Lacan and Chan Buddhist Thought: Reflections on Buddhism in Lacan’s Seminar X and Beyond

Lacan and Chan Buddhist Thought provides a close reading of how Lacan mobilizes concepts from Chan Buddhist philosophy, culture, and practice in his later teachings.

The book emerged from the three co-authors’ engagement with Lacan’s 1962-63 Seminar on Anxiety, and the significance of Lacan’s original interpretation of the Buddhist principle that desire is the cause of suffering. The book reads key Lacanian concepts - such as, the objet a, jouissance, the real, nirvana, and the mirror - through ancient Buddhist teachings and koans. With this focused exploration of psychoanalysis and Chan Buddhism, the authors offer a philosophically grounded cross-cultural approach to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis in Asian countries.

Lacan and Chan Buddhist Thought will be a rich resource for psychoanalysts, academics and students interested in Lacan and religion, the intellectual and cultural relationship between Asian and Western thought, and Mahayana Buddhism more generally.