ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the sub sequent chapters of this book. The book constitutes a study of the work of Jacques Lacan. It expounds his theory as it is revealed by his Ecrits and by his unpublished words. Jacques Lacan is a structuralist. He applies the linguistic model to the data of psychoanalysis. Lacan proposes an understanding of the subject in terms of a schema composed of layers of structures. These correspond to Sigismund Schlomo Freud's topographical distinction between conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The unconscious is composed of signifiers and is itself structured in the sense that, although distinctive and summable, its elements are still articulated in categories and sub-sets in accordance with certain precise laws of arrangement. In this sense, the structure of the unconscious is identical with that of language in its synchronic dimension. Jacques Lacan has himself made an exposition of his conception of the notion of structure.
