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treatment (cure) The term 'treatment' designates the practice of
PSYCHOANALYSis as opposed to the theory of psychoanalysis. Although the
term was inherited by psychoanalysis from medicine, it has acquired a
specific meaning in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory which is quite different
from the way it is understood in medicine. In particular, the aim of psycho-
analytic treatment is not seen by Lacan as 'healing' or 'curing' people in the
sense of producing a perfectly healthy psyche. The clinical structures of
neurosis, psychosis and perversion are seen as essentially 'incurable', and
the aim of analytic treatment is simply to lead the analysand to articulate his
truth.
Lacan argues that the treatment is a process with a definite direction, a
structural progression with a beginning, middle and end (see END OF ANALYSIS).
The beginning, or 'point of entry into the analytic situation', is a contract, or
'pact', between analyst and analysand which includes the analysand's agree-
ment to abide by the fundamental rule. Following the initial consultation, a
series of face-to-face preliminary interviews take place. These preliminary
interviews have several aims. Firstly, they enable a properly psychoanalytic
symptom to be constituted in place of the vague collection of complaints often
brought by the patient. Secondly, they allow time for the transference to
develop. Thirdly, they permit the analyst to ascertain whether or not there is
really a demand for psychoanalysis, and also to hypothesise about the clinical
structure of the analysand.
After the preliminary interviews, the treatment is no longer conducted face
to face, but with the analysand reclining on a couch while the analyst sits
behind him, out of the analysand's field of vision (the couch is not used in the
treatment of psychotic patients). As he free associates, the analysand works
through the signifiers that have determined him in his history, and is driven by
the very process of speech itself to articulate something of his desire. This is a
dynamic process which involves a conflict between a force which drives the
treatment on (see TRANSFERENCE, DESIRE OF THE ANALYST) and an opposing force
which blocks the process (see RESISTANCE). The analyst's task is to direct this
process (not to direct the patient), and to get the process going again when it
gets stuck.
PSYCHOANALYSis as opposed to the theory of psychoanalysis. Although the
term was inherited by psychoanalysis from medicine, it has acquired a
specific meaning in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory which is quite different
from the way it is understood in medicine. In particular, the aim of psycho-
analytic treatment is not seen by Lacan as 'healing' or 'curing' people in the
sense of producing a perfectly healthy psyche. The clinical structures of
neurosis, psychosis and perversion are seen as essentially 'incurable', and
the aim of analytic treatment is simply to lead the analysand to articulate his
truth.
Lacan argues that the treatment is a process with a definite direction, a
structural progression with a beginning, middle and end (see END OF ANALYSIS).
The beginning, or 'point of entry into the analytic situation', is a contract, or
'pact', between analyst and analysand which includes the analysand's agree-
ment to abide by the fundamental rule. Following the initial consultation, a
series of face-to-face preliminary interviews take place. These preliminary
interviews have several aims. Firstly, they enable a properly psychoanalytic
symptom to be constituted in place of the vague collection of complaints often
brought by the patient. Secondly, they allow time for the transference to
develop. Thirdly, they permit the analyst to ascertain whether or not there is
really a demand for psychoanalysis, and also to hypothesise about the clinical
structure of the analysand.
After the preliminary interviews, the treatment is no longer conducted face
to face, but with the analysand reclining on a couch while the analyst sits
behind him, out of the analysand's field of vision (the couch is not used in the
treatment of psychotic patients). As he free associates, the analysand works
through the signifiers that have determined him in his history, and is driven by
the very process of speech itself to articulate something of his desire. This is a
dynamic process which involves a conflict between a force which drives the
treatment on (see TRANSFERENCE, DESIRE OF THE ANALYST) and an opposing force
which blocks the process (see RESISTANCE). The analyst's task is to direct this
process (not to direct the patient), and to get the process going again when it
gets stuck.
