Author Marie Pierrakos began her working career as a freelance conference steno-typist, and it was in this capacity that she was Jacques Lacan's steno-typist ("keybasher") from 1967 to 1979. Awarding him a "gold medal for boorishness"-Lacan did not speak a word to her in those twelve years-it was only after she became a psychoanalyst herself that Pierrakos felt adequately equipped to explore and write about this experience in depth. Her careful but excoriating criticism of the Lacanian system will be of interest to all readers wishing to understand more about one of the most curious phenomena of our time, how a large part of the French intelligentsia came to be captivated by "the pathetic spectacle of an old man tossing bits of string representing Borromean knots to his audience, and of hands stretching out to receive them like children at the circus." The author records: "The posturing was backed up by a quasi-military organization, interlinking regions by sending analysts into virgin territory to preach the good word. Some had undergone only summary analysis and training, since, to quote Lacan 'the analyst is only answerable to himself'."