Lacan and the transference

ABSTRACT

Lacan papers reading is difficult and often disappointing. His technique, using shortening of sessions as a way of interpreting transference (“scansion”) is unacceptable. His great project of create a united structural theory of psychoanalysis, linguistic and anthropology has failed. However, his works on transference are worth being red. Lacan has reminded psychoanalysts that they are “divided subjects”, meaning that their unconscious remains unconscious to themselves, that they have to listen to themselves as much as they have to listen to their their patients; he has rediscovered the importance of après-coup, already stressed by Freud, but often forgotten; and above all, he has rediscovered the importance of words in transference interpretation, showing the importance of the link between two signifiers, more than the link between signifier and signified.

KEYWORDS:

• Signifier
• après-coup
• subject division

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Translator’s note: The references for Lacan, as given by the author in French, refer to the date of composition, whereas all the other references indicate the English date of publication.