Jacques Lacan

Jacques  Lacan  (1901-1981) who is sometimes called the “French Freud” developed a

semiotic (on the basis of symbols and their meanings) model of Freud. He did this by presenting the ideas of psychoanalysis in a different way on the basis of Saussure’s ideas on language. His most important remark is the claim that “the unconscious is structured like a language.” Lacan was partly reacting to the biological reading of Freud done by Freud’s American followers.

According to Lacan the child of 6-18 months enters the “imaginary” or “the mirror stage”

which is also called the pre-oedipal period. This is a period of illusory unity and mastery of its world. In this state there is no clear distinction between the subject and object or between self and other. Later the child acquires language and enters into what Lacan calls the symbolic order. In this stage the child understands the system of linguistic differences and also its position in such oppositions as male/female, father/son, mother/daughter.

The entry into language is similar to the oedipal crisis in Freud’s theory. The child now comes under what is called the “law of the father.” The child expelled from the imaginary order, who

enters the symbolic order as a result of its construction in language experiences the loss of existence as pure organism. This lack creates desire in the subject. This desire (a type of symbolic castration) creates the unconscious in the subject. Thus the position and identity of the subject is constituted by language. Lacanian psychoanalysis is an example of poststructuralist analysis of language.

Psychoanalytic critics read texts in the following ways:

1.       When they interpret literary texts they give importance to the difference between the conscious and unconscious mind. The surface or overt meaning of the text is like the conscious mind. The covert or hidden meaning of the text, which is more important to them, is like the unconscious.

2.         The unconscious motives of, both the author and the character, become important to these critics.

3.       They read Oedipal motives in relationships, not only among the characters but also between writers of different generations.

4.       They identify a psychic context for a text rather than a social or historical context.

The Lacanian critics do not pay attention to the unconscious motives and feelings of the author or character like the Freudian critics. They search the text for contradictory undercurrents of meaning beneath the surface. They demonstrate the presence of Lacanian mirror stage and symbolic stage.