The Lacanian Approach
Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) profoundly renewed psychoanalysis by performing a 'return to Freud' through the lens of structural linguistics, philosophy and mathematics. His concepts — the unconscious structured like a language, the three registers (Real, Symbolic, Imaginary), objet petit a, the mirror stage and sexuation formulas — transformed analytic practice and exerted considerable influence on humanities, philosophy and contemporary arts.
Return to Freud
Jacques Lacan, French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, undertook a radical rereading of Freud using tools from Saussure's structural linguistics, LĂ©vi-Strauss's structural anthropology, Hegel's dialectics, Heidegger's phenomenology and mathematics (topology, knot theory). His teaching, delivered through famous 'seminars' (1953-1980), is renowned for its difficulty.
The Unconscious Is Structured Like a Language
Lacan's central axiom: 'the unconscious is structured like a language'. Unconscious formations obey language's laws: metaphor (Freud's condensation) and metonymy (Freud's displacement). The human subject is fundamentally a 'speaking being' (parlĂŞtre), constituted by language before birth.
Real, Symbolic, Imaginary (RSI)
- Imaginary: the register of image, identification, ego, specular fascination.
- Symbolic: the register of language, law, difference, culture — the Other.
- Real: what escapes image and language — the impossible, the traumatic kernel, raw jouissance.
The Mirror Stage
The child (6-18 months) recognizes their image in the mirror and jubilates. This identification with a unified self-image founds the ego — but is also a fundamental alienation: the ego is an imaginary construction.
Objet Petit a
Lacan's most original concept: the object-cause of desire — not the desired object itself but what in the object causes desire. Objet a is essentially ungraspable: it is lack itself.
Lacanian Practice
- Variable-length sessions: the analyst interrupts at the 'logical' moment when a key signifier emerges.
- Punctuation: the analyst intervenes sparingly but sharply, punctuating the patient's discourse.
- The analyst's desire: the analyst occupies the place of objet a — cause of the patient's desire.
Disclaimer
This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Lacanian psychoanalysis should be practised by trained analysts.