Knowledge

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French: connaissance/savoir
Translator's Note

In Lacan connaissance (with its inevitable concomitant, "méconnaissance") belongs to the imaginary register, while savoir belongs to the symbolic register.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

Subject Supposed to Know

Symbolic knowledge does not reside in any particular subject, but is intersubjective.

However, this does not prevent one supposing that somewhere there is a subject who possesses this symbolic knowledge (the subject supposed to know).

The knowledge is attributed to the analyst by the analysand in psychoanalytic treatment.

The analysand attributes knowledge to the analyst in psychoanalytic treatment.

Imaginary Knowledge

Imaginary knowledge refers to the self-knowledge of the subject in the imaginary order.

This illusory kind of knowledge, based on misunderstanding, misrecognition (méconnaissance), and a fantasy of self-mastery and unity, is constitutive of the ego.[1]

Paranoiac Knowledge

Imaginary knowledge is called "paranoiac knowledge" because it has the same structure as paranoia (both involve the delusion of absolute knowledge and mastery), and because one of the preconditions of all human knowledge is the "paranoiac alienation of the ego."[2]

Resistance

Imaginary knowledge is an obstacle which hinders the subject's access to symbolic knowledge.

Psychoanalytic treatment must therefore continually subvert the subject's imaginary self-knowledge in order to reveal the symbolic self-knowledge which it blocks.

See Also

References

  1. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 306
  2. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 2