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Reading this book brought back memories of attending a lecture series delivered by a youthful Darian Leader in the depths of an English winter, some twenty-five years ago. Even then it was obvious that Leader was a very gifted and clear thinker on one of the most difficult psychoanalytic subjects: the work and theories of Jacques Lacan. This book is a development of that subject. In it, Leader applies Lacanian theories to the study and treatment of madness.
Leader's central thesis is that a useful distinction can be made between ‘going mad’ and ‘being mad’. Many may be mad, in the sense of having a psychotic structure to their psyche, he argues. But few go mad, in the sense of their psychosis actually being triggered. He believes that by studying the difference between these two groups, a psychoanalytic understanding of psychosis can be reached that leads to an effective way of working with (though not curing) madness. That way of working is, however, less a method to be applied across the board, than a unique, psychoanalytically-informed approach to each individual case. Classical psychoanalytic techniques are contra-indicated, in