You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
EVEN THE MOST OUTSPOKEN critics of Jacques Lacan recognize today that he has done the most to contribute to progress in and to a probing study of psychoanalytic theory in France. He has brought about a renewal of interest in analytic doctrine remarkable for its trenchant and far-reaching questions. Before giving a short sketch of Lacan's basic positions, a brief historical review will be useful.
A professional psychoanalytic society has existed in France since 1925, and the overall emphasis has tended to be on clinical practice. French psychoanalysts, therapeutically minded, practiced "by the rules, " so to speak, without delving into the theoretical reasoning behind their therapeutic achievements. The theoretical reasoning remained a kind of happy mystery for them. They were therefore ignored by the French intelligentsia, who long ago did indeed realize what was radically new in Freud's discoveries. The psychoanalysts, however, were content in their isolation.
In 1952 a schism concerning recruitment and training of psychoanalysts developed. Half of the analysts, most of them younger people, followed the concepts of Lacan, of whom little was known at the time. Thus he was able to organize the teaching in his dissenting group, and he turned toward a probing study of Freud's theoretical works. The return to Freud, the return of Freud into psychoanalysis became the rallying cry.
At first Lacan's group systematically studied Freud's texts. Lacan then realized that it was necessary to treat Freud's theory "like a thing"