This module provides an introduction to the theory developed by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.
In his 'retour à Freud' during the 1950s, Lacan interpreted the Freudian concepts through the framework of Structuralism. He made links between psychoanalysis and other sciences such as linguistics, anthropology, literature and philosophy. Due to his innovative and interdisciplinary approach, his corpus of writings and seminars has a far-reaching and still growing influence on diverse fields such as mental health, psychology, political theory, philosophy, film theory, and literary criticism.
In this module, we focus on the Lacanian anthropology (what it is to be human) and the implications of his theory for how we can think about social relations. According to Lacan, the process in which an infant evolves into a human being cannot be described as an internal, mental development with a number of delineated phases. Rather, subjectivity emerges within a particular structure consisting in other people, language and law. The structure precedes the subject and determines the subject. What we consider to be our most intimate features, such as self-image, unconscious, desire and phantasy, are in fact constituted by something outside and beyond ourselves. We will investigate how Lacan reformulated the theory of the Oedipus complex by bringing to the fore the central role of the desire of the (m) other rather than the incestuous desire of the child. The resolution of the Oedipus complex is determined by the way the subject deals with the Other's desire.
Throughout these ten seminar weeks, we will develop the three registers of human existence: the Imaginary, Symbolic and Real order. In the final seminars, we will discuss the implications of these Lacanian concepts for the theory on social and sexual relations.