Lacan on Love : An Exploration of Lacan's Seminar VIII, Transference (Paperback)

Preface vii

Introduction 1

The Symbolic

I. Freudian Preludes: Love Triangles 9
Obsessives in Love • Hysterics in Love

II. Freudian Conundrums: Love Is Incompatible with Desire 16
“Where They Love They Do Not Desire” • “Where They Desire They Do Not Love” • On Women, Love, and Desire • Too Little • Too Much

III. Lacan’s Reading of Plato’s Symposium 33
Love Is Giving What You Don’t Have • Not Having and Not Knowing • Love as a Metaphor: The Signification of Love • The Miracle of Love • Love in the Analytic Context

The Imaginary

IV. Freudian Preludes: Narcissism 55
Narcissism and Love • Love for the Ego-Ideal

V. Lacan’s Imaginary Register 62
Animals in the Imaginary • Animals in Love • The Formative Role of Images in Human Beings • The Mirror Stage • The Image We Love More Than Ourselves: The Ideal Ego • The Myth of Narcissus • Sibling Rivalry • Lacan’s “Beloved”: Crimes of Passion • “Family Complexes” • Transitivism • The  Intrusion (or Fraternal) Complex and the “Solipsistic Ego” • Love and Psychosis • The Dangers of Imaginary-Based Love • Imaginary Passion in the Analytic Setting

The Real

VI. Love and the Real 93
Repetition Compulsion • The Unsymbolizable • Love at First Sight • The Other Jouissance • Love Is Real? • Love and the Drives • Love as a Link

General Considerations on Love

VII. Languages and Cultures of Love 107
Dependency (or so-called Natural Love) • Attachment • Friendship • Agape (or Christian Love) • Hatred • Attraction • Fixation on the Human Form (Beauty) • Physical Love, Sexual Desire, Lust, Concupiscence, Sex Drive • Fin’Amor (Courtly Love) • Romantic Love • Falling in Love (à la Stendhal) • Other Languages and Cultures of Love

VIII. Reading Plato with Lacan: Further Commentary on Plato’s Symposium 163
The Relationship between Form and Content in the Symposium • Homosexual Love as a Simplified Model • Phaedrus: Love and Theology • Pausanias: The Psychology of the Rich • Eryximachus: Love as Harmony • Agathon’s Speech • Socrates’ Speech and the In-Between (Metaxú) • Love Triangles Revisited • The Six Stages of Socrates’ Speech • After Socrates’ Speech • The “Mystery” of the Relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades • Socrates’ “Interpretation” • Socrates’ “Mistake” • Parting Shot

IX. Some Possible Conclusions about Love 200
Unanswered Questions • Love and Psychoanalysis

Notes 207

References 236

Index 246