ABSTRACT
The mystification of Jacques Lacan's work is part of the construction of his difficulty for new readers. This chapter begins by approaching several common distinctions that are made about Lacan's oeuvre by biographers, commentators and editors of his life and work. The changing location of Lacan's famous le Seminaire offers some insight into why psychoanalysis and law are discourses that can be critically allied to produce new readings of one another. The seminars are generally credited with showcasing Lacan's return to Sigmund Freud, yet they also demonstrate his growing relevance to the intellectual culture of Paris and tensions with the increasingly narrow definition of what was medical in the middle to late twentieth century. However, by the end of the decade of seminars at the Law Faculty, Lacan's position had further developed beyond the soft socialism of Althusser. The book is part of the law and literature discussion and has an avowed interest in thinking through enjoyment and jouissance.
