Changes

The term "[[knowledge]]" has two [[meanings ]] in [[Lacan]]'s [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]]. [[Lacan]] distinguishes between two types of [[knowledge]]:

The "'''[[unconscious]]'''" is simply [[another ]] [[name ]] for [[knowledge|symbolic knowledge]] insofar as it is an "[[knowledge|unknown knowledge]]," a [[knowledge]] which the [[subject]] ''does not know it knows''.

'''[[treatment|Psychoanalytic treatment]]''' involves a way to access [[knowledge|symbolic knowledge]], via a [[particular ]] [[form ]] of [[speech]] called '''[[free association]]'''. The [[end of analysis|aim]] of '''[[treatment|psychoanalytic treatment]]''' is the ''[[progress|progressive reveletion]]'' of [[knowledge|symbolic knowledge]] to the [[subject]], rather than "[[knowledge|absolute knowledge]]," because the [[unconscious]] is irreducible; there is an inescapable '''[[split|division]]''' between the '''[[subject]]''' and '''[[knowledge]]'''.

[[Knowledge|Symbolic knowledge]] is [[knowledge]] of the '''[[truth]]''' [[about ]] one's '''[[unconscious]] [[desire]]'''. In this [[sense]], [[knowledge]] is a form of '''''[[jouissance]]''''': "[[knowledge]] is the '''''[[jouissance]]''''' of the '''[[Other]]'''."<ref>{{S17}} p. 13</ref>

[[knowledge|Imaginary knowledge]] is called "'''[[knowledge|paranoiac knowledge]]'''" because it has the same '''[[structure]]''' as '''[[paranoia]]''' (both involve the [[delusion]] of [[absolute knowledge]] and [[master|mastery]]), and because one of the preconditions of all [[knowledge|human knowledge]] is the "'''[[paranoiac ]] [[alienation ]] of the ego'''."<ref>{{E}} p. 2</ref>