Speaking Desires can be Dangerous

This new book is a lively and original study of psychoanalysis and its relations to the arts.

Introduction. Part I: Psychoanalysis and Literature: Freud. 1. What is a psychoanalytic reading?. 2. The uncanny and its poetics. 3. The vagaries of fantasy: Kubin's The Other Side. . 4. Maladies of the soul: the poetics of Julia Kristeva. Part II: Psychoanalysis and Language: Lacan. 5. What is discourse?. 6. The indirections of desire: Hamlet. . 7. Inscribing the body politic: Robert Coover's Spanking the Maid. . 8. What does Woman want?: The Double Life of Véronique. Part III Patients and Analysts: Readers and texts. 9. What is a clinical 'case'?. 10. The rhetoric of clinical discourse: Dialogue with Sammy. . 11. The rhetoric of clinical management: Bion and Minuchin. 12. Out of tune: Elfriede Jelinek's The Piano Teacher. Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography. Index.