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[[Lacan]]'s attitude to [[Cartesian]]ism is extremely complex, and only a few of the most important points can be summarised here.

1. On one level, the ''[[cogito]]'' comes to stand for the modern western concept of the [[Ego]], based as it is on the notions of the self-sufficiency and self-[[transparency]] of [[consciousness]], and the [[autonomy]] of the [[ego]].<ref>{{E}} p.6</ref>

Thus, although this concept of the [[ego]] seems so natural and eternal to western man today, it is in fact a relatively recent cultural construct; its eternal-natural appearance is in fact an [[illusion]] produced by retroaction.<ref>{{S2}} p.4-5</ref>

[[Lacan]] argues that the experience of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is an experience that leads us to oppose any [[philosophy]] directly issuing from the ''[[Cogito]]''.<ref>{{E}} p.1; {{S2}} p.4</ref>

One of [[Lacan]]'s main criticisms of [[ego-psychology]] and [[object-relations theory]] is that these [[school]]s betrayed [[Freud]]'s discovery by returning to the pre-[[Freud]]ian concept of the [[subject]] as an [[autonomous ego]].<ref>{{S2}} p.l1</ref>

2. On another level, [[Lacan]]'s views can be seen not only as a subversion of the ''[[cogito]]'', but also as an extension of it, for the ''[[cogito]]'' not only encapsulates the false equation [[subject]] = [[ego]] = [[consciousness]] which [[Lacan]] opposes, but also focuses attention on the concept of the [[subject]], which [[Lacan]] wishes to retain.

This concept of [[subjectivity]] refers to what [[Lacan]] calls "the subject of science": a [[subject]] who is denied all intuitive access to [[knowledge]] and is thus left with reason as the only path to [[knowledge]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.831; {{Ec}} p.858</ref>

By opposing the [[subject]] to the [[ego]], [[Lacan]] proposes that the [[subject]] of the [[Cartesian]] ''[[cogito]]'' is in fact one and the same as the [[subject]] of the [[unconscious]].

[[Lacan]] rewrites [[Descartes]]'s phrase in various ways, such as "I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think."<ref>{{E}} p.166</ref>

==See Also==

==References==

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