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2022 Review:
Ok first off, I didn't know what the heck I was talking about in my first review. I was trying to make sense of something that I hadn't properly been grasping. However today, with a successful linear reading of the ɳ¦°ù¾±³Ù²õ, I am now confident that I have a good grasp on the early period of Lacan's thinking, which the ɳ¦°ù¾±³Ù²õ is a point de capiton.

Now the first thing one must say is sort of like Magritte, "ceçi n'est pas un pipe"; I would qualify this book as "ceçi n'est pas un livre". It's not a book book. It's rather a collection of essays and papers that Lacan had presented over the years, which were gathered together by one of his students, and he felt needed to be done, because he wanted his impact to be felt for the contributions he had made concerning psychoanalysis up to this point.

Now to answer what this non-book book is... well... simply to say, it's about the unconscious. The question should then be posed, what is the unconscious? The unconscious is structured like a language of course. And that's the fundamental problem Lacan has spent his career addressing. We start at Freud, because he was the one to put the entire unconscious on the map, with the Interpretation of Dreams, and then Lacan like a masterful postmodern painter, has returned to Freud in order to introduce concepts, and correct things that Freud could not be able to see within his own lifetime. Particularly, the concept of the signifier.

I think that's where to end my review here, but to say, that this is an amazing text, it is not impossible to read, but does require some effort to become initiated into, in order to understand the chain of significations that Lacan is following.

One thing that still holds true since my 2017 review, the Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire is a phenomenal essay, but also the Position of the Unconscious which follows it is equally unparalleled.

I loved it, and I am now prepared to tackle reading every single seminar that Lacan gave...

2017 Review:
Once upon a time, I saw this book and laughed.
Why? Why, would I even consider getting into that??
Then I opened the first page... what the hell is he saying? Am I stupid or something?
I then tried to just power through it like I've done with other books. Not possible.
I had to put it down.

Now over a year later, it makes sense. I don't know how I could be without this thing in the professional world. It's the only clarity in a confusingly unclear world. Or maybe that means I'm completely bonkers. I heard that when Lacan gave Heidegger a copy of the ɳ¦°ù¾±³Ù²õ, Heidegger said, "the doctor needs a doctor". I think some people would think so.

If there is one essay you should understand before reading the rest of the book, it would be The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire. I think that's a key to unlocking it all in a sense. Sort of like in that show Westworld, how on the inside of the skull, there is a labyrinth. Understand that and you understand Lacan. Only through your own lack.

If the DSM-V is required reading for the general masses; this should be required reading for the narrative based therapists and those who actually want political change.
Good luck in your journey!