Communication

French: communication

In the psychoanalytic framework of Jacques Lacan, communication is fundamentally different from the linear transmission models found in modern linguistics. Rather than a transparent exchange between a sender and a receiver, communication is, for Lacan, a **symbolically structured event** in which the subject confronts their own unconscious desire through the mediation of the Other.

Communication is not reducible to the conveyance of conscious intention. It always entails a structural misrecognition (méconnaissance), as the speaking subject is split (barred) and divided by language itself. The process of communication, therefore, reveals not a stable identity but the disjunction between the subject’s enunciation and what is enunciated.

Modern Linguistic Models

Contemporary linguistics, especially as shaped by structuralism, typically frames communication as a straightforward, intentional, and conscious act. Foundational assumptions in such models include:

1. Communication is governed by the intentional agency of a unified, conscious subject.
2. Meaning is transmitted linearly via a message that moves from an addresser (speaker) to an addressee (listener).

This model is exemplified in the Jakobsonian model of communication, which distinguishes six functions of language and outlines the architecture of sender, message, receiver, context, code, and contact.

While useful for certain pragmatic and semiotic analyses, these models generally neglect the unconscious dimension of language and its structuring effects on the subject. Lacan’s reformulation addresses this omission.

Lacan’s Reformulation of Communication

Drawing on Freud’s discovery of the unconscious and the centrality of speech in the clinic, Lacan reformulates communication as an **intersubjective and reflexive process**, not reducible to conscious intention or syntactic structure. Two key features distinguish Lacan’s model:

1. Unconscious Speech: The speaking subject is not fully aware of what they are saying. Speech is overdetermined and carries **unconscious intentions**—meanings that emerge not from the ego but from the symbolic order.
2. Reflexivity of Communication: Communication operates in a loop. The subject unknowingly sends a message not only to the other, but also to themselves. As Lacan states:

"In human speech, the sender receives his own message in an inverted form."

This inversion reveals that the subject is constituted in and through language—not its master, but its effect.

The Symbolic Order and the Role of the Other

In Lacanian theory, communication unfolds within the symbolic order: the domain of law, language, and social structures. The symbolic precedes and exceeds the individual, determining the coordinates through which speech becomes intelligible.

The Other (with a capital "O") functions as the locus of this symbolic system. It is not simply another person, but the position that guarantees meaning and law within language. All speech is addressed to the Other, and it is through the Other that the subject's unconscious returns to them.

This structure of communication produces inherent effects:

• Misrecognition (méconnaissance): The subject misunderstands both their intention and its reception. What is communicated is always mediated by language, which distorts and displaces meaning.
• Equivocation: Language is inherently ambiguous. Homophones, puns, and slips allow multiple layers of meaning to emerge, often beyond the speaker’s conscious control.

Communication and the Unconscious

In the analytic setting, these dynamics become especially evident. The analysand’s speech is not simply a report or confession—it is the terrain where unconscious desire manifests. The analysand unknowingly addresses themselves through the analyst, and this message often returns in displaced, inverted, or enigmatic forms.

The task of the analyst is to listen for the **unconscious message** embedded in the analysand’s discourse. This may appear in:

• Slips of the tongue
• Repetitive structures
• Double entendre or metaphor
• Syntactic breaks or semantic inconsistencies

These elements are treated as signifiers that point beyond manifest content toward unconscious formations.

Analytic Communication

Lacan defines **analytic communication** as a process in which the subject receives their own message—but distorted through the mediation of the Other. This process disrupts the ego’s narrative coherence and opens space for transformation.

The analyst, occupying the position of the **subject-supposed-to-know**, does not offer direct meaning or interpretation but intervenes strategically to **return the analysand's message** in a way that exposes its unconscious structure. In doing so, the analysand becomes aware—not of a repressed fact—but of their own divided subjectivity.

This operation, which Lacan describes as the subject hearing their own message “in an inverted form,” is the foundation of the psychoanalytic act.

Subjectivity and the Split Subject

For Lacan, the speaking subject is not unified or transparent. Instead, the subject is constituted by a **fundamental division** (barred subject, represented as $ \! \!\! \backslash \! \! S$). This division arises from the subject's entry into language (the symbolic) and persists as the gap between **enunciation** (the act of speaking) and the **enunciated** (what is said).

Communication, therefore, is not an exchange between stable identities, but a field of displacement and lack. It is in this field that desire operates, structured by the signifier, and always deferred.

Key Concepts

• Unconscious Intention: The idea that speech transmits messages that originate from the unconscious, not from the ego.
• The Other: The symbolic place of language and law; the locus through which meaning is produced and returned.
• Misrecognition (méconnaissance): A necessary distortion through which the subject relates to themselves and the world.
• Equivocation: A linguistic phenomenon that enables the unconscious to manifest via ambiguity and multiplicity of meanings.
• Split Subject ($ \! \!\! \backslash \! \! S$): The subject divided by language, caught between what is said and what is meant.
• Analytic Communication: The psychoanalytic process whereby the subject hears their own unconscious message reflected back via the position of the analyst.

See Also

Jacques Lacan Sigmund Freud

Analysand Analyst

Interpretation Unconscious

Speech Symbolic order Other