Signifier Pointing at the Moon

Within the context of a careful review of the psychology of religion and prior non-Lacanian literature on the subject, Raul Moncayo builds a bridge between Lacanian psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism that steers clear of reducing one to the other or creating a simplistic synthesis between the two. Instead, by making a purposeful "e;One-mistake"e; of "e;unknown knowing"e;, this book remains consistent with the analytic unconscious and continues in the splendid tradition of Bodhidharma who did not know "e;Who"e; he was and told Emperor Wu that there was no merit in building temples for Buddhism. Both traditions converge on the teaching that "e;true subject is no ego"e;, or on the realisation that a new subject requires the symbolic death or deconstruction of imaginary ego-identifications. Although Lacanian psychoanalysis is known for its focus on language and Zen is considered a form of transmission outside the scriptures, Zen is not without words while Lacanian psychoanalysis stresses the senseless letter of the Real or of a jouissance written on and with the body.