It is as if Lacan first directly develops a certain theoretical line in a straightforward way, with all oscillations and blind alleys, and then goes on to condense the result in precise, but compressed ciphers.

The paradox pointed out by Jean-Claude Milner is that, in contrast to the usual way of opposing the secret oral teaching to the printed publications for the common people, Lacan’s ecrits are “elitist,” readable only to an inner circle, while his seminars are destined for the large public and, as such, much more accessible. “If one disregards occasional short texts (introductions and afterwords, transcribed improvised interventions and interviews, etc.), Lacan’s oeuvre clearly falls into two groups: seminars (conducted every week during the school-year from 1953 till Lacan’s death, in front of an ever larger public) and é’crits (written theoretical texts). Rather than attempt to summarize and paraphrase what others have said, this post simply offers the following advice/ guidance from the introduction from Slavoj Zizek’s How to Read Lacan. Like desiring itself, one has to be taught how to read Lacan. For Lacan, psychoanalysis is a procedure of reading and each chapter reads a passage from Lacan as a tool to interpret another text from philosophy, art or popular ideology.Reading Lacan is certainly no easy task. Slavoj Žižek’s passionate defense of Lacan reasserts Lacan’s ethical urgency. Traditionally, psychoanalysis was expected to allow the patient to overcome the obstacles which prevented access to 'normal' sexual enjoyment today, however, we are bombarded by different versions of the injunction 'Enjoy!' Psychoanalysis is the only discourse in which you are allowed not to enjoy. Lacan’s motto of the ethics of psychoanalysis involves a profound paradox. These books use excerpts from the major texts to explain essential topics, such as Jacques Lacan's core ideas about enjoyment, which re-created our concept of psychoanalysis. The How to Read series provides a context and an explanation that will facilitate and enrich your understanding of texts vital to the canon. “The only thing of which one can be guilty of is having given ground relative to one’s desire.”-Jacques Lacan

Slavoj zizek how to read lacan