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[[Lacan]]'s works abound in references to the famous phrase by [[Descartes]], ''cogito ergo sum'' ("I think, therefore I am").<ref>1637: 54</ref>
This phrase (which [[Lacan]] often refers to simply as 'the ''[[cogito]]''') comes to stand, in [[Lacan]]'s work, for [[Descartes]]'s entire [[philosophy]].
[[Lacan]]'s attitude to [[Cartesian]]ism is extremely complex, and only a few of the most important points can be summarised here.
1. On one level, the ''[[cogito]]'' comes to stand for the modern western concept of the [[Ego]], based as it is on the notions of the self-sufficiency and self-[[transparency]] of [[consciousness]], and the [[autonomy]] of the [[ego]].<ref>{{E}} p.6</ref>
Although [[Lacan]] does not believe that the modern western concept of the [[ego]] was invented by [[Descartes]] or by any other [[individual]], he argues that it was born in the same era in which [[Descartes]] was writing (the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth century), and is particularly clearly expressed by [[Descartes]].<ref>{{See S2, 6-7</ref>
Thus, although this concept of the [[ego]] seems so natural and eternal to western man today, it is in fact a relatively recent cultural construct; its eternal-natural appearance is in fact an [[illusion]] produced by retroaction.<ref>{{S2}} p.4-5</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that the experience of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is an experience that leads us to oppose any [[philosophy]] directly issuing from the ''[[Cogito]]''.<ref>{{E}} p.1; {{S2}} p.4</ref>
[[Freud]]'s discovery of the [[unconscious]] subverts the [[Cartesian]] concept of [[subjectivity]] because it disputes the [[Cartesian]] equation [[subject]] = [[ego]] = [[consciousness]].
One of [[Lacan]]'s main criticisms of [[ego-psychology]] and [[object-relations theory]] is that these [[school]]s betrayed [[Freud]]'s discovery by returning to the pre-[[Freud]]ian concept of the [[subject]] as an [[autonomous ego]].<ref>{{S2}} p.l1</ref>
2. On another level, [[Lacan]]'s views can be seen not only as a subversion of the ''[[cogito]]'', but also as an extension of it, for the ''[[cogito]]'' not only encapsulates the false equation [[subject]] = [[ego]] = [[consciousness]] which [[Lacan]] opposes, but also focuses attention on the concept of the [[subject]], which [[Lacan]] wishes to retain.
Thus the ''[[cogito]]'' contains within itself the seeds of its own subversion, by putting forward a concept of [[subjectivity]] which undermines the modern concept of the [[ego]].
This concept of [[subjectivity]] refers to what [[Lacan]] calls "the subject of science": a [[subject]] who is denied all intuitive access to [[knowledge]] and is thus left with reason as the only path to [[knowledge]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.831; {{Ec}} p.858</ref>
By opposing the [[subject]] to the [[ego]], [[Lacan]] proposes that the [[subject]] of the [[Cartesian]] ''[[cogito]]'' is in fact one and the same as the [[subject]] of the [[unconscious]].
[[Psychoanalysis]] can thus operate with a [[Cartesian]] method, advancing from [[doubt]] to [[certainty]], with the crucial difference that it does not start from the statement "I think" but from the affirmation "it thinks."<ref>{{Sll}} p.35-6</ref>
[[Lacan]] rewrites [[Descartes]]'s phrase in various ways, such as "I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think."<ref>{{E}} p.166</ref>
[[Lacan]] also uses the ''[[cogito]]'' to distinguish between the [[subject]] of the [[statement]] and the [[subject]] of the [[enunciation]].<ref>{{Sll}} p.138-42; see {{Sl7}} p.180-4</ref>
==See Also==
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
{{Les termes}}
This phrase (which [[Lacan]] often refers to simply as 'the ''[[cogito]]''') comes to stand, in [[Lacan]]'s work, for [[Descartes]]'s entire [[philosophy]].
[[Lacan]]'s attitude to [[Cartesian]]ism is extremely complex, and only a few of the most important points can be summarised here.
1. On one level, the ''[[cogito]]'' comes to stand for the modern western concept of the [[Ego]], based as it is on the notions of the self-sufficiency and self-[[transparency]] of [[consciousness]], and the [[autonomy]] of the [[ego]].<ref>{{E}} p.6</ref>
Although [[Lacan]] does not believe that the modern western concept of the [[ego]] was invented by [[Descartes]] or by any other [[individual]], he argues that it was born in the same era in which [[Descartes]] was writing (the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth century), and is particularly clearly expressed by [[Descartes]].<ref>{{See S2, 6-7</ref>
Thus, although this concept of the [[ego]] seems so natural and eternal to western man today, it is in fact a relatively recent cultural construct; its eternal-natural appearance is in fact an [[illusion]] produced by retroaction.<ref>{{S2}} p.4-5</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that the experience of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is an experience that leads us to oppose any [[philosophy]] directly issuing from the ''[[Cogito]]''.<ref>{{E}} p.1; {{S2}} p.4</ref>
[[Freud]]'s discovery of the [[unconscious]] subverts the [[Cartesian]] concept of [[subjectivity]] because it disputes the [[Cartesian]] equation [[subject]] = [[ego]] = [[consciousness]].
One of [[Lacan]]'s main criticisms of [[ego-psychology]] and [[object-relations theory]] is that these [[school]]s betrayed [[Freud]]'s discovery by returning to the pre-[[Freud]]ian concept of the [[subject]] as an [[autonomous ego]].<ref>{{S2}} p.l1</ref>
2. On another level, [[Lacan]]'s views can be seen not only as a subversion of the ''[[cogito]]'', but also as an extension of it, for the ''[[cogito]]'' not only encapsulates the false equation [[subject]] = [[ego]] = [[consciousness]] which [[Lacan]] opposes, but also focuses attention on the concept of the [[subject]], which [[Lacan]] wishes to retain.
Thus the ''[[cogito]]'' contains within itself the seeds of its own subversion, by putting forward a concept of [[subjectivity]] which undermines the modern concept of the [[ego]].
This concept of [[subjectivity]] refers to what [[Lacan]] calls "the subject of science": a [[subject]] who is denied all intuitive access to [[knowledge]] and is thus left with reason as the only path to [[knowledge]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.831; {{Ec}} p.858</ref>
By opposing the [[subject]] to the [[ego]], [[Lacan]] proposes that the [[subject]] of the [[Cartesian]] ''[[cogito]]'' is in fact one and the same as the [[subject]] of the [[unconscious]].
[[Psychoanalysis]] can thus operate with a [[Cartesian]] method, advancing from [[doubt]] to [[certainty]], with the crucial difference that it does not start from the statement "I think" but from the affirmation "it thinks."<ref>{{Sll}} p.35-6</ref>
[[Lacan]] rewrites [[Descartes]]'s phrase in various ways, such as "I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think."<ref>{{E}} p.166</ref>
[[Lacan]] also uses the ''[[cogito]]'' to distinguish between the [[subject]] of the [[statement]] and the [[subject]] of the [[enunciation]].<ref>{{Sll}} p.138-42; see {{Sl7}} p.180-4</ref>
==See Also==
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
{{Les termes}}
