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The definition of psychoanalysis is a question largely hidden by cultural conditions that favor eclecticism. Demonstrating the importance of psychoanalysis can become meaningless if one does not specify what one means by "psychoanalysis." For instance, could we seriously argue that Lacanian approaches are examples of the same conception of psychoanalysis as that embodied in relational approaches based on attachment theory? Invoking the existence of a "common ground" of clinical practice is not convincing, unless one is persuaded that theory has no influence on practice. Analysts should not close ranks around the term "psychoanalysis" if it does not correspond to a shared reality. If such a reality does exist how can we judge whether it deserves our support? Laplanche's work has the merit of addressing these issues directly. It cannot be inserted into contemporary eclecticism. In fact, his thought involves a demand for coherence that makes it a polemical interlocutor of each of the principal contemporary orientations. We must choose how to define the psychoanalytic field and its principal concepts, but what criteria should determine our choices? Laplanche's thought falls within the rationalist tradition as can be seen in what Laplanche rightly considered his central contribution: The General Theory of Seduction and its links to the mode of action of psychoanalysis. The affiliation with rationalism constitutes one of the criteria that help establish this theory's validity. That is the thesis of this book.

Publication of these lectures from the 1989-90 seminar on après-coup completes the English translation of the three major works from a period of Laplanche's greatest synthetic creativity, the other two being New Foundations for Psychoanalysis (1987) and The Temptation of Biology: Freud's theories of sexuality (1991-92). This volume also includes two related essays from the same period translated by Luke Thurston: "Time and the Other" and "Temporality and Translation."In "Time and the Other," first presented the month after the end of the seminar, Laplanche wrote, "après-coup is an expression taken from everyday speech and converted into a noun (Nachträglichkeit) at a specific moment in the letters to Fliess, and which Freud himself then privileges as a technical term. Everything confirms this."The lectures on après-coup are important not only because they solidify the (re)discovery of a concept fundamental to psychoanalytic metapsychology, but also because they point to what is unfinished in Laplanche's theorizing of what he called Freud's 'Unfinished Copernican Revolution.' At the center of that unfinished work is the question of the nature of the urge to translate, to understand, to make meaning. The urge to translate is at the origin of the drives. The relation of translation and après-coup is captured in this excerpt from the last lecture:"Why then invoke a theory, a translational model of après-coup and, more generally, a translational model of the theory of seduction and even a translational model of the constitution of the human being? It is because there is no mental process that captures the double movement better than translation, the indivisible double movement of the "being carried forward" and of "referring back." The "being carried forward" is nothing other than what I designate as a "fundamental to-be-translated": a demand to translate the message of the other."- Jean Laplanche

The Temptation of Biology is one of Laplanche's central achievements in the latter half of his career: a major monograph on sexuality. Originally published in 1987 as Le fourvoiement biologisant de la sexualité chez Freud, republished in 1999 as La sexualité humaine and as Problématiques VII in2006, in this volume it is followed by Laplanche's 1997 talk at the University of Buenos Aires when he was awarded the title Doctor Honoris Causa, a paper which addresses a key aspect of the monograph: "Biologism and Biology."Laplanche's work is widely recognized as offering what may be the most important - certainly the most coherent - development and correction ofFreud's theories of sexuality. Building upon the 1984 volume New Foundations for Psychoanalysis, which Laplanche called the "hinge" of his theorizing, this book examines the origins of infantile sexuality. Laplanche works to demystify and demythologize the cult of biology within the work of Freud and his successors, to develop a theory of sexuality that both challenges and restores Freud's own foundational insights. In this remarkable translation, the text remains just as clear and illuminating as the original French. It is stimulating, rigorous, and (perhaps atypical for a work of theory) a pleasure to read.

The appearance of New Foundations for Psychoanalysis in 1987 marked the beginning of five years that may be the period of Laplanche's greatest synthetic creativity during which he articulated the central concepts of his thinking. Along with New Foundations this period saw the seminar on après-coup of 1989-1990-later published as Problématiques VI; the seminar of 1991-1992 published as Probléma­tiques VII: Le fourvoiement biologisant de la sexualité chez Freud and, in an English translation by Donald Nicholson-Smith, as The Temptation of Biology: Freud's Theories of Sexuality and much else.New Foundations is a synthesis of Laplanche's conceptual research going back to Life and Death in Psychoanalysis of 1970 and, before that, to works co-authored with J.-B. Pontalis and with Serge Leclaire. Referring to Problématiques I through Problématiques V (1970 - 1984), Laplanche writes, "Now the moment has come to show how my positions are connected with each other." He certainly does just that and, most importantly, New Foundations was the first major presenta­tion of the General Theory of Seduction (GTS) that guided his work for the rest of his life even as he continued to refine it.Later, from a different angle Laplanche refers to the GTS as the Funda­mental Anthropological Situation. The GTS will provide the basis for unearthing and extending Freud's translational model of repression leading Laplanche to propose "a translational model of après-coup and, more generally, a translational model of the theory of seduction and even a translational model of the constitution of the human being." He will speak of translational theories of psychic trauma, of infantile sexu­ality, and ultimately, of translation as a mechanism at the origin of the human subject as a self-narrating, self-theorizing creature."Starting from radical, violent challenges to established themes inevitably leads to a new theme with new patterns, new concepts or a new framework for the concepts that emerge. My positions on drive, narcissism, language, and many other topics are precise, but in the Problématiques they appear in a scattered form. Now the moment has come to show how my positions are connected. Will this entail schematization and oversimplification? To some degree that is inevitable, and from the beginning of this presentation I unhappily feel that weight, which is to say the necessity to cover the theme of foundations and the desire to get to my conclusions. So, in this text, I am in a race against the clock and my approach will be less that of the flaneur and less in the form of a "spiral development" of ideas, than was my approach in the Problématiques."-Jean Laplanche

In one of his introductory lectures to psychoanalysis, Freud had this to say: "It is In general not such a common thing for psycho-analysis to deny something asserted by other people; as a rule it merely adds something new-though no doubt it occasionally happens that this thing that has hit her to been overlooked and Is now brought up as a fresh addition Is In fact the essence of the matter." (Freud, 1916-17, p. 45) The remark applies beautifully to the theory of communication or, for that matter, to the theory of human at­tachment. Psychoanalysis has noth­ing to deny in those areas of study, but it has probably something essen­tial to add. "While an indisputable fact about human reality is that of communication and its corollary, making sense of what is communicated, only psychoanal­ysis takes notice of the particular situation created when communication happens between an adult and an infans-literally: the one who does not speak. Nor is it given much attention, even among psychoanalysts, that there is a special 'noise' carried over in the channels of communication between the two, a noise resulting from the difference regarding the uncon­scious sexual dimension." - DOMINIQUE SCARFONE I proposed we have a conversation after each of your essays as a way to engage your work, to ask for clarifications on the reader's behalf, and to multiply the entry points to your thinking. I imagine that these conversations will work cumulatively, taking the reader deeper into each chapter and also showing your way of thinking not by describing it but by exposing the reader to it "in vivo". Part of what your work has offered me personally, which I hope these exchanges will also convey to the reader, is the sheer pleasure of thinking about theory with you- that it's not a stale or inert process but that, on the contrary, it is an experience in itself. - AVGI SAKETOPOULOU

Freud and the Sexual is the translation of Laplanche's Sexual: La sexualité élargie au sens freudien, his work from 2000 to 2006, and a groundbreaking book by the French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche that challenges traditional interpretations of Sigmund Freud's theories on sexuality. In this book, Laplanche argues that Freud's work has been misunderstood and misinterpreted, and that his ideas on sexuality are much more complex and nuanced than is commonly thought.Laplanche draws on his extensive knowledge of Freud's writings and the history of psychoanalysis to explore the origins and evolution of Freud's theories on sexuality. He examines the ways in which Freud's ideas were shaped by his personal experiences, his cultural and historical context, and the influence of his patients.Laplanche also presents a compelling critique of the "Oedipus complex," which has long been considered a central tenet of Freudian theory. He argues that this concept has been overemphasized and oversimplified, and that it has limited our understanding of the complexities of human sexuality.Through his rigorous analysis and insightful commentary, Laplanche offers a fresh perspective on Freud's ideas, challenging readers to rethink their assumptions about human sexuality and the role of psychoanalysis in understanding it.Freud and the Sexual is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of psychoanalysis, the evolution of Freud's ideas, or the complexities of human sexuality. It is a masterful work of scholarship and a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate about the nature of the human psyche.

George Steiner's discussion of Jeffrey Mehlman's writing on Walter Benjamin gives the flavor of Mehlman's writing in Second Thoughts."The arch erudition and playful intelligence of Jeffrey Mehlman's concise jeu d'esprit, Walter Benjamin for Children, sparkle. Mehlman weaves a sequence of associative arabesques, 'intertextually imbricated, psychoanalytically informed,' on the script for two radio programmes for children which Benjamin wrote during 1929-1930. Almost in the style of a magician, Professor Mehlman demonstrates the literally catastrophic substance of Benjamin's tales for children. With a scholastic acuity and wit resembling that of Benjamin himself, Mehlman teases out in the thematic rootedness of catastrophe and fraud the "phantom presence of the motif of a 'false messianism' which flowers, nearly subliminally, in these seemingly innocent broadcasts."

Gender Without Identity offers an innovative and at times unsettling theory of gender formation. Rooted in the metapsychology of Jean Laplanche and in conversation with bold work in queer and trans studies, Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini jettison "core gender identity" to propose, instead, that gender is something all subjects acquire -- and that trauma sometimes has a share in that acquisition. Conceptualizing trauma alongside diverse genders and sexualities is thus not about invalidating transness and queerness, but about illuminating their textures to enable their flourishing. Written for readers both in and outside psychoanalysis, Gender Without Identity argues for the ethical urgency of recognizing that wounding experiences and traumatic legacies may be spun into gender. Such "spinning" involves self-theorizations that do not proceed from a centered self, but are nevertheless critical to psychic autonomy. Saketopoulou and Pellegrini draw on these ideas to offer clinical resources for working with gender complexity and for complexifying (what is seen as) gender normativity.

The appearance of New Foundations for Psychoanalysis in 1987 marked the beginning of five years that may be the period of Laplanche's greatest synthetic creativity during which he articulated the central concepts of his thinking. Along with New Foundations this period saw the seminar on après-coup of 1989-1990-later published as Problématiques VI; the seminar of 1991-1992 published as Probléma­tiques VII: Le fourvoiement biologisant de la sexualité chez Freud and, in an English translation by Donald Nicholson-Smith, as The Temptation of Biology: Freud's Theories of Sexuality and much else.New Foundations is a synthesis of Laplanche's conceptual research going back to Life and Death in Psychoanalysis of 1970 and, before that, to works co-authored with J.-B. Pontalis and with Serge Leclaire. Referring to Problématiques I through Problématiques V (1970 - 1984), Laplanche writes, "Now the moment has come to show how my positions are connected with each other." He certainly does just that and, most importantly, New Foundations was the first major presenta­tion of the General Theory of Seduction (GTS) that guided his work for the rest of his life even as he continued to refine it.Later, from a different angle Laplanche refers to the GTS as the Funda­mental Anthropological Situation. The GTS will provide the basis for unearthing and extending Freud's translational model of repression leading Laplanche to propose "a translational model of après-coup and, more generally, a translational model of the theory of seduction and even a translational model of the constitution of the human being." He will speak of translational theories of psychic trauma, of infantile sexu­ality, and ultimately, of translation as a mechanism at the origin of the human subject as a self-narrating, self-theorizing creature.

In 1997, the Presses Universitaires de France commissioned DominiqueScarfone for another book for their series Psychanalystes d'aujourd'hui. Theresult was Jean Laplanche, now available in Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz'sbrilliantly clear English translation as "Laplanche: an introduction." More thanan overview of Laplanche's career, Scarfone's text presents an unparalleledinsight into the mechanisms, provocations, and spectacular theoreticalachievements of Laplanche's work, which has been increasingly recognizedas integral to Francophone-and more recently, Anglophone-psychoanalyticpractice and theory.This volume brings together Scarfone's book with two representative worksof Laplanche's writing: his introduction to the French translation of Freud'sBeyond the Pleasure Principle, perhaps the last major work completed beforehis death in 2012; and Fantasme Originaire, Fantasmes des Origines, Originesdu Fantasme , the classic 1964 essay written in collaboration with J.-B.Pontalis, in a new translation by Jonathan House. Finally, this volume includesa complete bibliography of Laplanche's work, in English and in French.Jean Laplanche was described by Radical Philosophy as "the most originaland philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day." Studyingphilosophy under Hyppolite, Bachelard, and Merleau-Ponty, he became anactive member of the French Resistance under the Vichy regime. Under theinfluence (and treatment) of Jacques Lacan, Laplanche came to earn adoctorate in medicine and was certified as a psychoanalyst. He eventuallybroke ties with Lacan and began regularly publishing influential contributionsto psychoanalytic theory, his first volume appearing in 1961. In 1967 hepublished, with his colleague J.-B. Pontalis, the celebrated encyclopaedia TheLanguage of Psychoanalysis. Member of the International PsychoanalyticAssociation, co-founder of the Association Psychanalytique de France,emeritus professor and founder of the Center for Psychoanalytic Research atthe Université de Paris VII, and assistant professor at the Sorbonne, he alsooversaw, as scientific director, the translation of Freud's complete oeuvre intoFrench for the Presses Universitaires de France.