Using the concepts developed by Lacan to analyze the inner logic of Freud's thought, Samuels provides a bridge between Lacanian theory and traditional categories of psychoanalytic theory and practice.
This book sets out to clarify five key Freudian concepts (the pleasure principle, the primary processes, the unconscious, transference, and the reality principle) elaborated early on in Freud’s work but, it is argued, rarely understood—even by psychoanalysts themselves.
Examines the manifestations of racism, sexism, and homophobia in the literary works of Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Joseph Conrad, and Toni Morrison.