Lacanian Psychoanalytical Theory and the Position of Subject

Lived between 1901-1981, Jacques Lacan is a theoretician who is known for providing a philosophical perspective to Sigmund Freud’s pyschoanalytical theory and who is also known for his affinity with structural linguistics. Drawing a connection between psychoanalysis and linguistics, Lacan expressed his approach to the unconscious as “The unconscious is structured like a language” which is accepted as one of the key principles of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Calling his own studies of psychoanalysis as a return to Freud, Lacan argues that psychology of selfhood sees ego and selfhood as a design constructed against unconscious, alter ego and subject. Thus, he thinks that the psychology of selfhood has designed a certain human modal due to this viewpoint, and that it tries to reach this designed human modal. He has constructed his theory as a counter-response to this situation. Lacan interpreted Frued’s concept “Ich” as subject. We can think of the aim of this difference as an attempt to set himself apart from the ego psychology studies of post-Freudian time and Freud’s studies. Lacan expressed that many other psychoanalyists and ego psychologists of his time aimed to strengthen the ego through their analyses, and that they evaluated the self as put forward by Lacan within a reflective and imaginary process constructed with the other that alienates the subject to his or her own unconscious. Through Lacan’s studies, such concepts and study areas as desire, jouissance, other (autre), Other (Autre), unconscious subject, objet petit a, and the mirror stage. With this presentation, the aim is to share the general approaches to Lacanian psychoanalysis in order to put forth a new perspective in terms of philosophy and linguistics to the field of ego psychology as well as to the theory of psychoanalysis for professionals working in the field of mental health