Seductions and Enigmas: Laplanche, Theory, Culture

Publisher Marketing: In a career spanning more than five decades the distinguished French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche (1924-2012) elaborated a distinctive methodology for the reading of Freud's corpus and evolved, in connection with it, a radical new metapsychology - one that critically recast Freud's early 'seduction' theory of trauma and placed at the heart of psychic life a particular model of 'enigmatic signification.' Seductions and Enigmas is a volume dedicated to the implications of Laplanche's thought for reading and interpretation. It collects papers that elaborate Laplanche's unique method for the interpretation of Freud, with its attention to the decentering and recentering movements of thought that structure the psychoanalytic field, and explore how the metapsychological developments arising from the implementation of that method open up new horizons for the psychoanalytic reading of other texts and oeuvres in the cultural domain. The volume comprises essays by Laplanche as well as by clinicians and scholars whose work takes inspiration from his research. Authors variously establish, develop or consolidate Laplanche's critical methodology as such, or work through aspects of his major theoretical innovations as points of departure for the reading of cultural works of different kinds: fiction, drama, painting, visual and sound installations, and film. These theoretical innovations cover a breadth of topics including seduction, sublimation, gender, femininity, the functions of binding and unbinding, masochism and the role of the enigmatic. In their range, the texts brought together here are a testament to the vitality and fertility of Laplanche's theoretical endeavour, for anyone concerned with the re-reading of Freud or with continuing to recalibrate and advance the parameters of critical interpretation in light of Freud's legacy.

Contributor Bio:  Fletcher, John John Fletcher (1579-1625) was an English dramatist who collaborated with Francis Beaumont on at least six plays. They began working together in about 1607 and had their first success in 1609 with "Philaster; or Love Lies Bleeding". After Beaumont's retirement in 1613, Fletcher became chief playwright for the King's Men; in addition to writing his own plays, he apparently collaborated with Shakespeare on three works: "Two Noble Kinsmen", "Henry VIII", and a lost play, "The History of Cardenio". He also collaborated with "Nathan Field, ""William Rowley and ""Philip Massinger", who succeeded him to the post of the King's Men's playwright in 1625. His own plays include the pastoral "The Faithful Shepherdess" (1608), the tragedy "Bonduca "(1613), and the comedies "Wit Without Money" (1614), "The Wild Goose Chase" (1621), and "The Chances" (1625), which was revived at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1962. His work remained enormously popular until the end of the 17th century. Contributor Bio:  Ray, Nicholas Nicholas Ray (1911-1979) was among the most gifted film directors to work in the postwar Hollywood cinema. His work was championed by the French critics of the "Cahiers du cinema". Susan Ray, the filmmaker's wife and collaborator, lives and writes in New York State.