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This book attempts to fill an obvious gap in the Lacanian psychoanalytic literature available in English. The question often is asked, "What do Lacanian analysts do when they practice clinical psychoanalysis?" There is a growing body of material in English that explores Lacanian theoretical formulations that have been so influential in Paris and elsewhere in Europe for the past twenty-five
years, but until now published clinical material in English has been almost nonexistent.
The book consists of two brief introductory essays by the editor/translator, the transcript of an interview conducted by Lacan with a psychotic patient, and a series of fifteen papers by members of Lacan's former institute. These papers were published in French during the years 1956 to 1979 in a variety of journals and books associated with the work of the institute.
The introductory essays by the editor provide a useful overview of the Lacanian framework. The text of the Lacan interview (which runs for twenty-two pages) is here published for the first time (it has not been published in French) and provides a rare glimpse of Lacan's clinical style. The most impressive (and perhaps reassuring) feature lies in its respectable ordinariness. Except for a few passages that highlight homophonies, the interview is a sober exchange between a hospitalized patient and a visiting doctor, conducted for teaching purposes. What does it teach? Lacan himself later refers to the patient as an example of "a 'Lacanian' psychosis" (p. 41), and the patient (who had read some of Lacan's work) provides abundant examples of Lacanian themes. He refers to himself as being "a little disjointed in regard to language" (p. 19), his auditory hallucinations are "imposed speech … which has no meaning in the ordinary sense" (p. 20), he self-aggrandizes by homophonically reconstructing his name, and he distinguishes "the imaginary" from "the real" and counterposes to both the realm of speech: "All speech has the force