The text included in here called "Television" is not, in fact, called that at all - its official title is "Psychoanalysis," a transcript of a televised discussion between Jacques Lacan and Jacques-Alain Miller on that topic, directed by Benoît Jacquot. For some reason, though, the name "Television" has stuck, and so the medium, it seems, has become the message.

As well as "Television"/"Psychoanalysis," this book gathers together a number of other texts. There is a lengthy preface by Miller, for instance, presented in the form of an imaginary dialogue between himself and a female lover who is angry and frustrated by the impenetrability of Lacan's discourse. Miller uses this pretext to explain Lacan's ideas to her in a flirtatious manner. The result of this experiment is mixed: Miller does provide some useful commentary on Lacan's work, provided that one already has some understanding of it, but the tone of the exercise overall seems rather sexist and condescending.

The second part of the book, which the editor Joan Copjec labels "A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment," is a collection of important documents relating to moments of politics crisis in the course of Lacan's career. After an introduction by Copjec, these documents include: a letter from Lacan to his former analyst Rudolf Loewenstein regarding his effective resignation from the International Psychoanalytic Association (1953), a letter from Lacan to IPA president Heinz Hartmann on the same topic (1953), the minutes of the IPA meeting about Lacan's expulsion (1953), a letter from Lacan to D.W. Winnicott (1960), the minutes from IPA meeting about the formation of the SFP that effectively "excommunicated" Lacan (1963), the single surviving seminar on the names-of-the-father that Lacan abandoned after learning about his excommunication (1963), the founding statement of the new École Freudienne de Paris (EFP) under Lacan's direction (1964), a lecture by Lacan on the object of psychoanalysis (1966), a letter by Lacan to the Le Monde newspaper about why he was no longer presenting his seminar at the École Normale Supérieure (1969), the infamous "Impromptu at Vincennes" in which Lacan attempted a dialogue with a group of revolutionary students (1969), the letter dissolving the EFP (1980), and a follow-up letter on the topic of "The Other is Missing" (1980).

For those not familiar with the trajectory of Lacan's career, these documents will seem random and unimportant: for such readers, I would recommend reading the abandoned seminar on the names-of-the-father (also available in a little volume titled On the Names of the Father) and the "Impromptu at Vincennes" (which is also included as an appendix to Seminar XVII). For those who are familiar with Lacan's career, these texts are a fascinating glimpse into the mechanics of what was going on behind the scenes.

Television is an odd book, simply for the heterogeneity of its contents, apart from anything else. It certainly is not a good place for those who are starting out with Lacan, but for experienced and knowledgeable readers of his work, it is a valuable collection of documents, the worth of which only becomes clear with sufficient context. ( )