"Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction" Elizabeth Grosz

This book is an introduction to the psychoanalysis of Lacan from a feminist perspective. It is an account of the psychoanalysis within the historical frame, and it is also an account of the age old battle between psychoanalytical theory and feminist thought.

Grosz starts her book by placing psychoanalysis in the frame of european history of thought and discussing its interaction with the political and social status of the Europe in. While explaining Lacan's theory, she goes back to Freud and discusses how Lacan interpreted them. Throughout the book, she links the discussions to feminist perspective. The book concludes with an account of Kristeva's and Irigaray's theory. Both Kristeva and Irigaray are psychoanalysts, cultural theorists and philosophers with a feminist awareness; Irigaray, though, does not fancy being called a feminist.

In the feminist tradition, Lacan is usually seen as "the enfant terrible." His famous phrase "The Woman does not exist" is usually cited as a proof of his phallocentric position. However, some feminists, for example Kristeva and Irigaray, stopped blaming him for being phallocentric and rather suggested that his theory should be seen as a detailed account of how phallocentricism works. From this perspective, Lacan's theory provides valuable positions to discuss the current structure of signification systems, social order, and the hierarchy of thought.

I recommend this book to the ones who are preparing to read Lacan's work with an aim to study it in connection with feminist philosophy. Grosz's style is very smooth and easy to follow. With this book, I also recommend Sexuality in the Field of Vision by Jacqueline Rose. Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose are perhaps the first feminist thinkers to suggest a constructive reading of psychoanalysis in order to understand the way to ideology and sexuality are formed.