Linguistics and Psychoanalysis: Freud, Saussure, Hjelmslev, Lacan and Others (Semiotic Crossroads)

Linguistics and Psychoanalysis: Freud, Saussure, Hjelmslev, Lacan and Others (Semiotic Crossroads) Review

Reading Freud, one is confronted with problems of language on almsot every page: language versus text, slips and puns and the problematic notion of literal meaning. As psychoanalysis can be regarded as a "cure through talking", how could this be otherwise? The relationship between linguistic and psychoanalytical concepts therefore deserves attention. It has been studied by psychoanalysists, and in this book it is discussed by a linguist. The book is divided in two parts which systematically explore two pathways; that of sign and symbol, with reference to the work of Freud, Saussure and Hjelmslev, and that of the signifier, in the light of work of, again, Saussure and Lacan. Freud's influence is felt throughout; for instance, the Lacanian theory of the signifier derives not only from Saussure's "Cours", but also from Freud's work.