The subject and the lie: from méconnaissance to mensonge

by | Vol 36 (4) 2018

In this paper the author discusses Lacan’s changing theory of the subject in the early texts of the Écrits and relates it to the notion of “the lie” in psychoanalysis. As Lacan’s view of the subject shifts form the Imaginary to the Symbolic, the source of man’s primordial discord and alienation shifts from being located in the relationship to the image to finding its source in the relationship to the signifier. We could qualify the shift from an imaginary to a symbolic subject theory as a shift from one kind of not wanting to know to another, as a shift from one kind of lie to another. We discuss this as a shift from méconnaissance in the Imaginary to mensonge in the Symbolic. We conclude with a few remarks on the notion of truth in psychoanalysis, the consequences for clinical practice and the role of the psychoanalyst, who is now redefined as a practitioner of the symbolic function.

Related articles

  • Reconstruction of the Symbiotic Origin of the Subject

    The article deals with the idea that the origin of the becoming of the subject is symbiotic. After a historical introduction, this concept is explored as well from a developmental as from a deferred perspective. The insurmountable problems arising during these considerations lead to the conclusion that there is no adequate proof to accept the hypothesis of the symbiosis.

  • The Logic of the Subject in Conflict with Involuntary Commitment

    Involuntary commitment and psychoanalysis: how can they be reconciled? Involuntary commitment marks something within the subject, just as a crisis does. Within the moment of a crisis, the overwhelming real is initially limited via a literal restriction of the freedom of movement. During the moment of crisis the subject often first makes a "failed" attempt to limit the overwhelming experience by way of an acting out or passage à l'acte. The subject is forced to do "something". Freedom, both that…

  • Pasolini's "Teorem": Psychoanalysis of a "New" Subject

    Pasolini describes himself as a "scandal of self-contradiction" (Pasolini, 1957). He brings a subject who assumes the radical split that runs through the subjective field. With his poetry of permanent dissidence he taunts power in which desire and her laws are inscribed. By postponing the exemplary symbolic suicide his subject manages to avoid the deadlock of turning a blind eye and alienation in the symbolic other. Terence Stamp embodies this subject in Teorem in the role of mysterious guest. Pasolini's…