I can summarise this short review in even shorter form: Read this Book! It is an invaluable volume for anyone with any level of interest in Jean Laplanche. The first piece is Dominique Scarfone's lively and comprehensive overview of Laplanche's oeuvre, which will remind those who attended it of Scarfone's presentation to the Site. This is followed by two papers by Laplanche himself, chosen to represent his writing at the opposite ends of his working life. First is his important paper “Primal Fantasy, Fantasies of Origin, Origins of Fantasy” written in and marking the era of his definitive break with Lacan (1964). The second is his “Preface to Beyond the Pleasure Principle” from 2010 elegantly translated, as is Scarfone's opening article, by Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz. This latter being written as part of the comprehensive retranslation of Freud into French, of which Laplanche was the General Editor.
The Laplanche papers give excellent examples of Laplanche the reader of Freud. “Primal Fantasies” in particular demonstrates all that is best in his approach: the meticulous scholarship deployed to extend and deepen clinical reflection. For example, there is a small section on day dreams in the discussion of how Freud reached his conception of fantasy. Noting that Freud begins, perhaps surprisingly, with daydreams in his quest to understand how fantasy works; surprising, because of course day dreams are conscious. However, they are nonetheless sites where the censor is relaxed a little and can allow some material to slip in which can take us by surprise. He sets out a series of juxtapositions which further illuminate the concepts of primary fantasy, dreams, dream thoughts and so on. Like a good interpretation, this prompted new musings on my part. How often do I ask patients about their day dreams? (Answer: never, and nor do they speak of them except on rare occasions) Do people have day dreams any more, I wonder, or are they crowded out now that everyone spends every spare moment plugged into some electronic
device? If so, is anything lost?
We see less in this collection of Laplanche's own original theorising. Dominque Scarfone offers a comprehensive overview in his contribution to this collection. All the significant themes of Laplanche's long theoretical journey are explained in a clear and comprehensible manner without sacrificing the subtleties of the arguments. Scarfone shows exactly how Laplanche's own theoretical elaborations like the general theory of seduction flow from his long years of studying Freud, applying Freud's own methods to Freud's texts and identifying the aporias. As Scarfone points out, this is in marked contrast to Lacan's very different and much more mercurial “Return to Freud”.
This book represents something we have been waiting for in the English speaking world, an accessible introduction to Laplanche, and as such is heartily welcome.
‘Who … guesses where we go?’ Wild youth, Persian espionage and