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Lacan for the Faint Hearted
Author(s) -
Skelton Ross
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1994.tb00674.x
Subject(s) - jargon , unconscious mind , psychoanalysis , rhetorical question , perspective (graphical) , hegelianism , marxist philosophy , psychology , philosophy , epistemology , literature , linguistics , politics , law , art , political science , visual arts
SUMMARY This paper introduces Lacan to the psychotherapist without using his jargon. He is shown as deeply influenced by the Russian Marxist Alexander Kojeve whose charismatic seminars on Hegel Lacan attended. This helps account for his ‘global’ perspective in which we are all determined by deep social structures or that ‘language speaks us’ . Lacan also noticed Freud's writings are shot through with almost hidden uses of Figures of Speech, and this becomes the central plank in his theory that our unconscious processes coincide with the rhetorical workings of language.