Lacan for Beginners

Jacques Lacan is probably the most influential psychoanalyst since Freud (of the roughly 20,000 psychoanalysts in the world, about half are ‘Lacanians’) yet most people know nothing about him. The 10,000 analysts who use Lacan’s ideas, work mostly in France, Spain, Italy, and South America. To the rest of the world, including England and America, Lacan is a genius-in-waiting, due to be ‘discovered’ any day now.
Despite (or because of) his brilliance, Lacan is incredibly difficult to understand. He wrote with an obscure, almost impenetrable style that casually refers to philosophy, linguistics, mathematics, etc.–and to make matters worse, his ideas changed over the years. (At this point, any rational person must be wondering, ‘What good is Lacan’s brilliance if I can’t understand his ideas?’)
Lacan For Beginners by Philip Hill addresses that question with great clarity without oversimplifying Lacan’s ideas. Hill introduces the reader to Lacan’s theories and their relation to clinical practice in twelve elegantly structured chapters, designed around tantalizing questions that serve to clarify Lacan’s ideas.
Lacan For Beginners is written with clarity, insight, and wit and illustrated with examples from popular culture and cinema. The artwork is humorous and informative, and works with the text. So don’t you think it is about time you become familiar with his work?

Philip Hill is a registered psychoanalyst, writer and teacher with over 16 years clinical experience. He has worked in the NHS and a range of other contexts and runs a private clinic in north London. Prospective patients are invited to get in touch using the details below.

Philip trained with the UK's first Lacanian training organization, the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR) of which he is a member. In addition he is a member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy. Philip teaches regularly, with recent courses at Birkbeck College and at Westminster Pastoral Foundation. He is the author of two books on Lacan and psychoanalysis and is currently working on two more. Additionally Philip lectures in the UK and internationally. Philip studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Warwick.