Lacanian Ethics and the Assumption of Subjectivity

A readable and advanced introductory-level text focusing on the ethical dimensions and impact of Lacan's thinking. This book argues that a rethinking of the subject necessitates a rethinking of our relation to law, tradition and morality, as well as our understanding of guilt, responsibility and desire.

"Over the years the scholarly output on 'Lacanian ethics' has become so vast as to induce intellectual indigestion in whoever decides to enter the field but not for much longer. In this brilliant book, Calum Neill exempts the reader from having to trawl through endless realms of Lacan-scholarship by offering the clearest, most concise, and most poignant discussion of what is really at stake: a radical re-consideration of all the crucial dimensions of ethics (the law, morality, guilt, responsibility and desire) in light of a fundamental review of the very notion of subjectivity. If you, reader, now hold this book in your hands, I can only give you one sound advice: Eat it!" - Dany Nobus, Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis, Brunel University London, UK

"This book provides an excellent overview of the philosophical foundations and conceptual basis of Lacan's work on ethics. Calum Neill makes clear what ethics in psychoanalysis is about, and broadens the scope to a much wider critical reflection on ethical acting." - Stijn Vanheule, Ghent University, Belgium

"Neill's erudition and rigour make [this] a brilliant evocation of both Lacanian and traditional ethical thought." - Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society

Autorentext
Calum Neill is a lecturer in Critical Psychology and Discourse Analysis at Edinburgh Napier University.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements Introduction A Brief History of Ethics PART I: THE SUBJECT Lacan's Return to Descartes The Graph of Desire objet petit a and Fantasy PART II: ETHICS Guilt The Law Judgement PART III: THE OTHER Misrecognising the Other Loving Thy Neighbour Beyond Difference PART IV: THE SOCIAL Ethics and the Other The Impossibility of Ethical Examples Eating the Book References Index