Lacan: In Spite of Everything

thought this was excellent, super clear and accessible overview of lacan's life & contribution to psychoanalysis. Skillfully puts lacan's big ideas in their cultural ad well as clinical and philosophical context; would recommend for anyone with a passing interest in lacan, psychoanalysis or 20th century history generally!

interesting biographically but seems to avoid engaging in lacan's actual ideas

This isn’t a book for anyone unfamiliar with the thought of Lacan, or the way in which he has been received. Roudinesco takes it for granted that her readers are familiar with not just Lacan but the philosophers and thinkers upon whom he builds and those who were influenced by him: Freud, of course, but also people like Lévi-Strauss, Marx, Sartre, Derrida and Foucault.This is part life and part analysis of how Lacanian thought situates itself within and against twentieth-century modernity: as such, it is not so much a book interested in Lacanian psychoanalytical thought as one which engages with Lacan’s impact on cultural studies in the broadest sense.This is a stimulating read, dense and, in places, intellectually difficult: definitely not Lacan for beginners. .(This review is from an ARC courtesy of the publisher)