This is the only comprehensive introduction to the works of the French psychoanalyst and thinker Jacques Lacan. It provides a clear account of his complex and stimulating thought, explaining its relevance both inside and outside psychoanalysis. Lacan's main aim was to restore psychoanalysis to life by a radical re-interpretation of Freud's thought. He constantly challenged the aims and limits of analysis. The authors follow the development of this aim from his early work in the 1930s, up to recent times, when his personality and ideas became the centre for an explosion of interest in psychoanalysis, both in France and, increasingly, throughout the world.