The Signifier Pointing at the Moon: Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism

Although the foreground focus of this book is the relationship between Zen Buddhism and Lacanian psychoanalysis, its content matter will be examined and elucidated against the background of the relationship between modernity and postmodernity and within the larger context of the psychology of religion and the similarities and differences among various psychoanalytic schools.

The dialogue between psychoanalysis and Buddhism has become quite popular within English-American culture. Over the last ten years several books have been published that explore the relationship between the two traditions. The author believes that the Lacanian framework offers a fresh perspective from which to consider the internal relations between psychoanalysis and Buddhism.

This book clarifies and reframes some of the misunderstandings between psychoanalysis and Buddhism, and between Eastern and Western cultures.