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KNOWLEDGE
[[Lacan]] distinguishes between two types of [[knowledge]]:
* [[imaginary]] [[knowledge]] (''connaissance'') which is the [[knowledge]] of the [[ego]], and
* [[symbolic]] [[knowledge]] (''savoir''), which is the [[knowledge]] of the [[subject]].
''Savoir'' is the kind of [[knowledge]] which [[psychoanalytic treatment]] aims at.
It is both [[knowledge]] of the [[subject]]'s relation to the [[symbolic]] [[order]], and also that relation itself.
This [[knowledge]] is the articulation of [[signifier]]s in the [[subject]]'s [[symbolic]] universe, the [[signifying chain]] (S2).
The [[unconscious]] is simply another name for [[symbolic]] [[knowledge]] insofar as it is an "unknown knowledge," a [[knowledge]] which the [[subject]] does not know it knows.
[[Psychoanalytic treatment]] aims at a progressive revelation of this [[knowledge]] to the [[subject]], and is based on the premise that theonly menas of access to this [[knowledge]] is via a particular form of [[speech]] called [[free association]].
However, [[psychoanalytic treatment]] does not aim at a [[Hegel]]ian '[[absolute knowledge]],' because the [[unconscious]] is irreducible; there is an inescapable division between the [[subject]] and [[knowledge]].
[[Symbolic]] [[knowledge]] is [[knowledge]] of the [[truth]] about one's [[unconscious]] [[desire]].
[[Knowledge]] in this sense is a form of ''[[jouissance]]'': "[[knowledge]] is the ''[[jouissance]]'' of the [[Other]]."<ref>{{S17}} p.13</ref>
[[Symbolic]] [[knowledge]] does not reside in any particular [[subject]], nor in the [[Other]] (which is not a [[subject]] but a locus), but is [[intersubjective]].
However, this does not prevent one supposing that somewhere there is a [[subject]] who possesses this [[symbolic]] [[knowledge]] (the [[subject supposed to know]]).
==Connaissance==
''Connaissance'' (and its necessary correlate, ''meconnaissance'') is the kind of self-[[knowledge]] that belongs to the [[imaginary]] [[order]].
It is by misunderstanding and misrecognition (''meconnaissance'') that the [[subject]] comes to the [[imaginary]] [[knowledge]] of himself (''me-connsaissance'') which is constitutive of the [[ego]].<ref>{{E}} p.306</ref>
The [[ego]] is thus an [[illusory]] kind of self-[[knowledge]] based on a [[fantasy]] of self-[[mastery]] and [[unity]].
[[Imaginary]] [[knowledge]] is called "[[paranoiac]] [[knowledge]]" by [[Lacan]] because it has the same [[structure]] as [[paranoia]] (both involve a [[delusion]] of [[absolute knowledge]] and [[mastery]]), and because one of the preconditions of all [[human]] [[knowledge]] is the "paranoiac alienation of the ego."<ref>{{E}} p.2; Lacan, 1951b: 12</ref>
[[Imaginary]] [[knowledge]] is an obstacle which hinders the [[subject]]s access to [[symbolic]] [[knowledge]].
[[Psychoanalytic treatment]] must therefore continually subvert the [[subject]]'s [[imaginary]]] self-[[knowledge]] in order to reveal the [[symbolic]] self-[[knowledge]] which it blocks.
