by Mickaël Peoc’h | Vol 43 (1/2) 2025
Abstract: In 1958, Lacan considered that the end of Schreber’s delusion revealed the lines of efficacy of an ‘elegant solution’. Although it is relatively common in Lacanian psychoanalysis to use the term ‘subjective solution’, Lacan’s original proposal has been little developed. Yet it is an interesting approach for the clinical treatment of psychotic subjects, given the contributions of sinthome theory and, more recently, work on ordinary psychosis. Based on the symptoms of ordinary psychosis, Jacques-Alain Miller evokes three clinical signs: bodily, social and subjective externalities, which also correspond to the symptoms of extraordinary psychosis. Taking these hypotheses into account, it is possible to envisage (self-)therapeutic solutions that approach symptomatology from the angle of invention rather than deficit, as Freud did with Schreber’s delusions. In this way, we emphasize the dynamic nature of clinical work with psychotic subjects, insofar as it bears witness to the various subjective elaborations that the psychoanalyst can support in refining the symptom.
by Theofilo Moreira Barreto de Oliveira | Vol 38 (1) 2020
This article studies some of the reasons behind Walter Benjamin and Sigmund Freud’s use of psychoactive substances. Based on their documented personal experiences, I will argue that these two thinkers do not only share “the active principle”, but they also agree in what they discover at the end of the “journey”: language as an instrument for expanding perception of reality.
by Nikolay Mintchev | Vol 33 (3) 2015
This article provides a theoretical clarification of “the symbolic” in Kleinian and Lacanian psychoanalysis and argues for further conceptual research into its implications for psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. What is striking about the Kleinian and Lacanian models is that they are diametrically opposed in the way they conceptualize the subject’s development of the capacity to form symbols: while for Klein the experience of concrete objects exists from the very beginning of life and the symbol is a product of “object-relating”, for Lacan, on the contrary, the experience of objects is an effect of the symbolic order. In Klein we start with the object/object-relation and work through different stages of symbolism eventually ending up with language, so that linguistic thought develops from the experience of the primal object. In Lacan, on the other hand, integration into the world of language produces lack/absence, which, in turn, is the necessary condition for conceptualizing objects: the experience of objects develops as an effect of language/symbolization. The article begins with an account of Freud’s two main theories of the symbolic – one based on images, the other on language or “word-presentations” – and traces the Klein-Lacan divergence to this theoretical duality. It then argues that a Klein-Lacan dialogue on the symbolic can open new directions for theoretical development by examining how different theories can accurately correspond to empirical observations of psychic functioning, as well as effective clinical interventions.
by Lode Lauwaert | Vol 33 (1) 2015
In the middle of the last century, numerous French thinkers were interested in the literary works of D.A.F. de Sade, among them Lacan and Blanchot. Blanchot saw Sade as the ideal writer and this author argues that Blanchot’s assertion was based on a conceptualisation of Sade’s literature as revealing both the materiality and the autonomy of language. According to Blanchot, Sade’s language balances on a border: between the things to which language refers on the one hand, and the content that is normally expressed by language on the other. It is further argued that this balancing act is also reflected in the regime of Terror in France, and the universe described by the Marquis in his writings.
by Karen Deneckere | Full text, Vol 24 (2) 2006
This paper concerns a clinical fragment from the analysis of a four year old child. Several topics relevant for child analysis are addressed. We learn that a child who had abruptly decided to be silent, through the particularity of the transference bond, is once again enough at ease to tell his story. Symbolic exchange, together with the answer of the Other as mirror of language, allows the boy access to the oedipal constellation and allows him to reorient himself psychically. Through a process of drawing, of signifying, being signified, and of writing, we get a glimpse of the significance of language for the Oedipal structuration process.
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