Lacan's thesis that the unconscious is structured like a language permits him to reformulate Freud's theories with the aid of the conceptual categories of contemporary

linguistics. Heim suggests that the peculiarities of Lacan's style result from the endeavor to find a form of representation adequate to that which is to be represented. The German tradition of conceptualizing Marxism and psychoanalysis in one "Critical Theory" is confronted with the French tradition of identifying language and work under the banner of semiotics.