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This [[text ]] was the opening lesson of the [[seminar ]] on L' [[Objet ]] de la fJsychanalyse (59), and it was published in 1966, both in Cahiers pour {'[[Analyse ]] (n.1) and as the conclusion of [[Ecrits]]. I feel rather uncomfortable talking [[about ]] it be�cause it irresistibly reminds me of the [[philosophical ]] exercises practiced at the E.N.S. and at the Sorbonne: one is given a highly abstract [[subject ]] that is, in its very [[principle]], [[impossible ]] to solve, but it allows one to shine and exhibit an eclectic, broad, and modern "[[culture]]." The best [[thing ]] for the reader is to go to the text and see for himself. However I [[want ]] to note that [[Lacan ]] claimed to draw from a [[number ]] of [[figures ]] while he dissociated himself from [[them]]:

[[Freud]], as well as [[linguists ]] such as [[Jakobson]], Hjemslev, and [[Chomsky]], [[formal ]] [[logic]], Levi-[[Strauss]], not to mention several [[philosophers ]] such as [[Descartes]], [[Spinoza]], [[Heidegger]], and Angelus Silesius (the last straw). His enemies were still the same, "phony intimacy" lie personnalisme d la [[manque]]] and the "[[liberal ]] heart-to-heart" I {' Gllle-a-Gme liberal] (44, 49). All this should [[satisfy ]] his audience.

I also want ~o note a few aphorisms: in [[psychoanalysis]], there is no way out, "a mistake in [[good ]] [[faith ]] is, among all mistakes, the most unforgivable"; "There is no [[science ]] of man because the man of science does not [[exist]], only its subject does" (a [[topological ]] subject, of course); "Logic is the subject's [[navel]]"; "The [[truth ]] of [[neurotic ]] sulTering is that its [[cause ]] is truth"; "A suc�cessful [[paranoia ]] is the closure of science" .... Lacan also gives us a (pro�vocative?) [[self]]-presentation: "/ say the truth about Freud who, under the [[name ]] of the [[unconscious]], allowed the truth to [[speak]]" (see La [[Chose ]] freu�dieTl1le 29). Finally he reveals a confidence to us: "I cannot console myself for having had to give up linking the study of the Bible with the function of the Name-of-the-[[Father]]" ...

Besides this opening lesson, "the answers to students in [[philosophy ]] con�cerning the [[object ]] of psychoanalysis," given in February 1966, were also published in issue 3 of Cahiers pour {'Analyse. The four topics of these an�swers arc quite original!: "[[Consciousness ]] and the subject," "Psychoanalysis and [[society]]," "Psychoanalysis and [[anthropology]]," and "Psychoanalysis and philosophy." It would be more interesting to read A. Green's [[analysis ]] of "L'[[objet a ]] dans I'oeuvre de Lacan" ("The objet a in the works of Lacan"), which is in the same issue.