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== Philosophy and Freud ==
[[Freud]] regarded '"[[philosophy]]' " as one of the great cultural institutions, alongside [[art]] and [[religion]] - the mark of a highly developed state of [[civilisation]]. However, he viewed the relationship between [[philosophy]] and [[pychoanalysis]] in ambiguous terms. On the one hand, he credited certain philosophers (such as [[Empedocles]] and [[Nietzsche]]) with having anticipated purely by intuition what psychoanalysts discovered only by laborious investigation.<ref>(Freud, {{F}} 1914d: [[SE ]] XIV, 15-16)</ref>. On the other hand, he repeatedly criticised philosophers for equating the [[psyche]] with [[consciousness]] and thus excluding the [[unconscious]] on purely ''a priori'' grounds,<ref>(Freud, {{F}} 1925e [1924]: [[SE ]] XIX, 216-17)</ref> and likened philosophical systems to [[paranoia]]c [[delusions]].<ref>(Freud, {{F}} 1912-13: [[SE ]] XIII, 73)</ref>
== Philosophy and Lacan ==
In [[Lacan]]'s work too there is an ambivalent relationship between [[psychoanalysis]] and [[philosophy]].
On the one hand, [[Lacan]] opposes [[psychoanalysis]] to the totalising explanations of philosophical systems,<ref>(Sl, {{S1}} p.118-19; {{S11, }} p.77)</ref> and links [[philosophy]] with the discourse of the [[master]], the reverse of [[psychoanalysis]].<ref>({{S20, }} p.33)</ref>
On the other hand, [[Lacan]]'s work is full of philosophical references; indeed, this is often regarded as one of the features that distinguishes [[Lacan]] from other psychoanalytic thinkers.
The philosophers most frequently referred to by [[Lacan]] are the following:
=== Plato ===
[[Lacan]] often compares the psychoanalytic method to the Socratic dialogue.
He also refers specifically to a number of [[Plato]]'s works, especially ''[[The Symposium]]'', to which he dedicates a large part of his 1960-1 [[seminar]].
=== Aristotle ===
=== Descartes ===
References to [[Descartes]] abound in [[Lacan]]'s work, since he sees the [[philosophy]] of the ''[[cogito]]'' as summing up the very heart of the [[psychology]] of modern man.<ref>({{S2, }} p.6)</ref> The Lacanian [[Lacan]]ian concept of the [[subject]] is both the [[subject|Cartesian subject ]] (in its quest to move from doubt to certainty) and the subversion of the [[subject|Cartesian subject]].
=== Kant ===
It is [[Kant]]'s [[philosophy|moral philosophy ]] (the ''[[Critique of Practical Reason]]'') which most interests [[Lacan]], and he discusses this at length both in his [[seminar ]] on [[ethics ]] (1959-60) and his essay on '[[Kant with Sade]]' (1962).
[[Lacan]] uses [[Kant]]'s [[categorical imperative]] to throw light on the [[Freud]]ian concept of the [[superego]].
=== Hegel ===
[[Lacan]] attended a series of lectures on [[Hegel]] given by [[Alexandre Kojeve]] in 1933-9 at the ''Ecole des Hautes Etudes''.
The influence of these lectures on his work, especially his earlier work, is immense, and whenever [[Lacan]] refers to [[Hegel]] it is [[Kojeve]]'s reading of [[Hegel]] that he has in mind.
From [[Hegel]] [[Lacan]] takes (among other things) an emphasis on [[dialectic]]al modes of thought, the concept of the [[beautiful soul]], the [[dialectic ]] of the [[master]] and the slave, and a distinction between [[animal ]] and [[human ]] [[desire]].
=== Heidegger ===
[[Lacan]] established a personal friendship with [[Heidegger,]] visiting him and translating some of his works.
[[Heidegger]]'s influence on [[Lacan]]'s work can be seen in Lacan's metaphysical discussions of [[being]], and in the distinction between full [[speech]] and empty speech.
These are only the philosophers to whom [[Lacan]] refers most frequently; he also discusses the work of many other philosophers such as [[St Augustine]], [[Spinoza]], [[Sartre]], and others.
[[Lacan]]'s work engages with many philosophical schools and areas of enquiry.
In his early work he shows a bent towards [[phenomenology]], even presenting a '"phenomenological description of the psychoanalytic experience' " in 1936,<ref>{{Ec, }} p.82-5</ref> but he later becomes quite opposed to [[phenomenology]], and in 1964 presents a critique of [[Merleau-Ponty]]'s ''[[Phenomenology of Perception]]''.<ref>(Sll, {{S11}} p.71-6)</ref>
Insofar as [[psychoanalysis]] engages with ontological questions, [[Lacan]] aligns [[psychoanalysis]] with [[materialism]], against all forms of [[idealism]].
[[Lacan]] also engages with [[epistemology]] and the [[philosophy]] of [[science]], where his constant approach is rationalist rather than empiricist.
==See Also==
