Despite the important place it occupies in both Freudian and Lacanian nosology, obsessional neurosis has received far less attention than its erstwhile companion hysteria. This book elaborates and deepen research into questions of obsession, going beyond the usual clichés which reduce obsession to the question "Am I alive or dead?". Emphasis is given to the structure of this neurosis, as distinguished from its symptomatology, and to clinical questions of work with obsessional subjects. The chapters provide discussions of some of the following themes: the creation of the category of obsessional neurosis and of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the fate of desire and the inability to act in obsession, debt and guilt, obsessional manoeuvres and their implications for the treatment.
The book will be of interest to readers with academic or clinical backgrounds who wish to deepen their understanding of obsessional neurosis from a theoretical or clinical point of view. Newcomers to the subject will find signposts here that guide them through the complex landscape of obsession and lead them to avenues they may wish to pursue further.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
A brief outline of Freud's and Lacan's conceptualisation of obsessional neurosis
Astrid Gessert
CHAPTER ONE
Guilty cognitions, faulty brains: Obsessive-compulsive disorders in the age of the condition-of-autonomy (1980–2010)
Pierre-Henri Castel
CHAPTER TWO
Lacanian Approaches to Obsession
Darian Leader
CHAPTER THREE
The signification of debt in obsessional neurosis
Moustapha Safouan
CHAPTER FOUR
The cutting edge of desire in obsessional neurosis: Lacan with Leclaire
Luca Bosetti
CHAPTER FIVE
The signification of mastery of the control of the orifices in anal eroticism
Moustapha Safouan
CHAPTER SIX
The Rat Man
Charles Melman
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Lacanian Structure of obsessional neurosis
Michel Silvestre
CHAPTER EIGHT
There is a stain on the horizon: A loop or two into obsessional neurosis
Vincent Dachy
INDEX
Biography
Astrid Gessert is a psychoanalyst and a member of CFAR and of the College of Psychoanalysts-UK. She has worked for many years in the NHS, in private practice and as supervisor. She is a regular contributor to the CFAR public lecture and training programme and lectures and facilitates seminars at other psychoanalytic organisations.
