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provides a unique source of reference for [[psychoanalysts]] in [[training]] and in practice. Placing Lacan's ideas in their clinical context, the dictionary is also an [[ideal]] companion for readers in [[other]] disciplines.
[[Dylan Evans|DYLAN EVANS ]] trained as a Lacanian [[psychoanalyst]] in Buenos Aires, [[London]] and [[Paris]]. He is a Lecturer in Psychoanalytic Studies at the [[University]] of Brunel and is in private practice in London.
==Preface==
Psychoanalytic theories are [[languages]] in which to discuss psychoanalytic [[treatment]]. Today there are many such languages, each with its own [[particular]] lexis and syntax.
The fact that these languages use many of the same terms, inherited from Freud, can create the impression that they are in fact all dialects of the same [[language]]. Such an impression is, however, misleading. Each [[psychoanalytic theory]] articulates these terms in a unique way, as well as introducing new terms of its own, and is thus a unique language, ultimately untranslatable. One of the most importailt psychoanalytic languages in use today is that developed by the [[French]] psychoanalyst, [[Jacques lacan|Jacques Lacan ]] (1901-1981). This dictionary is an attempt to explore and elucidate this language, which bas often been accused of [[being]] inflatingly, obscure and sometimes of constituting a totally incomprehensible '[[psychotic]]' [[system]]. This obscurity has even been seen as a (deliberate attempt to ensure that Lacanian discourse remains the exclusive properity of a small [[intellectual]] [[elite]], and to protect it from [[external]] criticism. If this is the [[case]], then this dictionary is a move in the other direction, an attempt to open Lacanian discourse up top wider scrutiny and critical engagement.
The dictionary is an ideal way of exploiting language since it has the same [[structure]] as a language; it is a [[synchronic]] system in which the terms have no positive [[existence]], since they are each defined by their mutual differences; it is a closed, [[self]]-referential structure in which [[meaning]] is nowhere fully [[present]] but always delayed in continual [[metonymy]]; it defines each term by reference to other terms and thus denies the novice reader any point of entry (and, to refer to a Lacanian [[formula]], if their is no point of entry, there can be no [[sexual]] [[relationship]]).)
One important [[danger]] is that by emphasizing the synchronic structure of language, the dictionary can obscure the [[diachronic]] [[dimension]]. All languages, including those which are otherwise known as psychoanalytic theories, are in a continual [[state]] of flux, since they [[change]] with use. By overlooking this dimension, the dictionary can create the erroneous impression that languages are fixed unchanging entities.
This dictionary attempts to avoid this danger by incorporating etymological information wherever appropriate and by giving some indication of how Lacan's discourse evolved over the course of his teaching. Lacan's engagement with [[Psychoanalytic Theory|psychoanalytic theory ]] spans fifty years, and it is hardly surprising that his discourse underwent important changes during this [[time]]. However, these changes are not always well [[understood]].
Broadly [[speaking]], there are two main ways of misrepresenting [[them]]. On the one hand, some commentators present the [[development]] of Lacan's [[thought]] in terms of dramatic and sudden '[[epistemological]] breaks'; 1953, for example, is sometimes presented as the [[moment]] of a radically new '[[linguistic]] turn' in Lacan's work. On the other hand, some writers go to the other extreme and present Lacan's work as a single unfolding [[narrative]] with no changes of direction, as if all the [[concepts]] existed from the beginning.
