Ethics of Psychoanalysis 1959-1960

'Given all that is implied by the phrase, the ethics of psychoanalysis will allow me, far more than anthing else, to test the categories that I believe enable me to give you through my teaching the most suitable instruments for understanding what is new in both Freud's work and in the experience of psychoanalysis that derives from it.' With these words Jacques Lacan begins his famous seminar on ethics, in which he discusses the problem of sublimation, the paradox of jouissance , the essence of tragedy (a reading of Sophocles's Antigone ), and the tragic dimension of analytical experience. Delving into the psychoanalyst's inevitable involvement with ethical questions and the 'attraction of transgression', Lacan clarifies many of his key concepts, as well as his criticisms of certain trends in psychoanalysis. One of the most influential French intellectuals of this century, Lacan is seen here at the height of his powers.