Freud/Lacan/Philosophy

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

In this course we will reflect on the place that Hegel and Freud/Lacan give to language. We will start by reading two kinds of passages in Hegel. First, we will read passages where Hegel gives a crucial function to language: his theory of perception, his theory of morality (the highest moral act is the linguistic act of forgiving), and his theory of the constitution of marriage. Second, we will read passages where Hegel does not make use of language: his theory of the constitution of self-consciousness (his theory of the master/slave dialectic, of stoicism, of scepticism and of the unhappy consciousness) and his theory of the will (Philosophy of Right). Next we will read publications by Freud and Lacan, who give a crucial function to language in the creation of personal identity. Freud goes so far as claiming a causal role of language in the formation of hysterical symptoms. He also gives examples of how mis-remembering of names and words reveals unconscious processes. Building upon Freud, Lacan argues that the subject in its deep structure is the results of language. In particular, Lacan gives great weight to the role of both metonymy and metaphor in the formation of the subject. Lacan’s strong claims are that the structure of language as revealed by structuralist linguistics requires to some degree the acceptance of the narcissistic wound imposed by the Oedipus complex. This claim makes a connection between the emotional life of a human being, the ability to make use of language and achieving subjectivity. We will concentrate on the three phases of Lacan’s understanding of schizophrenia. Finally we will take a look at some of Lacan’s critics. We will look at a phenomenologist (William Richardson) and an analytic philosophers (MacIntyre) who argue that Lacan is not able to give a strong meaning to the concept of subject or is not able to give a place to metaphysics. Readings: Books available in the bookstore Breuer, Freud. (Strachey, transl): Studies in Hysteria. Basic books. 0-465-08276-9 Harari, R. (1995). How James Joyce made his Name: A Reading of the Final Lacan (L. Thurston, Trans.). New York: Other Press. Hegel. Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford UP(Can also be downloaded) Hegel. Philosophy of Right.Oxford UP (Can also be downloaded) Lacan, J. (1993). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book III. The Psychoses. 1955-1956 J. Miller, Ed.) (R. Grigg, Trans.). New York: W.W.Norton. Lacan: Ecrits. Norton. ISBN: 13-978-0393-32925-4 Paper Articles available in the library on the WEB or on Blackboard Freud, S. (1893). Some Points for a Comparative Study of Organic and Hysterical Motor Paralyses. In S.E. (Vol. 1). London: Hogarth Press. Freud, S. (1901). The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Ch 1. (Vol. 6). London: Hogarth Press. MacIntyre, A. (2004). Preface to the Revised Edition. In The Unconscious. A Conceptual Analysis. New York and London: Routledge. Richardson, W. J. (1983). Lacan and the Subject of Psychoanalysis. In Interpreting Lacan. In J. H. Smith & W. Kerrigan (Eds.), Psychiatry and the Humanities, Vol 6 (pp. 51-74). New Haven: Yale University Press.