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[[act]]
A fundamental quality of an [[act]] is that the actor can be held [[responsible]] for it; the concept of the [[act]] is thus an [[ethical]] [[concept]].
The [[psychoanalytic]] concept of [[responsibility]] is complicated in [[psychoanalysis]] by the discovery that, in addition to his [[conscious]] plans, the [[subject]] also has [[unconscious]] intentions[[intention]]s.
==Parapraxes==
Hence someone may well commit an [[act]] which he claims was unintentionalun[[intention]]al, but which [[analysis]] reveals to be the expression of an [[unconscious]] [[desire]].
[[Freud]] called these [[act]]s "[[parapraxes]]," or "[[bungled actions]]."
They are "[[bungled]]" only from the point of view of the [[conscious]] [[intention]], since they are successful in expressing an [[unconscious]] [[desire]].<ref>[[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. ''The Psychopathology of Everyday Life''. SE VI. 1901.</ref> In [[law]], a [[subject]] cannot be found [[guilty]] of murder (for example) unless it can be proved that the [[act]] was [[intention]]al.
==Responsibility==
In [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] the [[subject]] is faced with the [[ethical]] [[duty]] of assuming [[responsibility ]] even for the [[unconscious]] [[desire]]s expressed in his [[action]]s.
He must recognise recognize even apparently accidental [[action]]s as true [[act]]s which express an [[intention]], albeit [[unconscious]], and assume this [[intention ]] as his own.
Neither [[acting out]] or a [[passage to the act]] are true [[act]]s, since the [[subject]] does not assume [[responsibility]] for his [[desire]] in these [[action]]s.
The [[analyst]] must be guided (in these interventions) by an appropriate [[desire]], which [[Lacan]] calls the [[desire of the analyst]].
An intervention is can only be called a '[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] true "[[act]]' A '[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] [[act]]' is an intervenion that " when it succeeds in expressing the [[desire of the analyst]] -- that is, when it helps the [[analysand]] to move towards the [[end of analysis]].
[[Lacan]] dedicates a year of his [[seminar]] to discussing further the nature of the [[act|psychoanalytic]] [[act]].<ref>[[Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]]. ''[[Seminar XI|Le Séminaire. Livre XV. L'acte psychanalytique, 1967-868]]''. Unpublished.</ref>
==Conclusion==
Nevertheless, this success is only partial because the [[unconscious]] [[desire]] is expressed in a distorted form.
It follows that, when it is fully and [[conscious]]ly assumed, "suicide is the only completely successful act."<ref>[[Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]]. ''[[Television|Télévision]], Paris: Seuil, 1973. ''[[Television|Television: A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment]]'', 1973aed. Joan Copjec, trans. Denis Hollier, Rosalind Krauss and Annette Michelson, New York: Norton, 1990]. p.66-7</ref>
The [[act]] expresses completely an [[intention ]] which is both [[conscious]] and [[unconscious]], the [[conscious ]] assumption of the [[unconscious ]] [[death drive]] (on the other hand, a sudden impulsive suicide attempt is not a true [[act]], but probably a [[passage to the act]]).
The [[death drive]] is thus closely connected with the [[ethics|ethical domain ]] in [[Lacan]]'s thought.
==Examples==
