Lacan For Beginners

The two notes that follow formed the basis of a discussion with psychiatric and nursing colleagues in St Vincent's Hospital who at that time (1981) were rather skeptical about the clinical relevance of Lacan's work. They are reproduced here for the convenience of students who claim they still help clarify the way in which Lacan re-articulates Freud's case histories. The note on Dora is based on Intervention on transference (1951) which has since been translated into English.…