Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture: Levinas and Lacan

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This collection highlights the intriguing missed encounter between Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Lacan, exploring the theoretical and practical implications for ethics. It features essays from leading thinkers in contemporary ethics and psychoanalysis across the U.S. and Europe, suggesting a critical engagement between Levinas and Lacan. The focus is on comparing key concepts in Levinasian ethics and Lacanian psychoanalysis while rigorously questioning the philosophical traditions each thinker engages with, including the legacies of Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty. This dual approach facilitates complex reassessments of their contributions to contemporary ethical debates without forcing similarities or creating overt antagonism. The collection is poised to influence future discussions in ethics and psychoanalysis. Contributors examine the missed encounter by addressing themes of language, subjectivity, alterity, and ethics. Each essay forges connections between Lacan and Levinas or offers unexpected insights into their individual works. Overall, the collection signals a new direction in critical thinking about ethics, intertextuality, and inter-discursivity, navigating a nuanced path between cultural and philosophical critiques.