Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe have uncovered the philosophical complexity in Lacan's work with this book and acknowledged its various aspects. First: Lacan's intention to realize the abolition of philosophy, its erasure and preservation, within psychoanalysis. Next: The breaking apart of this abolition itself, for a mode of existence that would be both philosophical and psychoanalytic - and neither. Finally: Lacan's effort and his claim to find an institution for this web of philosophical ambivalence, where it can be articulated as discourse. It is the letter, the authors argue, that should give this institution its title. They demonstrate how Lacan's letter is based on a simultaneously subtle and violent disconnection from Saussure's linguistics.