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							                               Contents

List of Figures                                                                vii

Introduction                                                                    1

1 Kristeva, Psychoanalysis and Culture: An Overview                             9
         Kristeva’s Trajectory                                                 10
         The Contemporary Subject and the Freudian Scene                       18
         The Failure of the Paternal Function                                  23
         Reassignment of the Paternal Function to the Maternal Disposition     27
         The Possibility of Revolt                                             30
         Conclusion                                                            34

2 The Genesis of the Subject: The Paternal Function                            37
        The Traditional and the Kristevan ‘Family’                             37
        The Paternal Function in Religious and Psychoanalytic Narratives       45
        The Paternal Function: From Freud to Kristeva                          51
        Conclusion                                                             58

3 The Failure of the Paternal Function                                         61
        The Failure of the Paternal Function: A Modernist Crisis?              61
        The Crisis of Subjectivity in Contemporary Society: An Illustration    69
        The Failure of the Paternal Function                                   78
        Conclusion                                                             89

4 Reassignment of the Paternal Function to the Maternal                        95
        Between Paternal and Maternal: A New Terrain of Investigation          95
        The Maternal Realm: Kleinian Phantasy or Representation Before
        the Symbol                                                            102
        From Phantasy to Symbol: The Paternal Function                        108
        Conclusion                                                            111

5 The Maternal                                                                115
       The Paternal as Maternal Desire                                        116
       The Maternal as Abject                                                 119
       The Maternal: Between Nature and Culture                               126
       The Paternal and the Maternal Revisited                                129
       The Maternal: Psychoanalytic Artefact or Archaic Transference?         131
       Conclusion                                                             139
vi                   Kristeva, Psychoanalysis and Culture
6 Narcissism                                                        147
         Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning   149
         On Narcissism: An Introduction                             154
         Conclusion                                                 160

7 Narcissus                                                         165
         Narcissus: The Suppression of Echo                         166
         Narcissus: A Distant and Unstable Symbol                   169
         Conclusion                                                 173

8 Narcissistic Society                                              177
         The Subject as ‘Self’                                      181
         Narcissus: A Commodity                                     184
         Narcissus, the Doll-in-the-box                             185
         The New Family                                             187
         Conclusion                                                 189

Bibliography                                                        191
Index                                                               199