Abstract Lacan likened himself to a “Zen master”, characterising his psychoanalytic approach as a “refusal of any system.” This article explores Lacan’s Zen-like approach and examines his provocative teachings, such as his instruction to “refuse me what I’m offering you,” and his emphasis on the limits of language in capturing truth. Additionally, in line with […]
The following article is meant to serve as an introduction in plain language to some basic concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis. With that purpose in mind, I have chosen to use Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass for purposes of illustration to render Lacanian concepts clearer. The following article is not an attempt at psychoanalytic literary criticism, […]
This article is meant to reclaim Freud as a naturalist. During the 20th century, Freud’s writings were used by various schools of thought in support of their ideas regardless of Freud’s own views and original intentions. The abuse of Freudian psychoanalysis is an unfortunate trend that we have been witnessing in the humanities for many […]
Freud considered psychoanalysis to be “first and foremost an art of interpreting” (Freud, 1961a, p. 12). In this paper, our aim is to apply this art of interpreting to Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in order to gain new insights into the novel. Gatsby is torn apart by the tension between the present and the past: […]
“Nature rises up against us, majestic, cruel and inexorable.” —Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion Freud’s The Future of an Illusion and Civilization and its Discontents form a duology which show an embittered Freud during the final phase of his career. By mainly relying on these two works, our aim is to show the […]
“Trauma” is one of those words about whose meaning there is no consensus; or, to use a Lacanian term, it functions as a point de capiton—that is to say, a word that everyone uses, yet it has no fixed meaning on which everyone agrees—and the constant usage of the word generates the illusion that everyone […]
The aim of this article is to introduce the reader to the general outline of Lacanian psychoanalysis by providing a rudimentary introduction to some Lacanian concepts such as the Lacanian triad (of the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real) and the concept of the big Other. We will also have a brief look at Lacan’s […]
