A comprehensive discussion of an important but elusive Lacanian concept within the field of psychoanalysis, as well as its relevance for philosophy, literature, gender, and queer studies.

Néstor A. Braunstein is an Argentine Mexican psychoanalyst, author, professor, and editor who has published extensively on psychoanalysis, philosophy, visual arts, and literature, and whose work has been translated into French and Portuguese. In English, his work appears in The Cambridge Companion to Lacan. Silvia Rosman teaches at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her books include Being in Common: Nation, Subject, and Community in Latin American Literature and Culture.