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[[Image:Lacan-TV.gif|thumb|right]]
[[Jacques-Marie Émile Lacan]] (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a [[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]] considered his work to be an authentic "[[return to Freud]]" -- in opposition to [[ego-psychology]].
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.
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.
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 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.
