Understanding Lacan’s Objet a

Understanding Lacan’s Objet a proposes that we modify the accepted approach to Lacan’s ideas and strive to make Lacanian concepts accessible.

Juan Pablo Lucchelli gradually introduces conceptual tools, following the emergence of this ’object of objects’ step by step. The book makes clear the impact of the social in the genesis of objet a as a concept, with the inevitable sharing of the subject’s being with others at its core. Lucchelli demonstrates that there can be no true autonomy of the individual without recognizing the dependence on the other; thus, like Winnicott’s transitional object, Lacan’s objet a is what connects us to others, despite the individualistic pretensions that emerge from the ego.

This book will be essential reading both for Lacanian analysts in practice and in training, who wish to deepen their knowledge of the concept of the objet a, and for students of psychoanalysis, philosophy and psychology.

Juan Pablo Lucchelli is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Switzerland. He is a member of the École de la cause freudienne (Paris), a published author, and the Head doctor for the Mental Health Unit of the Swiss Medical Network.