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[[act]]
([[Fr]]. ''[[acte]]'')
==Behavior==
[[Lacan]] draws a distinction between mere "[[behavior]]" -- which all animals engage in -- and an "[[acts]]" -- which are [[symbolic]] and can only be ascribed to [[human]] [[subjects]].<ref>{{S11}} p.50</ref>
==Responsibility==
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.
==Parapraxes==
Hence someone may well commit an [[act]] which he claims was unintentional, 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 intentional.
==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 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.
== Ethics of Psychoanalysis ==
The [[ethics]] of [[psychoanalysis]] enjoin the [[analyst]] to assume [[responsibility]] for his or her [[act]]s (i.e. interventions in the [[treatment]]).
The [[analyst]] must be guided (in these interventions) by an appropriate [[desire]], which [[Lacan]] calls the [[desire of the analyst]].
An intervention is a '[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] [[act]]'
A '[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] [[act]]' is an intervenion that 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 [[psychoanalytic]] [[act]].<ref>Lacan, 1967-8</ref>
==Conclusion==
A [[bungled action]] is, as has been stated, successful from the point of view of the [[unconscious]].
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, 1973a: 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 ethical domain in [[Lacan]]'s thought.
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
