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=====Example=====
For example, in one of the earliest [[interpretation]]s, [[Freud]] told one [[patient]] that she had not revealed all her motives for the intense affection she showed towards her employer's children, and went on to say; "I believe that really you are in love with your employer, the Director, though perhaps without being aware of it yourself."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Neuro-Psychoses of Defence]]", 1895d. [[SE II]] III, 43. p.117</ref>
=====Purpose of Interpretation=====
=====Psychoanalytic Method of Interpretation=====
The model of [[interpretation]] was set down by [[Freud]] in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]''.<ref>{{F}} 1900a. ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', 1900a. [[SE]] V.</ref>
Though only concerned explicitly with [[dreams]], [[Freud]]'s comments on [[interpretation]] in this work apply equally to all the other [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] -- [[parapraxes]], [[jokes]], [[symptoms]], etc.
=====Sigmund Freud=====
Even when [[Freud]] later came to recognize the [[existence]] of "symbolism" in [[dreams]] (i.e. the fact that there are some images which have fixed universal meanings in addition to their unique meaning for the individual dreamer), he always maintained thaat [[interpretation]] should focus primarily on the particular meaning and warned against "overestimating the importance of symbols in dream interpretation."<ref>{{F}} 1900a. ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', 1900a. [[SE]] V., pp. 359-60.</ref>
=====Interpretation in Analysis=====
Other [[analyst]]s before [[Lacan]] had recognized the problems caused by the fact that [[patient]]s were increasingly knowledgable of [[psychoanalytic theory]].
However, the solution which they proposed for this problem was that "too much knowledge on the part of the patient should be replaced by more knowledge on the part of the analyst."<ref>Ferenczi, Sándor and Rank, Otto. 1925. "The development Development of psychoanalysisPsychoanalysis," trans. Caroline Newton, J. ''Nerv. Ment. Dis.'', Monograph, no.40. 1925. p.61</ref>
In other words, they urged the [[analyst]] to elaborate even more complex theories in order to stay one step ahead of the [[patient]].
<blockquote>"Interpretation is directed not so much at 'making sense' as towards reducing the signifiers to their 'non-sense' in order thereby to find the determinants of all the subject's conduct."<ref>{{S11}} p.212</ref></blockquote>
[[Interpretation]] thus inverts the relationship between [[signifier]] and [[signified]]: instead of the normal production of [[meaning]] ([[signifier]] produces [[signified]]), [[interpretation]] works at the level of ''s'' to generate S: [[interpretation]] causes "irreducible signifiers" to arise, which are "non-sensical."<ref>{{S11}} p.250</ref>
Hence it is not a question, for [[Lacan]], of fitting the [[analysand]]'s [[discourse]] into a preconceived interpretive matrix or theory (as in the "decoding" method), but of disrupting all such theories.
=====Interpretation and Reality=====
The value of an [[interpretation]] does not lie in its correspondence with [[reality]], but simply in its power to produce certain effects; an [[interpretation]] may therefore be inexact, in the sense of not corresponding to "the facts," but nevertheless true, in the sense of having powerful symbolic effects.<ref>{{E}} p.237</ref>
=====Role of the Analyst=====
[[Lacan]] argues that in order to [[interpret]] in this way, the [[analyst]] must take the [[analysand]]'s [[speech]] absolutely literally (''à la lettre'').
That is, the task of the [[analyst]] is not to achieve some [[imaginary]] intuitive grasp of the [[analysand]]'s "hidden message," but simply to read the [[analysand]]'s [[discourse]] as if it were text, attending to the formal features of this [[discourse]], the [[signifiers]] that repeat themselves.<ref>{{S2}} p.153</ref>
=====Understanding=====
Hence [[Lacan]]'s frequent warnings of the dangers of "[[Interpretation|understanding]]."
<blockquote>"The less you understand, the better you listen."<ref>{{S2}} p.141</ref></blockquote>
[[Interpretation|Understanding]] (''comprendre'') has negative connotations for [[Lacan]], implying a kind of listening that seeks only to fit the other's [[speech]]] into a preformed theory.<ref>{{E}} p.270; {{S2}} p.130; {{S8}} p.229-30</ref>
In order to do avoid this, the [[analyst]], must "forget what he knows" when listening<ref>{{Ec}} p.349</ref> and when offering [[interpretation]]s must do so "exactly as if we were completely ignorant of theory."<ref>{{L}} 1953b. "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|The neuroticNeurotic's individual mythIndividual Myth]]," 1953b, trans. Martha Evans, in L. Spurling (ed.), ''Sigmund Freud: Critical Assessments,'', vol. II, ''The Theory and Practice of Psychoanalysis'', London and New York: Routledge, 1989, p. 227.</ref>
==See Also==
