Reading L’Étourdit: The Second Turn

Lacan’s L'étourdit eschews diagrams and other imaginary supports but refers to the “already articulated” developments of his earlier teaching, notably in the seminars on Identification and The Object of Psychoanalysis. While these articulations form the basis of Christian Fierens’ commentary, he adds explanatory figures and tables which open the way to a reading of Lacan’s highly condensed pages. Aristotle himself seems to have respected the logic of the notall: “the only universal formula that he does not seem to have allowed himself to pronounce is all women” (Of a Discourse which might not be a Semblance, 9 June 1971).…