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* {{L}} ''[[The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis]]''. Ed. [[Alan Sheridan]]. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1981.
''[[The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis]]'' is the English translation of one of the pivotal works of [[Jacques Lacan]].
The blurb describes the text as providing "illuminating insights into the mind of the most controversial psychoanalyst since [[Freud]]".
=====Description=====
This classic text probes the relationship between [[psychoanalysis ]] and [[science ]] and [[religion ]] as well as defining the [[unconscious]], the [[repetition]], the [[transference]], and the [[drive ]] as the underlying concepts of [[psychoanalysis|psycho-analysis]].
=====Back Cover=====
Dr Lacan’s writings, and especially the seminars for which he has become famous, have provoked intense controversies in French analytic circles, requiring as they do a radical reappraisal of the legacy bequeathed by Freud. This volume is based on a year’s seminar, which is of particular importance because he was addressing a larger, less specialist audience than ever before, amongst whom he could not assume familiarity with his work. For his listeners then, and for his readers now, he wanted “to introduce a certain coherence into the major concepts on which psycho-analysis is based”, namely the unconscious, repetition, the transference and the drive. ---- In re-defining these four concepts he explores the question that, as he puts it, moves from "Is psycho-analysis a [[science]]?" to "What is a [[science]] that includes psycho-analysis?" Dr Lacan argues in particular that there is a structural affinity between [[psychoanalysis|psycho-analysis]], construed as the [[science]] of the [[unconscious]], and [[language]] – the [[science]] of [[linguistics]] being one of the significant discoveries of our [[time]]. He also discusses the relation of [[psychoanalysis|psycho-analysis]] to [[religion]], and reveals his particular stance on a wide range of topics, such as [[sexuality]] and [[death]], [[love]] and [[libido]], [[alienation]], [[interpretation]], [[repression]] and [[desire]]. ----