24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[Truth]] ([[French]]:''[[vérité]]'') is one of the most central, and yet most complex terms in [[Lacan]]'s discourse.
The [[aim]] of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is to lead the [[analysand]] to articulate the [[truth]] of his or her [[desire]].
[[Truth]] does not await, in some preformed state of fullness, to be revealed to the [[analysand]] by the [[analyst]]; on the contrary, it but is gradually rather constructed in the [[dialectic]]al movement of the [[treatment]] itself.<ref>{{Ec}} p.144</ref>
==Truth and Philosophy==
[[Lacan]] argues, in opposition to the traditions of classical [[philosophy]], that [[truth]] is not [[beautiful]]<ref>{{S7}} p.217</ref> and that it is not necessarily beneficial to learn the [[truth]].<ref>{{Sl7}} p.122</ref>
[[Lacan]] speaks about '[[truth]]' in the singular, not as a single [[universal]] [[truth]], but as [[particular]] [[truth]], unique to each [[subject]].<ref>{{S7}} p.24</ref>
==Truth versus exactitudeand Language==Exactitude is a question of 'introducing measurement into the real'.<ref>{{E}} p.74</ref> and constitutes the aim of the exact [[science]]s.
[[Truth]], however, concerns [[desire]], which is not a matter for the exact [[science]]s but for the [[science]]s of [[subjectivity]]. Therefore [[truth]] is only a meaningful concept in the context of [[language]]: "It is with the appearance of [[language ]] that the dimension of [[truth ]] emerges."<ref>{{E}} p.172</ref>
[[Psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is based on the fundamental premise that [[speech]] is the only means of revealing the [[truth]] about [[desire]].
"[[Truth ]] hollows its way into the [[real ]] thanks to the dimension of [[speech]]. There is neither [[true ]] nor [[false ]] prior to [[speech]]."<ref>{{Sl}} p.228</ref>
It is not that [[Lacan]] denies that [[science]] aims to know the [[truth]], but simply that [[science]] cannot claim to monopolise [[truth]] as its exclusive property.<ref>{{Ec}} p.79</ref>
[[Lacan]] later argues that [[science]] is in fact based on a [[foreclosure]] of the concept of [[truth]] as [[cause]].<ref>{{Ec, }} p.874</ref>
The concept of [[truth]] is essential for understanding [[madness]], and modern [[science]] renders [[madness]] meaningless by ignoring the concept of [[truth]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.153-4</ref>
==Truth and Deception==
[[Truth]] is intimately connected with [[deception]], since lies can often reveal the [[truth]] about [[desire]] more eloquently than honest statements.
Although the [[analysand]] may in effect be saying to the [[analyst]] "I am deceiving you," the [[analyst]] says to the [[analysand]] "In this I am deceiving to you, what you are sending as message is what I express to you, and in doing so you are telling the truth.<ref>{{S11}} p.139-40; {{S4}} p.107-8)</ref>
==Truth versus false appearances==
The complex relations between [[truth]], mistakes, error and [[deception]] are evoked by [[Lacan]] in a typically elusive phrase when he describes "the structuration of speech in search of truth" as "error taking flight in deception and recaptured by mistake."<ref>{{Sl}} p. 273</ref>
==Truth and fictionFiction==
[[Lacan]] does not use the term '[[fiction]]' in the sense of 'a falsehood', but in the sense of a [[scientific]] construct.<ref>{{S7}} p.12</ref>
Thus [[Lacan]]'s term '[[fiction]]' corresponds to [[Freud]]'s term ''Konvention'', convention,<ref>{{S11}} p.163</ref> and has more in common with [[truth]] than falsehood.
Indeed, [[Lacan]] states that [[truth]] is [[structure]]d like a [[fiction]].<ref>{{E}} 306; {{Ec}} 808</ref>
The opposition which [[Lacan]] draws between [[truth]] and the [[real]] dates back to his pre-war writings,<ref>{{Ec}} p.75</ref> and is taken up at various points; "We are used to the real. The truth we repress."<ref>{{E}} p.169</ref>
However, [[Lacan]] also points out that [[truth]] is similar to the [[real]]; it is impossible to articulate the whole [[truth]], and "[p]recisely because of this [[impossibility]], [[truth ]] aspires to the real."<ref>Lacan, 1973a: 83</ref>
