THE FRONTIERS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE PSYCHOANALYSIS OF J. LACAN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/upj/2025-3-2-5Keywords:
affect, Lacan, structural psychoanalysis, neuropsychoanalysis, unconscious, discourse, signifier, topologyAbstract
The controversial nature of the concept of the unconscious has generated numerous antinomic problems within psychoanalytic practice, necessitating its comprehensive reinterpretation. This article offers a theoretical reassessment of both the «classical» Freudian-Lacanian perspectives on the unconscious and the views of other contemporary authors within psychoanalytic and philosophical discourses (H.-D. Nasio, R. Jakobson, E. Sapir, J. Rancière, A. Badiou). Drawing on the linguistic theory of the signifier, the unconscious is conceptualized as a global macro-cultural entity that transcends the determinants of the psychoanalytic setting (i.e., mechanisms of transference and the «consulting room»/«cabinet» act). According to the framework presented in the article, the instance of repression can be explored without directly involving a specific subject in the analyst’s discourse. It is stripped of the phenomenology of reactivity on the part of the analysand and is instead linked to the general circulation of the «material» of the unconscious subject (signifiers) within the cultural space. The study argues that the emergence of the unconscious as a «rupture» is engendered by a specific psychic act of the subject, which is associated with a particular Desire and aimed at clarifying the ontological lack within the Symbolic order. To illustrate the processes of differentiation and interpenetration between psychoanalytic and broader social domains, the article employs principles of topological thinking related to the geometric object of the projective plane. Specifically, the positions of «extrinsic» (the egoic, mirror-level view of the signifier as a sign) and «intrinsic» (penetration into speech as lalangue and the analysis of Umwelt texts as intersections of chains of signification) represent two poles of the psychoanalytically attuned subject’s relationship with the «desire of S. Freud».
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