Jacques Lacan is the foremost psychoanalytic theorist after Freud. Revolutionizing the study of social relations, his work has been a major influence on political theory, philosophy, literature and the arts, but his thought has so far been studied without a serious investigation of its foundations. Just what are the influences on his thinking, so crucial to its proper understanding? In Lacan: The Silent Partners Slavoj i ek, the maverick theorist and pre-eminent Lacan scholar, has marshalled some of the greatest thinkers of our age in support of a dazzling re-evaluation of Lacan's work. Focusing on Lacan's 'silent partners', those who are the hidden inspiration to Lacan theory, they discuss his work in relation to the pre-socratics, Diderot, Hegel, Nietzsche, Schelling, Holderlin, Wagner, Turgenev, Kafka, Henry James and Artaud. This Major collection, including three essays by i ek, marks a new era in the study of this unsettling thinker, breathing new life into this classic work. Contributors: Alain Badiou, Bruno Bosteels, Miran Bozovic, Lorenzo Chiesa, Joan Copjec, Mladen Dolar, Timothy Huson, Frederic Jameson, Adrian Johnston, Sigi Jottkandt, Silvia Ons, Robert Pfaller, Alenka Zupan?i? and Slavoj i ek.