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In [[psychoanalytic treatment]]
The task of the [[analyst]] throughout the [[treatment]] is to make it [[impossible]] for the [[analysand]] to be sure that he [[knows]] what the [[analyst]] wants from him; the [[analyst]] must make sure that his [[desire]] "remains an x" for the [[analysand]].<ref>{{S11}} p. 274</ref>
In this way the [[analyst]]'s supposed [[desire]] becomes the [[treatment|driving force]] of the [[analytic]] [[process]], since it keeps the [[analysand]] [[working]], trying to discover what the [[analyst]] wants from him.
<blockquote>"The [[desire]] of the [[analyst]] is ultimately that which operates in [[psychoanalysis]]."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 854</ref></blockquote>
By presenting the [[analysand]] with an enigmatic [[desire]], the [[analyst]] occupies the [[position]] of the [[Other]], of whom the [[subject]] asks "'''[[Che vuoi?]]'''" ("What do you [[want]] from me?"), with the result that the [[subject]]'s [[fantasy|fundamental fantasy]] emerges in the [[transference]].
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First, [[Lacanian psychoanalysis]] [[demands]] that the [[analyst]] thwart the [[patient]]’s efforts to [[know]] what the [[analyst]] wants from the [[patient]].
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The position of the [[analyst]] in [[Lacan]]'s account of the [[discourse of the analyst]].
In [[Lacanian]] [[psychoanalytic theory|theory]] the [[analyst]] stands in the [[place ]] of "[[objet (petit) a|object a]]", or [[objet (petit) a|object cause of desire]].
This is an [[imaginary|imaginary object]] that both sets [[desire]] in motion and represents its [[impossibility ]] as the
[[jouissance|excess]] or [[lack|deficit]] produced by coming under the [[Symbolic]].
[[Bruce Fink|Fink]] writes,
<blockquote>The analyst plays the part of pure desirousness (pure [[desiring ]] subject), and interrogates [[The Subject|the subject]]in his or her [[division ]] [i.e., between the [[conscious ]] and [[unconscious]]]. . . . The patient in a [[sense]]“coughs up” a [[master signifier ]] that has not yet been brought into relation with any other signifier.<ref>[[Bruce Fink|Fink, Bruce]]. 1998. p. 37</ref></blockquote>
=====Socrates=====
[[Lacan]] says that [[Socrates]] refuses [[Alcibaides]] because "for [Socrates] there is
[[nothing ]] in himself worthy of [[love]]. His [[essence ]] was that of ''ouden'', emptiness, hollowness."<ref>Cited in Salecl. 1998. p. 28</ref>
Like the proper response of the [[analyst]], [[Socrates]] does not reciprocate, thus maintaining his emptiness.
In both [[Socrates]] and [[Lacan]], there are two critical dimensions of their position, the fundamental
[[role ]] of the [[desire of the analyst]] in propelling the [[patient]]’s [[treatment]] and the [[ethics|ethical
position]] of the [[analyst]].
[[Lacan]] writes,
<blockquote>It is in as much as the analyst’s [[desire, ]] which remains an x, tends in a direction that is the exactopposite of [[identification]], that the crossing of the plane of identification is possible, through themediation of the [[separation ]] of the subject in [[experience]].<ref>{{L}} 1973/1981. p. 274</ref></blockquote>
Socrates is keenly aware of this, as well.
He does not enjoin his [[patients ]] to simply take up hisopinions and make [[them ]] their own; he rejects this identificatory maneuver and maintains his own [[ignorance]].
“I know nothing.”
This does not mean, of course, that [[analysts ]] do not know anything.
Both Lacan and Socrates were immersed in the [[intellectual]], [[political]], and [[cultural ]] tides of their days, and Lacan maintains that analysts should strive to become experts in these matters.<ref>Evans, 1996, p. 198.</ref>
It is not, however, that the analyst simply feigns to know nothing.
[[Lacan]] writes, "From a certain point of view, the analyst is not fully aware what he is doing in psychoanalysis."<ref>{{L}} 1986/1992. p. 291</ref>
Contrary to the [[illusion ]] of [[transparent ]] reflexivity, part of this [[action ]] remains hidden even to the analyst (Lacan, 1986/
1992, p. 291).
This is markedly different from the conventional [[image ]] of the technical expert,
the professional.
It is by positing the [[Desire of the Analyst|desire of the analyst ]] as enigmatic, as the [[desire]] of the
[[Other]], that the operative Lacanian question, Che vuoi? What does the Other want from me?
allows the analysand, or patient, towork on and through his or her [[fantasy]].
Yet it is the analyst that brings forth this [[truth ]] of the [[subject]].
This is also an important qualification to the
posttraditionalism “wholesale reflexivity” ([[Giddens]], 1990). In [[analytic discourse]], some element always remains beyond knowledge; the [[self ]] never becomes fully transparent to [[consciousness]]but is inevitably enigmatic, resisting [[representation]].
The second [[dimension ]] is the analyst’s [[ethical ]] position.
For Lacan, analysts must become barren before they can be the [[cause ]] of others’ barrenness; that is, analysts must go through [[analysis ]] that aims to reconstitute their conscious relation to their desire.
The uniqueness of the Lacanian [[pass]], or the completion of [[training ]] analysis, embodies precisely the Socratic
spirit.
requirements or of sitting for a series of exams.
This is merely [[connaissance ]] or factual knowledge.
The pass asks the passant to testify to his or her experience in analysis as it reaches its
[[logical ]] terminus and to articulate some sort of symbolic knowledge, or [[savoir]].
For Socrates, we learn of his “labors” with Diotima that taught him the philosophy of love in the [[Symposium]].<ref>201d; see also Lacan, 1975/1999, p. 67</ref>
The analyst must come to resist functions of his ego, to resist patient identification, to allowthe patient’s own unique truth to emerge, or to rephrase, to allow the patient to [[identify ]] with a (an empty) truth that is the ground of thesubject’s [[being]].
This is a truth that resides beyond knowledge.
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Desire of the analyst]]
* [[Discourse]]
* [[Ethics]]
* [[Knowledge]]
* [[Master]]
* [[Philosophy]]
* [[Psychoanalysis]]
* [[Treatment]]
{{Also}}
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
