Who is Lacan?

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I've heard him mentioned a couple of times on this board, and still know nothing about him apart from the fact that he was a philosophical tank and that he wrote some off-the-rails psuedo-science weird shit about women naturally feeling incomplete because their genitals form inwards or something.

I've also seen Chomsky call him a 'delightful charlatan', but knowing that guy's ultra-moralistic outlook on things, I thought I'd delve a little further into the subject rather than take what he says for granted.

Was he a marxist? A philosopher? A psychologist? A nut job? :lol:

[o well this is ok I guess]

I don't think anyone here has read anything by Lacan. And, by what little of him I've read, it's probably for the best.

[jookyle]

I've read a bit by him. He's first and foremost a Freudian psychologist. He's kind of known for being the only person who added to psychoanalysis that Freud might have approved of. In some of his works in the late 60's he talks about some Maoist stuff. He personally considered himself a marxist but didn't do a whole lot publicly about it. Zizek is a devoted student of his.

[blake 3:17]

His big step was combining psychoanalysis with structural linguistics. I started taking him more seriously due to my interest in Deleuze and Guattari. Guattari was a student of his and worked with him in therapeutic settings.

For Marxists, the most important affect Lacan had was on Althusser who used Lacan`s way of re-reading Freud to re-read Marx.

Many of the English language versions of Lacan are apparently not very good, either in selection or translation.

As mentioned above Zizek is a Lacanian and there are some very interesting feminist and anarchist takes on him.

[cantwealljustgetalong]

what distinguishes Lacanian psychoanalysis from other Freudian forms? linguistic analysis?

[blake 3:17]

Probably his greatest contribution was to revive reading Freud's works themselves. What he is known for is not linguistic analysis -- which Freud did plenty of -- but his claim that the Unconsciousness was structured like a language.

I'm most interested in his notion of the three orders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan#The_three_orders

I have to admit I don't get them entirely, but the distinctions are interesting and are worth exploring. I am much more interested in Object Relations theory and the work of D.W. Winnicott, but that's because it has particular importance to my everyday activity than some of the ideas focused on other subjects.

In terms of therapy, Dialectial Behaviour Therapy seems much more fruitful than any orthodox psychoanalysis.

[Hiero]

For Marxists, the most important affect Lacan had was on Althusser who used Lacan`s way of re-reading Freud to re-read Marx.

The wikipedia article states: "With Lévi-Strauss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss) and Althusser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser)'s support, Lacan was appointed lecturer at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes". Which is interesting as three have influenced one another, you can get into Lacan through reading Levi-Strauss, which is my experience.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

The wikipedia article states: "With Lévi-Strauss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss) and Althusser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser)'s support, Lacan was appointed lecturer at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes". Which is interesting as three have influenced one another, you can get into Lacan through reading Levi-Strauss, which is my experience.

Awesome stuff, thanks!

Gee, and here I thought that Levi-Strauss was a Jeans designer!