The second edition is available at a lower price as a paperback with thread stitching. Lacan's seminar from 1956/57 marked the beginning of the most intense and fruitful years of his teaching career. In addition to the analysis of phobia and fetishism, it also served Lacan in the development of the central theory of lack (in contrast to the psychoanalytic school of object relations) and, subsequently, his own conception of the Oedipus complex. Almost incidentally, Lacan outlines a theory of gift, engaging with Marcel Mauss and Claude Lévi-Strauss. It becomes clear at this point that this seminar does not get lost in psychoanalytic detail but simultaneously seeks to address the fundamental questions of human community.