Language

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Three

Between 1955 and 1970 language takes center stage and Lacan develops his classic thesis that "the unconscious is structured like a language."[1]

It is in this period that the names Ferdinand de Saussure and Roman Jakobson come to the fore in Lacan's work.

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Lacan takes up Saussure's theory that language is a structure composed of differential elements, but whereas Saussure had stated this of langue, Lacan states it of langage.

Langage becomes, for Lacan, the single paradigm of all structures.

Lacan then proceeds to criticize the Saussurean concept of language, arguing that the basic unit of language is not the sign but the signifier.

Lacan then argues that the unconscious is, like language, a structure of signifiers, which also allows Lacan to formulate the category of the symbolic with greater precision.

In 1969 Lacan develops a concept of discourse as a kind of social bond.

Four

From 1971 on, the shift from linguistics to mathematics as the paradigm of scientificity is accompanied by a tendency to emphasize the poetry and ambiguity of language, as is evident in Lacan's increasing interest in the "psychotic language" of James Joyce.[2]

Lacan's own style reflects this change as it becomes ever more densely populated with puns and neologisms.

Lacan coins the term lalangue (from the definite article la and the noun langue) to refer to these non-communicative aspects of language which, by playing on ambiguity and homophony, give rise to a kind of jouissance.[3]

The term "language" now beocmes opposed to lalangue.

Lalangue is like the primary chaotic substrate of polysemy out of which language is constructed, almost as if language is some ordered superstructure sitting on top of this substrate:

"Language is without doubt made of lalangue. It is an elucubration of knowledge (savoir) about lalangue.[4]

Lacanian Psychoanalysis

The Primary Importance of Language in Psychoanalytic Treament

It is the emphasis placed by Lacanian psychoanalysis that is usually regarded as its most distinctive feature.

Lacan criticizes the way that other forms of psychoanalysis, such as Kleinian psychoanalysis and object-relations theory, tend to play down the importance of language and emphasize the "non-verbal communication" of the analysand (his "body language," etc.) at the expense of the analysand's speech).

This is a fundamental error, according to Lacan, for three main reasons.

1. Firstly, all human communication is inscribed in a linguistic structure; even "body language," is, as the term implies, fundamentally a form of language, with the same structural features.
2. Secondly, the whole aim of psychoanalytic treatment is to articulate the truth of one's desire in speech rather than in any other medium; the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis is based on the principle that speech is the only way to this truth.
3. And thirdly, speech is the only tool which the analyst has; therefore, any analyst who does not understand the way speech and language work does not understand psychoanalysis itself.[5]

One consequence of Lacan's emphasis on language is his recommendation that the analyst must attend to the formal features of the analysand's speech (the signifiers), and not be sidetracked into an empathic attitude baseed on an imaginary understanding of the content (the signified).

Symbolic and Imaginary Dimensions

One common misconception of Lacan is that language is synonymous with the symbolic order.

This is, however, not correct; Lacan argues that language has both a symbolic and an imaginary dimension.

"There is something in the symbolic function of human discourse that cannot be eliminated, and that is the role played in it by the imaginary."[6]

The symbolic dimension of language is that of the signifier and true speech.

The imaginary dimension of language is that of the signified, signification, and empty speech.

Schema L represents these two dimensions of language by means of two axes which intersect.

The axis A-S is language in its symbolic dimension, the discourse of the Other, the unconscious.

The imaginary axis a'-a is language in its imaginary dimension, the wall of language which interrupts, distorts and inverts the discourse of the Other.

In Lacan's words, "language is as much there to be found in the Other as to drastically prevent us from understanding him.[7]


Languages and Codes

Lacan distinguishes between languages and codes; unlike codes, in language there is no stable one-to-one correspondence between sign and referent, nor between signified and signifier.

It is this property of language which gives rise to the inherent ambiguity of all discourse, which can only be interpreted by playing on the homophony and other forms of equivocation (l'équivoque).



References

  1. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p.20
  2. Lacan, Jacques.. "Joyce le symptôme." 1975a. In Jacques Aubert (ed.), Joyce avec Lacan. Paris: Navarin, 1987.
  3. Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre XX. Encore, 1972-73. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1975. p.126
  4. Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre XX. Encore, 1972-73. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1975. p.127
  5. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.40
  6. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-55. Trans. Sylvana Tomaselli. New York: Nortion; Cambridge: Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1988. p.306
  7. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-55. Trans. Sylvana Tomaselli. New York: Nortion; Cambridge: Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1988. p.244