This book argues that Freud’s theory of the traumatic neuroses can provide a ‘conceptual bridge’ between the Lacanian idea of an ‘inaugural’ or ‘founding’ trauma that constitutes the human subject and the more popular idea that trauma is brought about by external events, for example, war or sexual violence. It proposes a new reading of Freud’s theory which draws on Lacanian concepts, including the Real, jouissance, the idea of ‘suture’, and Lacan’s ‘deconstruction’ of Freud’s drive theory. It also argues for a ‘cybernetic’ reading of Lacan’s theory of language, which he outlined in his second Seminar; and for a reappraisal of Freud’s concept of Nachträglichkeit as a way to facilitate a better understanding of the retroactive nature of trauma and its relation to language and the drive.

Leslie Chapman is a psychoanalyst based in north Hampshire, UK. Dr Chapman has a particular interest in trauma and psychosis and how these link to the teachings of the ‘later Lacan’. His clinical work within this field formed the basis for his PhD thesis which was on the topic of traumatic neurosis and its relation to Freudian and Lacanian theory. He also has a great interest in how psychoanalytic ideas can be used within the fields of ideology, politics and culture. Since 2011 he has been actively writing on these subjects, including published journal articles on corporate stress and burnout, the ‘Taylorisation’ of talking therapies, and the cultural trauma of the Great War.