Concerning the Rites of Psychoanalysis

Concerning the Rites of Psychoanalysisis the first book to look at Lacanian psychoanalysis in the context of the clinic. The central theme is the interplay of knowledge and love in different processes of initiation, revelation and analysis. Benvenuto begins with a detailed discussion of the Ancient Mysteries and the unveiling of the phallus and illustrates how these prefigure discoveries in Lacanian psychoanalysis about the symbol, the feminine and the sacred. She goes on to examine the Oedipal myth and questions whether the psychoanalytic process is a ritual initiation of this complex. In order to fully explore this issue, she looks at case studies from Freud, Melanie Klein, Winnicott and from her own practice. She then turns to the ultimate mystery of psychoanalysis--female sexuality. She ends her text with a sustained elaboration of the role of shame and death in psychoanalysis. Benvenuto brings both the clinical and the symbolic thread together in a new theory of femininesexuality which takes up where Lacan drew the veil. This book will appeal to readers in psychoanalysis, literary criticism, gender and feminist studies, psychology and philosophy and anyone interested in Lacan's work.