THE SELF
AND ITS
PLEASURES
Bataille, Lacan, and
the History of the
Decentered Subect 

Carolyn J. Dean

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction I

PART ONE Psychoanalysis and the Self II
lo The Legal Status of the Irrational 17
2. Gender Complexes 5 8
3. Sight Unseen IReading the Unconsciousl 98

PART TWO Sade's Selflessness 123
4. The Virtue of Crime 1 27
5. The Pleasure of Pain 1 70

PART THREE Headlessness 201
6. Writing and Crime 205
7. Returning to the Scene of the Crime 221

Conclusion 246
Selected Bibliography 253
Index 265