Louis Althusser

This major voice in French philosophy presents a classic study of how particular political and cultural ideas come to dominate society. Spanning the years 1964 to 1973, On Ideology contains the seminal text, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus" (1970), which revolutionized the concept of subject formation. In "Reply to John Lewis" (1972–73), Althusser addressed the criticisms of the English Marxist toward On Marx and Reading Capital. Also included are "Freud and Lacan" (1964) and "A Letter on Art in Reply to André Daspre" (1966).

With several never-before published writings, this volume gathers Althusser's major essays on psychoanalytic thought----documenting his intense and ambivalent relationship with Lacan, and dramatizing his intellectual journey and troubled personal life. ** ### Amazon.com Review Louis Althusser is perhaps better remembered for strangling his wife to death during a fit of temporary insanity than for most of his writings (with the possible exception of his essay on the "ideological state apparatus," an explication of normalizing social institutions that has become standard fare in academic postmodernism), but he was one of the key figures in postwar French philosophy. *Writings on Psychoanalysis* is a collection of essays, article drafts, and correspondence that displays the extent of his intellectual grappling with Freud's writings and with contemporary psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan, a former friend whom Althusser would gradually come to view as a "magnificent and pitiful Harlequin." (Two of the pieces here deal with the 1980 conference at which Althusser vehemently broke with Lacan, ostensibly over the latter's stifling position of dominance among their colleagues.) *Writings on Psychoanalysis* is a bit heavy-going and theoretical in places, but of unique historical interest. ### Review ... tackles topics and problems which are not at all over and done with in the human sciences, namely the relation between philosphy (theory) and (the human) science(s), a theory of historical, non-linear temporality and a theory of the 'decentred' subject... the theses and thoughts unfolded... testify to an exceedingly fertile appropriation of Freud, the long-term effect of which has yet to be assessed. ( *European Journal of Social Theory* ) Splendidly brought together and presented.... a fascinating group of historical documents.... Revealing. ( *Boston Book Review* )