Hysteria from Freud to Lacan: Body and Language in Psychoanalysis

by Monique David-Ménard, Catherine Porter (Translator), Ned Lukacher (Introduction)

Writing within a Laconian theoretical framework, David-Menard explores the major psychoanalytic theories of hysteria, from Freud's theories of conversion and associative hysteria to Lacan's theory of jouissance and the hysterical body. First published in French in 1983, and translated by Catherine Parter. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Monique David-Ménard has a double career, as a professor of philosophy and a practicing psychoanalyst. As the Director of the Centre d’études du vivant (2005-2011), she established the field of research “Gender and Sexualities” at the University Paris-Diderot/Paris 7. She has been invited to teach at a wide variety of universities wordwide: Ruhr University Bochum, Diego Portalès, Santiago de Chile, Universitad de Chile, Universitad de Sao Paulo, UNAM, Mexico, as well as Columbia University.

As a psychoanalyst, she has been a member of the Société de Psychanalyse Freudienne since its foundation in 1994. She is also a co-founder of the ISPP (International Society for Psychoanalysis and Philosophy) and a member of the International Network of Women Philosophers (UNESCO).

Reviews

[Evan Chethik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Insanely nuanced such that the little moments that Menard pulls out which feel like revelations quickly fall away. I had to read chapters carefully over the course of multiple days. There are only four chapters, so all-in I read slowly over the course of a week. This could be considered four academic papers rather than a cohesive track of hysterical theory development. At times, I wasn’t sure if the argument was that conversion’s theoretical development is teleological or progressive, or if the argument was more philosophical even: that there is in fact no difference between the two.

This is a forensic dive into the implications of Lacan’s derivations from Freud on the body as a composite image rather than some motile connection to the Freudian real. There is confusion here between the Lacanian and Freudian real, of course. It’s hard to tell which register we were situated at times.

Not to say this isn’t a lit analysis. Just difficult. Why read this book instead of Lacan, himself? I can’t see a real reason, other than perhaps the pretense of a third-party objectivity which sees past Lacan’s insistence that he’s no different from Freud. Menard does pick the best topic to elaborate on their differences, seeing as though the Lacanian imaginary disallows a body to exist at all for the hysteric, while with Freud, it is much less clear.

I think the title should be different. This is not an analysis of hysteria from Freud to Lacan. It is a Lacanian analysis of Freud’s cases of hysteria. Again, perhaps we should have just read Lacan.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for my thesis. Though this was difficult to plow through, it was worth it for the little a-ha moments David-Menard provides throughout the text.