"Articulating an approach based on the work of Jacques Lacan, Brancher shows how a psychoanalytic perspective can offer useful insights into the nature of writing process, the sources of writing problems, and the dynamics of writing instruction. Psychoanalysis reveals that the writing process is profoundly affected by factors that current theories have largely neglected - forces such as enjoyment, desire, fantasy, and anxiety, which, moreover, are often unconscious. It further reveals that the conflict between these forces and the ego and its defenses are at the root of many writing problems. Finally it offers strategies that writing teachers can use to help students reduce their psychological conflicts and improve their writing while also benefiting personally."--BOOK JACKET. "Bracher demonstrates that writing instruction constitutes the most favorable venue outside of individual psychoanalytic treatment for pursuing psychoanalytic research and practice."--BOOK JACKET. "For cultural workers - teachers, critics, and others - who want to work for positive social change, a psychoanalytic writing pedagogy offers the opportunity to undermine the psychological roots of many social problems, including intolerance and various forms of self-destructive behavior."--BOOK JACKET.