Talk:Intersubjectivity

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Lacan begins (in 1953) to analyze in detail the function of speech in psychoanalysis.

Lacan emphasizes that speech is essentially an intersubjective process.

"The allocution of the subject entails an allocutor" and therefore "the locutor is constituted in it as intersubjectivity."[1]

The term 'intersubjectivity' draws attention to the importance of language in psychoanalysis and emphasizes the fact that the unconscious is "transindividual."

Psychoanalysis is thus to be conceived in intersubjective rather than intrasubjective terms.

By 1960 the term 'intersubjectivity' has come to acquire negative connotations for Lacan.

It is now associated, not with speech as such, but with the notions of reciprocity and symmetry that characterize the dual relationship;[2] that is, with the imaginary rather than with the symbolic.

Psychoanalysis is no longer to be conceived of in terms of intersubjectivity.[3]

Indeed, the experience of transference is precisely what undermines the notion of intersubjectivity.[4]

Intersubjectivity refers to the "common sense," shared meanings constructed by people in their interactions with each other and used as an everyday resource to interpret the meaning of elements of social and cultural life.

The French philopsopher Jean-Paul Sartre argued that in making choices in life we effectively make choices for all humans as what is chosen is always the better choice, and what is better for one is better for all.

This is also called 'intersubjectivity'.

For Lacan, the analytic experience is a dialogue on the symbolic place of full speech, an interaction between two subjective desires.

The intersubjective relationship between the analysand and the analyst.

Psychoanalytic treatment as a symbolic interaction between two subjects.

Referring again to Freud’s explanation of transference in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Lacan reported in the former text that "transference…gave its name to the mainspring of the intersubjective link between analyst and analysand."[5]

I am astounded that no-one has ever thought of objecting to me, given certain of the terms of my doctrine, that the transference alone is an objection to intersubjectivity. I even regret it, seeing that nothing is more true: it refutes it, it is its stumbling block.[6]




Intersubjectivity refers to the "common sense," shared meanings constructed by people in their interactions with each other and used as an everyday resource to interpret the meaning of elements of social and cultural life.

The French philopsopher Jean-Paul Sartre argued that in making choices in life we effectively make choices for all humans as what is chosen is always the better choice, and what is better for one is better for all.

This is also called 'intersubjectivity'.

For Lacan, the analytic experience is a dialogue on the symbolic place of full speech, an interaction between two subjective desires.

The intersubjective relationship between the analysand and the analyst.

Psychoanalytic treatment as a symbolic interaction between two subjects.

Referring again to Freud’s explanation of transference in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Lacan reported in the former text that "transference…gave its name to the mainspring of the intersubjective link between analyst and analysand."[7]

I am astounded that no-one has ever thought of objecting to me, given certain of the terms of my doctrine, that the transference alone is an objection to intersubjectivity. I even regret it, seeing that nothing is more true: it refutes it, it is its stumbling block.[8]


See also

References

  1. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.49
  2. Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre VIII. Le transfert, 1960-61. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.20
  3. Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre VIII. Le transfert, 1960-61. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.20
  4. Lacan. 1967
  5. Lacan 1977g[1957]:170
  6. Lacan 1995b[1967]:4
  7. Lacan 1977g[1957]:170
  8. Lacan 1995b[1967]:4