Changes

{{Les termes}}==Jacques Lacan===="Cogito Ergo Sum"==[[Lacan]]'s works abound in references to the famous phrase by [[Descartes]], ''cogito ergo sum'' ("I [[think]], therefore I am"). 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.

Lacan's works abound in references to the famous phrase by Descartes, cogito ergo sum ('I think, therefore I am' - see Descartes, 1637: 54). 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 Cartesianism is extremely complex, and only a few of the most important points can be summarised here.==Ego==1. On one level, the ''[[cogito ]]'' comes to stand for the modern western [[concept ]] of the [[Egoego]], based as it is on the notions of the [[autonomy|self-sufficiency ]] and [[transparency|self-transparency ]] of [[consciousness]], and the [[autonomy ]] of the [[ego (see ]].<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 (see ]].<ref>{{S2, }} pp. 6-7).</ref> Thus, although this concept of the [[ego ]] seems so [[nature|natural ]] and [[time|eternal ]] to western man today, it is in fact a relatively [[recent ]] [[culture|cultural construct]]; its [[time|eternal]]-[[nature|natural ]] [[appearance ]] is in fact an [[illusion ]] produced by [[punctuation|retroaction (]].<ref>{{S2, }} p. 4-5).</ref> ==Psychoanalysis==[[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; see {{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 schools [[school]]s betrayed [[Freud]]'s discovery by returning to the [[Freud|pre-Freudian ]] concept of the [[subject ]] as an [[autonomous ego (]].<ref>{{S2, l 1)}} p.l1</ref> ==Subject==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|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; see {{Ec, }} p. 858).</ref> ==Unconscious==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' (Áa pense) (Sll, ."<ref>{{S11}} 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>  ==Subject of the Statement/Enunciation==[[Lacan ]] also uses the ''[[cogito ]]'' to distinguish between the [[subject ]] of the [[statement ]] and the [[subject ]] of the [[enunciation]]. <ref>(see Sll, {{S11}} p. 138-42; see Sl7, {{S17}} p. 180-4)</ref> ==See Also=={{See}}* [[Autonomous ego]]* [[Consciousness]]||* [[Ego]]* [[Ego-psychology]]||* [[Enunciation]]* [[Knowledge]]||* [[Object-relations theory]]* [[Philosophy]]||* [[Subject]]* [[Unconscious]]{{Also}} ==References==<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small"><references/></div> [[Category:Dictionary]][[Category:Terms]][[Category:Concepts]][[Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]]{{OK}} __NOTOC__