Essays on the Pleasures of Death

"Lacan's return to Freud" has been interpreted in past examinations as a vindication of Lacan as Freudian. In "Essays on the Pleasure of Death", Ellie Ragland Sullivan clarifies the differences between concepts in Freud and Lacan and discusses the interconnectedness of both men's theories, while maintaining that crucial differences continue to exist. The author argues that Lacan's "Return" gave coherence to concepts which Freud could never explain - psychosis, narcissism, the body and the death drive. Grounded in clinical experience, and drawing on Lacan's as-yet-untranslated seminars through 1981, "Essays on the Pleasures of Death" demonstrates to the reader the transformation and translation that Freud has undergone, and places him as a psychoanalyst - not a philosopher - in both theory and practice.