Search for Clarity

In A Search for Clarity, Jean-Claude Milner argues that although Jacques Lacan s writing is notoriously obscure his oeuvre is entirely clear. In a discussion that considers the difference between the esoteric and exoteric works of Plato and Aristotle, Milner argues that Lacan s oeuvre is to be found in his published writings alone, not his transcribed seminars, and that these published writings contain his official doctrine. Thus, Lacan s oeuvre is already complete, even though many of his seminars remain unpublished.According to Milner, Lacan s fundamental idea is that the subject psychoanalysis works on is the subject of science. Milner suggests that this is a supplement to Alexandre Koyre s and Alexandre Kojeve s accounts of modern science, for which mathematization and a break from the ancient episteme were key.A Search for Clarity is the definitive statement on how Lacan viewed the relationship between psychoanalysis and science, and on how Lacan s thinking evolved as he struggled to draw out the consequences of the equation he posited between psychoanalysis and science. Milner s work on Lacan has been essential reading in French for decades. This English translation will make his illuminating work accessible to a broader audience.