Difference between revisions of "Talk:Jacques Lacan"

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[[Jacques Lacan|Jacques-Marie Émile Lacan]] (1901 – 1981) was a [[French]] [[psychiatrist]] and [[psychoanalyst]].
 
  
  
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[[Lacan]] has become an important figure in many fields beyond [[psychoanalysis]].
 
  
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[[Lacan]] became one of the most important figures in the history of [[psychoanalysis]].
 
  
  
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His impact has been felt across a broad range of disciplines, from feminist philosophy and film theory to the spheres of literature, politics, and cultural studies.
 
  
  
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The most controversial [[psychoanalyst]] since [[Freud]] himself, [[Lacan]] has had an immense influence on literary theory, philosophy, and feminism, as well as on [[psychoanalysis]] itself.
 
  
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[[Lacan]]'s work has done more than that of any other analyst to make psychoanalysis a central reference to w hole field of discipline within the human sciences.
 
  
  
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---
 
  
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A dramatic personage with enormous intellectual energy, Lacan maintained friendships and theoretical engagements with a wide variety of people, from the artists André Breton and Salvador Dali, to the philosophers Georges Bataille, Raymond Queneau, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and such historians of thought as Alexandre Kojève and Alexandre Koyré who transformed the intellectual landscape in France in the 1930s.
 
  
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In the years following the war, from the mid-1950s through the 1970s, Lacan taught a yearly seminar in Paris that was attended by many of France’s most prominent intellectuals.
 
  
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This work not only established Lacan as a major figure in psychoanalysis, but served as the platform by which psychoanalytic theory both absorbed and challenged major intellectual movements in structuralism, anthropology, linguistics, phenomenology, and disciplines such as anthropology and mathematics, with which Lacan sustained serious and extended dialogue.  
+
Lacan earned a medical degree in 1932 and was a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Paris for much of his career.  
  
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Lacan is arguably the leading figure, after Freud, in the effort to bring psychoanalytic thought into dialogue with other disciplines, and he is largely responsible for the place occupied by psychoanalysis today in literary and cultural theory.
 
  
 +
IDEAS
  
−
==Biography==
+
LANGUAGE
 +
notable poststructuralist, he reinterpreted Freudian psychoanalysis, esp. the theory of the unconscious, in the light of structural linguistics and anthropology.
  
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Born in 1901 to an upper-middle class family of successful merchants from Orleans with strict Catholic roots, Lacan attended the prestigious Collège Stanislaus where he received a rigorous classical education in Latin, poetry, philosophy and theology.  
+
He reinterpreted Freudian psychoanalysis in the light of structural linguistics and anthropology; he saw the unconscious as developing simultaneously with language.
  
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The protected environment of the institution was disrupted in 1915 when part of the Collège was transformed into a hospital for wounded soldiers. In 1919, Lacan started his medical training in Paris, where he became friends with Breton, Aragon, Dali, and other members of the Surrealist movement.  
+
[[Lacan]] carried out influential work in reinterpretating Freudian psychoanalysis in light of developments in structural linguistics and anthropology.
  
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By 1927, he had entered clinical training in psychiatry at the Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris, where he would later teach (and where Foucault would also work), and he began to publish a series of neurological papers on paralysis, mental automatism, war trauma, and hallucinatory mechanisms, based on clinical case studies.  
+
His endeavour was to reinterpret Freud in the light of the structural approach to linguistics inaugurated by Saussure.  
  
−
In 1932 he finished his doctoral thesis on paranoia, translated Freud’s paper on jealousy, paranoia and homosexuality into French, and started his analysis with Rudolph Loewenstein.
 
  
−
--
 
−
[[Lacan]]'s original training was in medicine and psychiatry, and his prepsychoanalytic work was on [[paranoia]].
 
  
 +
Language becomes a manifestation of the structures present in the unconscious. T
  
 +
Lacan emphasized the primacy of language as the mirror of the unconscious mind, and he tried to introduce the study of language (as practiced in modern linguistics, philosophy, and poetics) into psychoanalytic theory. His major achievement was his reinterpretation of Freud's work in terms of the structural linguistics developed by French writers in the second half of the 20th century.
  
  
−
The publication of his doctoral thesis, which dealt mainly with a woman patient suffering from a [[psychosis]] that led her to attempt to murder an actress (1932), won him the admiration of [[Breton]] and the [[surrealism|surrealist group]], with which he was birefly associated.
+
he central theme is that the growing child must give up the narcissistic stage of absorption in the mother, and becomes aware of loss and difference as it begins to take its place in a network of linguistic and social roles. The repressions involved in this procedure open up a world of insatiable desires.
  
−
[[Lacan]]'s writings are steeped in allusions to [[surrealism]], and it is probable that surrealist experiments with [[language]] and speculations about the relationship between forms of [[language]] and different psychical states had a long-term influence on his famous contention that the [[unconscious]] was structured like a [[language]].
 
  
−
His notion of the [[fragmented body]] is one of the clearest indications of his debt to [[surrealism]].
+
ORGANIZATION
 +
He founded and headed an organization called the Freudian School of Paris from 1964 until he disbanded it in 1980 for what he claimed was its failure to adhere with sufficient strictness to Freudian principles.
  
−
The association with surrealim is les surprising htna it might seem; the surrealists, to Freud's irration, wer much more sympathetic to his ideas than the French medical establishment.
 
  
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---
 
  
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[[Lacan]]s began his [[analysis]] with [[Rudolph Loewenstein]] in 1934, and was elected to the [[SPP]] in the same year.
 
  
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Ironically, [[Loewenstein]] was one of the pioneers of the [[ego-psychology]] that [[Lacan]] came to loathe so much.
+
SEMINARS, FAME - WORKS
 +
The influence he gained extended well beyond the field of psychoanalysis to make him one of the dominant figures in French cultural life during the 1970s. In his own psychoanalytic practice, Lacan was known for his unorthodox, and even eccentric, therapeutic methods.
  
−
[[Lacan]]'s first contribution to [[psychoanalysis]] was made in 1936, when he presented his paper on the [[mirror stage]] to the Marienbad Conference of the [[IPA]].
 
  
−
For reasons that have never been clearly explained, it has never been published; the version included in ''[[Écrits]]'' was written thirteen years latter (1949).
+
His influence rested on the series of seminars he gave at the univeristy of Paris from 1953 which decisively influenced French thought of the time.
  
−
In the late 1940s [[Lacan]] began to use the idea of the [[mirror stage]] to elaborate a theory of subjectivity that views the [[ego]] a a largely [[imaginary]] construct based upon an [[alienation|alienating]] [[identification]] with the mirror-image of the [[subject]].
+
he reached prominence only after he began conducting regular seminars at the University of Paris in 1953. He acquired celebrity status in France after the publication of his essays and lectures in Écrits (1966; Eng. trans. The Language of the Self: The Function of Language in Psychoanalysis).
  
−
At the [[intersubjective]] level, the [[subject]] is dran at a very early age into a [[dialectic]] of [[identification]] with an [[aggression]] towards the [[Other]].
+
Lacan's work is notoriously obscure, repeating the same shifting nature of dreams and, presumably, the unconscious; like that of Derrida after him it is also replete with wordplays, puns, and reason-defying leaps. His lectures, in transcript, are collected in the two-volume Écrits (1966, 1971, trs. under the same title, 1977).
  
−
Originally based upon the findings of child psychology and primate ethology (from which [[Lacan]] adopts th thesis that a child, unlike a young chimpanzee, recognizes its own image in a mirror), the theory of subjectivity is subsequently recast in terms of a [[dialectic]] of [[desire]].
+
A number of [[Lacan]]'s articles and lectures are collects in Écrits (1966).
  
−
The influence of [[Kojève]]'s seminar on [[Hegel]]'s ''[[Phenomenology of Spirit]]'' (1947) is crucial here; [[Lacan]] was an assiduous attender, and all his numerous allusions to [[Hegel]] should in fact be read as allusions to [[Kojève]].
 
  
  
−
---
 
  
  
−
The paper of [[language]] and [[speech]] in [[psychoanalysis]] (1953) read to the founding congress of the [[SFP]] in Rome in 1953 (and therefore often referred to as the "Rome Discourse") is the first great manifesto of [[Lacanian psychoanalysis]].
 
  
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[[Lacan]] calls for a "[[return to Freud]]," stressing the pressing need to read [[Freud]] in detail (and preferably in German) and enouncing the dominant tendencies within contemporary [[psychoanalysis]] ([[ego-psychology]], [[Kleinian psychoanalysis]] and [[object-relations theory]]) as so many forms of revisionism.
 
  
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At the same time he elaborates an immensely broad synthetic vision in which [[psychoanalysis]] appropriates the findings of [[philosophy]] (notably [[Kojève]] and [[Heidegger]]), the [[structuralism|structural]] [[anthropology]] of [[Lèvi-Strauss]] and the [[linguistics]] of [[Saussure]].
 
  
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This vision is consistent with the thesis that [[psychoanalysis]] is indeed a "[[talking cure]]", with [[speech]] and [[language]] as its only media, but it also allows [[Lacan]] to devlop a universalist theory of the origins of human subjectivity.
 
  
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[[Lèvi-Strauss]]'s accounts of the non-conscious structures of kinship and alliance, and of the crucial transition from [[nature]] to [[culture]], allow [[Lacan]] to describe the [[Oedipus complex]] as a structural moment that integrates the [[child]] into a preexisting [[symbolic order]] by obliging it to recognize the [[Name-of-the-Father]] and to abandon its claim to being the sole object of the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] ([[phallus]]).
 
  
−
---
 
  
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Although the 1953 paper abounds in reference to [[language]] and [[linguistics]], it is only in his paper on the aency of the letter (1957) that [[Lacan]] truly begins to explore and appropriate the legacy of [[Saussure]].
 
  
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At the same time he also relies heavily on [[Jakobson]]'s work of [[phoneme]] analysis and on [[metaphor]]/[[metonymy]], which are likened to the mechanisms of [[condensation]] and [[displacement]].
 
  
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[[Language]] is now defined as a [[synchronic]] system of [[sign]]s which generate meaning through their interaction; meaning insists in and throuhg a [[chain]] of [[signifier]]s, and does not reside in nay one element.
 
  
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The structural isomorphism between the workings of [[language]] and the [[unconscious]] mechanisms of [[dream-work]] allows [[Lacan]] to conclude that the [[unconscious]] is structured like a [[language]].
 
  
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For [[Lacan]] there is never any direct correspondence between [[signifier]] and [[signified]], and meaning is therefore always in danger of sliding of [[slip]]ping out of control.
 
  
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An element of stability is, he argues, provided by privileged signifiers such as the [[phallus]] and the [[Name-of-the-Father]], and it is this claim that exposes him to [[Derrida]]'s accusations of [[logocentrism]] and [[phallogocentrism]].
+
==Theory==
 +
[[Lacan]]'s [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]] has transformed [[psychoanalysis]], both as a '''theory''' and as a '''practice'''.
  
−
--
+
In the 1950s, [[Lacan]] emphasized the role of [[language]] (and the [[symbolic order]]) in [[psychoanalysis]] and formulated his most important thesis: that ''the unconscious is structured like a language''.
  
−
[[Lacan]]'s early use of [[linguistics]] anticipates a distinctive feature of his later work in that he makes use of quasi-mathematical formulae to illustrate the workings of [[metaphor]] and [[metonymy]].
+
(This was an extraordinarily innovative period for Lacan and he introduced many of the concepts that would preoccupy him for the rest of his career.)
  
−
The initial formulae are no doubt little more than pedagogic devises, but they gradually develop into a so-called [[Lacanian]] [[algebra]] and a set of [[amthemes]] designed to ensure that [[psychoanalytic theory]] can be subjected to a [[formalization]] and to guarantee its integral transmission.
+
[[Lacan]] drew on a field of study known as '''[[Structuralism]]''' and on '''[[linguistics|linguistic theory]]'''.
  
 +
[[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]'s ''elementary [[structure]] of kinship'' provided the basis for [[Lacan]]'s conception of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] and the formation of the [[unconscious]].
  
−
==Works==
+
[[Lévi-Strauss]]'s [[structuralism|structural anthropology]] was facilitated by the work of the Swiss [[linguistics|linguist]] [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] (1857-1913) and it was through [[Lévi-Strauss]] that [[Lacan]] began to read [[linguistics]].
  
−
[[Lacan]] offered his most significant contributions through his [[seminar]] lectures.
+
In the process he made radical and far-reaching changes to [[Saussure]]'s concept of the [[linguistics|linguistic]] [[sign]], completely reversing any conventional understanding of the relationship between the [[speech|speaking]] [[subject]] and [[language]].  
  
−
[[Lacan]]'s most important papers are collected in his ''[[Écrits]]'' (1966); fewer than one-third of them are included in the English ''[[Écrits: A Selection]]'' (1977).
+
Finally, we will look at the Russian [[linguistics|linguist]] [[Roman Jakobson]]'s (1896-1982) work on [[metaphor]] and [[metonymy]], as this was crucially important for [[Lacan]]'s conceptualization of [[desire]].  
  
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Until the publication of ''[[Écrits]]'', the main vector for the dissemination of his ideas was the weekly [[seminar] that began in 1953 and continued until shortly before his death. (confused over a period of more than two decades)
+
[[Lacan]]'s conception of the [[subject]] as constituted in and through [[language]].  
  
−
Editted transcripts of the [[seminar]] began to be published during his lifetime, and twenty-six volumes re planned.
 
  
  
  
  
 +
------------
 +
Further information about [[{{PAGENAME}}]] can be found below:
 +
* {{Z}} ''[[Looking Awry|Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture]]''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.  pp. 5–6, 21, 28–29, 33–39, 65, 75, 88, 90–91, 95–96, 98, 103, 108–110, 118–119, 125–126, 128–132, 135–139, 151–153, 158, 161–169
  
  
−
==Career==
 
  
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Lacan's career was dogged by controversy and regularly punctuated by conflicts with the psychoanalytic establishment, most of them focusing on his refusal to follow the conventions of the 'analytic hour' and his insistence on using short sessions of varying length during training analyses.
 
  
  
−
In 1953 [[Lacan]] and others resigned from the [[Société Psychanalytique de Paris]] [[Société Parisienne de Psychanalyse]] ([[SPP]]) to found the [[Société Française de Psychanalyse|Société Psychanalytique de France]] [[Société Française de Psychanalyse]] ([[SFP]]).
 
  
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[[Lacan]]'s continued use of short sessions ensured that the latter was never recognized as a competent society by the [[International Psycho-Analytical Association]] ([[IPA]]).
 
  
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In 1963, similar issues led to a split in the new association and to the foundation of the [[École Freudienne de Paris]] (Psychoanalytic School of Paris), which was unilaterally dissolved by [[Lacan]] himself in 1980.
+
[[Image:Board.jpg]]
 +
[[Image:Lacan3.gif]]
 +
[[Image:Lacan_4.jpg]]
  
  
−
[[Lacan]] considered his work to be an authentic "[[return to Freud]]" -- in opposition to [[ego-psychology]].
+
One of the most important -- and most controversial -- figures in the history of [[psychoanalysis]], [[Lacan]] is also acknowledged for his influence across a broad range of disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, from the field of cultural studies, literary and film criticism, to the field of social and political theory, women and gender studies, and philosophy.
  
−
This entailed a renewed concentration upon the Freudian concepts of the unconscious, the castration complex, the ego conceptualised as a mosaic of identifications, and the centrality of language to any psychoanalytic work.
+
* [[Psychoanalytic criticism|Literary theory]]
−
 
+
* [[Film theory]]
−
His work has a strong interdisciplinary focus, drawing particularly on linguistics, philosophy, and mathematics, and he has become an important figure in many fields beyond psychoanalysis, particularly within critical theory.
+
* [[Feminist theory]]
−
 
 
−
Lacan argued that this conflict could not be resolved—the ego could not be “healed”—and pointed out that the true intention of psychoanalysis was analysis and not cure.
 
−
 
 
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His collection of papers, Ecrits (1966, tr. 1977), though notoriously difficult reading, has been influential in linguistics, film theory, and literary criticism.
 
−
 
 
−
1901-81), French psychoanalyst. After receiving a medical degree, he became a psychoanalyst in Paris. Lacan was infamous for his unorthodox methods of treatment, such as the truncated therapy session, which often lasted only several minutes. A staunch critic of modern (particularly American) revisions of psychoanalytic theory, Lacan supported the traditional model of psychoanalysis espoused by Sigmund Freud. He argued that contemporary psychoanalytic theories had strayed too far from their roots in Freudian psychoanalysis, which held that there was constant conflict between the ego and the unconscious mind. Lacan argued that this conflict could not be resolved-the ego could not be "healed"-and pointed out that the true intention of psychoanalysis was analysis and not cure. His influential collection of papers, Ecrits (1966, trans. 1977), though notoriously difficult reading, has been highly influential in disciplines such as linguistics, film theory, and literary criticism.
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
==Bibliography==
 
−
Selected works published in English listed below. More complete listings can be found at [http://www.lacan.com/bibliographies.htm Lacan Dot Com] or [http://www.hydra.umn.edu/lacan/gaze.html Peter Krapp's]
 
−
* ''[[The Language of the Self: The Function of Language in Psychoanalysis]]''*, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968
 
−
* ''[[Écrits: A Selection]]''*, transl. by Alan Sheridan, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1977, and revised version, 2002, transl. by Bruce Fink
 
−
* ''[[Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English]]'', transl. by Bruce Fink in collaboration with Héloïse Fink and Russell Grigg, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006
 
−
* ''[[The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis]]''
 
−
* ''[[The Seminar, Book I. Freud's Papers on Technique, 1953-1954]]'',, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by J. Forrester, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1988
 
−
* ''[[The Seminar, Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-1955]]'', edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Sylvana Tomaselli, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1988.
 
−
* ''[[The Seminar, Book III. The Psychoses]]'', edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Russell Grigg, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1993.
 
−
* ''[[The Seminar, Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-1960]]'', edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Dennis Porter, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1992.
 
−
*''[[The Seminar XI, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis]]'', edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Alan Sheridan, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1977.
 
−
*''[[The Seminar XX, Encore: On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge]]'', edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Bruce Fink, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1998.
 
−
*''[[Television: A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment]]'', ed. Joan Copjec, trans. Jeffrey Mehlman, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1990.
 
−
<nowiki>*</nowiki>referenced above
 
−
 
 
−
Works about Lacan's Work and Theory
 
−
* [[Alain Badiou]], "The Formulas of L'Etourdit" (New York: Lacanian Ink 27, 2006.)
 
−
* —————, [http://www.lacan.com/badpre.htm "Lacan and the Pre-Socratics"], Lacan Dot Com, 2006.
 
−
* Benvenuto, Bice; Kennedy, Roger, ''The Works of Jacques Lacan'' (London, 1986, Free Association Books.)
 
−
* Malcolm Bowie, ''Lacan'' (London: Fontana, 1991). (An introduction.)
 
−
* Dor, Joel, ''The Clinical Lacan''  (New York: Other Press, 1999)
 
−
* Dor, Joel, ''Introduction to the Reading of Lacan: The Unconscious Structured Like a Language'' (New York: Other Press, 2001)
 
−
* Elliott, Anthony and Frosh, Stephen (eds.), ''Psychoanalysis in Contexts: Paths between Theory and Modern Culture'' (London and New York: Routledge, 1995). (A recent overview.)
 
−
* Dylan Evans, ''An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis'', Routledge, 1996.
 
−
* Fink, Bruce, ''The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
 
−
* Bruce Fink, ''Lacan to the Letter: Reading Ecrits Closely'', University of Minnesoty, 2004.
 
−
* Forrester, John, ''Language and the Origins of Psychoanalysis'' (Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1985).
 
−
* Fryer, David Ross, ''The Intervention of the Other: Ethical Subjectivity in Levinas and Lacan'' (New York: Other Press, 2004)
 
−
* [[Jane Gallop]], ''Reading Lacan''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.
 
−
* —————, ''The Daughter's Seduction: Feminism and Psychoanalysis''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.
 
−
* Gherovici, Patricia, ''The Puerto Rican Syndrome'' (New York: Other Press, 2003)
 
−
* Harari, Roberto, ''Lacan's Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis: An Introduction'' (New York: Other Press, 2004)
 
−
* ------, ''Lacan's Seminar on "Anxiety": An Introduction'' (New York: Other Press, 2005)
 
−
* Lander, Romulo, ''Subjective Experience and the Logic of the Other'' (New York: Other Press, 2006)
 
−
* Leupin, Alexandre, ''Lacan Today'' (New York: Other Press, 2004)
 
−
* Mathelin, Catherine, ''Lacanian Psychotherpay with Children: The Broken Piano'' (New York: Other Press, 1999)
 
−
* McGowan, Todd and Kunkle, Sheila, Eds., ''Lacan and Contemporary Film'' (New York: Other Press, 2004)
 
−
* [[Jacques-Alain Miller]], "Introduction to Reading Jacques Lacan's Seminar on Anxiety I " (New York: Lacanian Ink 26, 2005.)
 
−
* —————, "Introduction to Reading Jacques Lacan's Seminar on Anxiety II" (New York: Lacanian Ink 27, 2006.)
 
−
* —————, "Jacques Lacan's Later Teachings" (New York: Lacanian Ink 21, 2003.)
 
−
* —————, "The Paradigms of Jouissance" (New York, Lacanian Ink 17, 2000.)
 
−
* Moustafa, Safouan, ''Four Lessons of Psychoanalysis'' (New York: Other Press, 2004)
 
−
* Rabaté, Jean-Michel (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Lacan'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
 
−
* Sherry Turkle, ''Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution'', 2nd edition, Guildford Press, New York, 1992
 
−
* ————— and Wollheim, Richard, ‘Lacan: an exchange’, ''New York Review of Books'', 26 (9), 1979, p. 44.
 
−
* Soler, Colette, ''What Lacan Said About Women'' (New York: Other Press, 2006)
 
−
* Van Haute, Philippe, ''Against Adaptation: Lacan's "Subversion" of the Subject'' (New York: Other Press, 2002)
 
−
* ------ ''Confusion of Tongues: The Primacy of Sexuality in Freud, Ferenczi, and Laplanche'' (New York: Other Press, 2004)
 
−
* [[Anthony Wilden|Wilden, Anthony]], ‘Jacques Lacan: A partial bibliography’, ''Yale French Studies'', 36/37, 1966, pp. 263–268.
 
−
* [[Slavoj Žižek]], [http://www.lacan.com/zizwoman.htm "Woman is One of the Names-of-the-Father, or how Not to misread Lacan´s formulas of sexuation"], Lacan Dot Com, 2005.
 
−
* —————, ‘The object as a limit of discourse: approaches to the Lacanian real’, ''Prose Studies'', 11 (3), 1988, pp. 94–120.
 
−
* —————, ''Interrogating the Real'', ed. Rex Butler and Scott Stephens (London and New York: Continuum, 2005).
 
−
* —————, "Jacques Lacan as Reader of Hegel" (New York: Lacanian Ink 27, 2006.)
 

Latest revision as of 06:32, 2 October 2006








Lacan earned a medical degree in 1932 and was a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Paris for much of his career.


IDEAS

LANGUAGE notable poststructuralist, he reinterpreted Freudian psychoanalysis, esp. the theory of the unconscious, in the light of structural linguistics and anthropology.

He reinterpreted Freudian psychoanalysis in the light of structural linguistics and anthropology; he saw the unconscious as developing simultaneously with language.

Lacan carried out influential work in reinterpretating Freudian psychoanalysis in light of developments in structural linguistics and anthropology.

His endeavour was to reinterpret Freud in the light of the structural approach to linguistics inaugurated by Saussure.


Language becomes a manifestation of the structures present in the unconscious. T

Lacan emphasized the primacy of language as the mirror of the unconscious mind, and he tried to introduce the study of language (as practiced in modern linguistics, philosophy, and poetics) into psychoanalytic theory. His major achievement was his reinterpretation of Freud's work in terms of the structural linguistics developed by French writers in the second half of the 20th century.


he central theme is that the growing child must give up the narcissistic stage of absorption in the mother, and becomes aware of loss and difference as it begins to take its place in a network of linguistic and social roles. The repressions involved in this procedure open up a world of insatiable desires.


ORGANIZATION 

He founded and headed an organization called the Freudian School of Paris from 1964 until he disbanded it in 1980 for what he claimed was its failure to adhere with sufficient strictness to Freudian principles.



SEMINARS, FAME - WORKS The influence he gained extended well beyond the field of psychoanalysis to make him one of the dominant figures in French cultural life during the 1970s. In his own psychoanalytic practice, Lacan was known for his unorthodox, and even eccentric, therapeutic methods.


His influence rested on the series of seminars he gave at the univeristy of Paris from 1953 which decisively influenced French thought of the time.

he reached prominence only after he began conducting regular seminars at the University of Paris in 1953. He acquired celebrity status in France after the publication of his essays and lectures in Écrits (1966; Eng. trans. The Language of the Self: The Function of Language in Psychoanalysis).

Lacan's work is notoriously obscure, repeating the same shifting nature of dreams and, presumably, the unconscious; like that of Derrida after him it is also replete with wordplays, puns, and reason-defying leaps. His lectures, in transcript, are collected in the two-volume Écrits (1966, 1971, trs. under the same title, 1977).

A number of Lacan's articles and lectures are collects in Écrits (1966).









Theory

Lacan's work has transformed psychoanalysis, both as a theory and as a practice.

In the 1950s, Lacan emphasized the role of language (and the symbolic order) in psychoanalysis and formulated his most important thesis: that the unconscious is structured like a language.

(This was an extraordinarily innovative period for Lacan and he introduced many of the concepts that would preoccupy him for the rest of his career.)

Lacan drew on a field of study known as Structuralism and on linguistic theory.

Claude Lévi-Strauss's elementary structure of kinship provided the basis for Lacan's conception of the symbolic order and the formation of the unconscious.

Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology was facilitated by the work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and it was through Lévi-Strauss that Lacan began to read linguistics.

In the process he made radical and far-reaching changes to Saussure's concept of the linguistic sign, completely reversing any conventional understanding of the relationship between the speaking subject and language.

Finally, we will look at the Russian linguist Roman Jakobson's (1896-1982) work on metaphor and metonymy, as this was crucially important for Lacan's conceptualization of desire.

Lacan's conception of the subject as constituted in and through language.



Further information about Jacques Lacan can be found below:




Board.jpg Lacan3.gif Lacan 4.jpg


One of the most important -- and most controversial -- figures in the history of psychoanalysis, Lacan is also acknowledged for his influence across a broad range of disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, from the field of cultural studies, literary and film criticism, to the field of social and political theory, women and gender studies, and philosophy.

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