First published 2024
France long resisted Freudian ideas, but the late 1960s brought sudden fascination with psychoanalysis. Jacques Lacan reconstructed Freudian theory in ways that spoke to French culture after the 1968 uprisings. Turkle examines how France developed a politicized, French-inflected version of Freudianism that differed sharply from American approaches. While American psychoanalysis aligned with conservative medical institutions, French analysts connected with radical philosophical and political movements. The author provides an English-language introduction to Lacan's teachings and shows how cultures adapt theories of mind to fit their own contexts. She traces the intrigue and power struggles that eventually destroyed Lacan's Freudian School and the aftermath following his 1981 death. This updated edition includes a new preface reflecting on the book's origins and its continued relevance for integrating thought with feeling and politics with self-examination.
Genres: history, 20th-century, political-science, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academia, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: cultural-adaptation, power-struggles
Setting: France
Period: 1960s, 1981
494 pages · Paperback · The MIT Press