ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the Lacanian concept of the sinthome through the life and work of Imre Kertész. At the end of his career Lacan saw identification with the sinthome as the final goal of psychoanalysis. The sinthome refers to the way in which we can take responsibility for our symptoms while recognizing the void at the core of our subjectivity, which is also the source of our ethical freedom. As a young man Kertész survived the Auschwitz extermination camp and went on to receive the Nobel prize in literature, having created a new genre of Holocaust literature. Though trained as a Jungian analyst, the chapter also describes the author’s turn to the work of Lacan over Jung for grappling with the traumatic realities of the last century.
