept for a series of mere 70 page publications can seem to be quite questionable, not least by the fact that the publishers have interpreted postmodernism so loosely. This form of publication, which bids to introduce complex theory within such limits that a popularist pocket-book demands, inevitably forces the writer to forfeit exposition at times when it is most needed. The question becomes, at whom are these publications aimed? Is it for university students, trainee psychotherapists or established professionals who are concerned to sift through the complexities of postmodernity? It is difficult to judge, for the level of these essays varies from rudimentary generality that typifies Heaton's introduction to Wittgenstein, to complex critical analysis that Wright affords her postfeminist focus on Lacan. This spread of interpretation could indicate that the authors have a particular catchment group in mind and have appropriately ‘played to the gallery’.
Moving on to discuss each essay in some detail, as indicated above, it is my view that, of the three titles, Elizabeth Wright's Lacan and Postfeminism is clearly the most developed exegesis. This is hardly suprising since her wellknown critical dictionary Feminism and Psychoanalysis certainly demonstrates her propensity for concise textual analysis.
In many ways Wright's essay is a tour de force. Her critical academic approach means that the argument is systematically set out with a glossary of key terms designed to ensure that all her propositions can be closely followed. Opening with a historical account of the problematic of postfeminism and its relationship to psychoanalysis Wright situates an intensive analysis of Lacan's formulaic account of sexuation. Her charge is that