Hearing Oneself Speak the Never-Before Spoken: Therapeutic Action from a Lacanian Perspective

Lacanian theory is dense and abstract, making it hard to discern how Lacanian analysts conduct treatment. This paper outlines basic Lacanian methods, doing so using the framework of therapeutic action—how analysis affects psychic changes as seen from a Lacanian perspective. Lacan was opposed to the clinical goal of heightening a patient's self-understanding. His clinical efforts focused more on essential knowledge (discovering “what is”) as opposed to complex knowledge (explaining why “what is” is as it is). Two mutative clinical events are discussed: speaking the unspoken and movement from empty to full speech. Core Lacanian methods of bringing about such events include: “punctuation” (echoing noteworthy patient statements that contain more than the patient imagines), the use of oracular speech (“curve balls” that challenge a patient's core assumptions), and unplanned clinical moments when the analyst fails to live up to the patient's expectations (to be the one who is supposed to know). Basic Lacanian theory is outlined to gain a sense of what Lacanians see as the core human ailment: a sense of alienation and the endless search to satisfy desire that stems from one's core sense of lack—the sense of being perennially incomplete.