The 85 best phrases of Jacques Lacan

Since the birth of psychoanalysis at the hands of Sigmund Freud the psychodynamic current has evolved and varied, emerging different schools and traditions that either they were totally separated or they followed in the wake of classical psychoanalysis but introducing news.

However, there was an author who believed that this evolution had led to a departure from the basic pillars of psychoanalysis and he would propose to go back to the origins, rereading the work Freudian. Is about Jacques Lacan, one of the great exponents of psychoanalysis in France, a country that still preserves a great tradition in this current of the history of psychology.

In this article you can find a series of 85 phrases by Jacques Lacan in order to better understand his thinking.

• Related article: "Guide to understand Jacques Lacan"

85 phrases by Lacan to understand his legacy

Here we present a series of eighty-five iconic and representative phrases of Lacan's thought, which can help to better understand his thinking.

1. Only idiots believe in the reality of the world, the real is filthy and you have to endure it

Lacan considered that the human being is not capable of identifying and expressing the real of the psyche and of his world, this being in fact what we do not know. We limit ourselves to acting through symbolism to try to reproduce part of the real and unconscious through the conscious. The truth is unbearable and incompatible with the self.

2. The truth is the error that escapes from deception and is reached from a misunderstanding

This phrase lets us see the author's perspective that reaching the truth is complex, being unconscious.

3. If Freud focused things on sexuality, it is because in sexuality, the speaking being babbles

Lacan advocated a return to the Freudian. He believes that in the sexual area, elements can be found that move away from the rational and the thought to focus on the unconscious, being able to reveal the truth. For him, In sexuality fragments of the unconscious can be found.

4. Desire is always desire

Our drives and fantasies do not cease to be, but remain as such. If one seems to fulfill his objective, another appears to replace him.

5. Nothing satisfies the desire at all

Like the previous sentence, in this Lacan tells us that whatever we do to try to satisfy ourselves, our desires and drives will not cease to exist.

6. The truth can only be explained in terms of fiction

For Lacan, reality is everything that we do not know and that would be impossible for us to recognize or express with language, our perception and expression being a fiction elaborated through symbolism.

7. The structure of the unconscious is similar to a language

Language was for Lacan an element of great importance when it came to understanding the psyche, being a symbolic element that makes it possible to try to link the conscious and the unconscious.

• You may be interested: "Sigmund Freud's Theory of the Unconscious (and the new theories)"

8. You may know what he said, but never what the other heard

We cannot know how the information we transmit to others reaches others or how it will be interpreted.

9. Desire takes place in that repercussion that arises from articulating language at the level of the other

The fact of connecting the language at the level of our interlocutor provokes in this certain attraction.

10. Can there be something that justifies fidelity, other than the word promised? However, the word pawned is often pawned lightly. If he did not pawn it like that, it is likely that he would pawn it much more rarely.

The word given and the maintenance of it are difficult things to maintain on many occasions, guarantees are often offered without actually being given.

11. To love is to give what you do not have to someone who is not

A phrase in which the author focuses on love as something in which we offer what we lack, knowing that one cannot complete the other completely, and that if we try to fill our gaps with someone that someone stops being a person to be an object. Despite this, mutual understanding will be tried.

12. Love is always reciprocal

This phrase does not mean that whenever someone loves another person, he is going to love them too. With it the author tries to indicate that the person who loves another finds something in her that is what he does that he loves her, so the fact of loving her is partly because she has something that the one who loves her can perceive.

13. The sexual relationship ends with the real

In this phrase Lacan speaks to us of our instinctual and unconscious part, which is revealed in sexuality and relationships with others.

14. Lack generates desire

The absence or lack of something in ourselves is for Lacan what generates that we want something or someone.

15. Only those who gave in their desire feel guilty

For Lacan, guilt comes from not fulfilling or looking for a way to fulfill his desires and instincts, which causes repentance.

16. When the loved one goes too far in betraying himself and persevere in deceiving himself, in love he does not follow him anymore

In this sentence Lacan speaks to us of the communication between the unconscious and of the importance of remaining true to oneself.

17. You are not you, you are what my desire invents in you

Lacan's explanation for love and affective relationships. What attracts is not the person himself but what he provokes in oneself.

18. Better that he who cannot unite the subjectivity of his time to his horizon should resign.

This phrase indicates the relevance of taking into account the context and how the moment and the beliefs of the time in which we live affects the psyche.

19. We think we think with our brains, but personally I think with my feet. That's the only way I can get in touch with something solid. Sometimes I think with my head as when with something. But I have seen enough encephalograms to know that there is no evidence of thought in the brain

In this phrase Lacan encourages us to make us see the need to confront the world and live it instead of reasoning about it.

20. Of a wound, what matters is the scar

The past has already happened, but the effects they have left on us will cause us to behave and think in a certain way.

21. When we are facing something impossible, there is only one way: to do it. The impossible is to be done, it is not to be promised, of course it has a requirement: not to back down from the impossible desire that inhabits us

Lacan tries to show how important it is not to repress one's own desires and drives in order to achieve what is desired.

22. Taking hold of the use of the symbolic is the only way that the analytical process has to penetrate the plane of identification.

The symbolic is expressed through the word, language being the means by which the person registers from the conscious what he lives and what he feels. It is the only means by which it is possible to attempt to penetrate the psyche of the patient.

23. The analyst is not the one who knows, who knows is the analysand

In the therapeutic relationship, the one who has the true knowledge of the situation and in whom the conflicts to be treated occur is the patient, while the therapist has only fragmented knowledge according to what it relates.

24. The principle of pleasure lies in doing nothing, doing as little as possible

For Lacan, pleasure is understood as the avoidance of suffering by reducing the level of tension and frustration while avoiding the reduction of the energy level.

25. It is common for the obvious to go unnoticed, precisely because it is obvious

The meaning of this phrase refers to the fact that we often ignore the real reasons for something simply because they are obvious and obvious.

26. Only love who can make enjoyment condescend to desire

Jouissance is understood by Lacan as a result of the principle of death, which seeks an increase in the activation that gives us pleasure despite the fact that under normal conditions this increase would be aversive.

27. The structure of the unconscious is similar to a language

For Lacan, language, despite being a symbolic element, allows an approach to the unconscious precisely because it has a structure similar to it.

28. The only thing we all talk about is our own symptom

People speak from our inner world and express through language our perception of the world, our shortcomings and our difficulties.

29. Castration could be defined as the denial of this jouissance in order to advance on the inverse scale of the law of desire.

The fear of castration is a psychoanalytic concept widely known. In this sentence Lacan identifies it as the mechanism with which we avoid expressing our drives (especially those linked to activation and the death drive).

• You may be interested: "The Oedipus Complex: one of the most controversial concepts in Freud's theory"

30. The narration, in effect, duplicates its drama from the comments, without which no staging would be possible.

The narrative, history and discourse of each person is spiced up by the contributions of others, which in turn give it content.

31. The symptom is a metaphor

For Lacan, metaphor is a form of defense mechanism which would be identified with condensation, in which one signifier is replaced by another with which it maintains a relationship of similarity. The symptoms of a disorder do the same, being a reaction that substitutes for some element of the psyche that it resembles in some way.

• Related article: "Defense mechanisms: 10 ways not to face reality"

32. All art is characterized by a certain way of organization around a void

Art and words are symbolic elements that try to organize chaos and truth even when it is unknown.

33. An analyst does not know what he says but he must know what he does

The role of the analyst for Lacan is to access the unconscious of the patient to bring it to light, through the word.

34. The first virtue of knowledge is the ability to face what is not obvious

While the obvious should not be ignored, knowing means facing the unknown in order to experiment and gain information from it.

35. There is no subject if there is no signifier that fuses it

In this sentence Lacan refers to the Other, who configures the self.

36. If you have understood you are surely wrong

This phrase may refer to the inability to perceive reality completely due to that the use of language implies the use of signs, which in turn exclude the meanings opposites.

37. The analyst does nothing but return his inverted message to the analysand, as if it were a mirror.

The analyst works to extract and bring to consciousness the unconscious meaning of what is stated by the patient in his message.

38. Reality is the support for the neurotic's ghost

Neuroses are generated mainly by the inadequate functioning of the defense mechanisms and in the repression of instincts, being the unconscious reality what ends up producing the symptom

39. The woman does not exist

This strange phrase refers to the fact that for Lacan both men and women have a mental representation that is characterized as masculine, being the feminine identified with the Other. It is not that women do not exist, but that for him they do not exist as a symbolic generality.

40. The art and the word exist commonly to hide the lack

The symbolic is not capable of fully expressing the real, although it represents it in part

41. Every relationship is based on a certain relationship between two unconscious knowledge

The links we form are based on the relationships we establish at the unconscious level.

42. The attraction to utility is so irresistible that we can observe people willing to do anything. thing for the pleasure of giving their comforts to those who have the idea that they will not be able to live without their help

Lacan links generosity and altruism with the need to be useful.

43. Since intimacy makes it unbearable, then there is extimacy

Intimacy, the real, is unbearable for the self according to Lacan. We only recognize the outside.

44. You can consider yourself Lacanians if you want to. For my part I declare myself a Freudian

Lacan stands out for declaring himself a Freudian, despite the fact that some of the aspects that he worked on were interpreted in a somewhat different way.

45. The real is what refuses to be symbolized in an absolute way

This phrase sums up Lacan's concept of real.

46. It's true only to the extent that we follow it

What we consider to be true is what is going to make you act. When we stop following it, it ceases to be true.

47. Since Freud, the center of man is no longer what we thought it was. Now we have to get out of there

The vision of psychoanalysis supposed a new way of seeing the human being, emerging notions such as the unconscious that were fundamental for Lacan. This vision allows shift the focus of attention to drive aspects and leave other conceptions behind.

48. Below the signifier there is nothing

The relationship between signified and signifier is an important element for the Lacanian vision.

49. If there is an object of your desire that is none other than yourself.

For Lacan, desire is the search for something that we lack and that we want to fill, with what we really want is to supply this lack.

50. Love is basically wanting to be loved

This phrase reflects that in love there is always the desire to be reciprocated, this being for Lacan the nucleus of love.

51. Dialogue itself is a rejection of aggression

The word is seen as a mechanism to sublimate aggressive drives.

52. The subject is subject to desire

For Lacan, the human being is always in conflict with his wishes.

53. The word is the death of the thing

As a representation of the symbolic, the word supposes partial reality, at the same time that it does not allow the entire expression of the instinctive.

54. The unsuspecting err

The non-unwary usually acts based on reason and logic, elements that are limited to the symbolic and ignore the unconscious.

55. Dreams are painted like puzzles

The dream is for Lacan the imaginary, which allows the expression of part of the real in the symbolic.

56. A subject is a signifier for another signifier

People are for other people not only elements with meaning but they are part of the structuring of reality when giving meaning to things through the word.

57. You can love someone not only for what he has, but literally for what he lacks

This phrase refers to the fact that love does not have to be given only in the presence of something that attracts us, but that it can also be loved by the absence of something that harms us.

58. We are beings with the ability to wish but always incomplete, that's where our walk arises

The fact of being incomplete and wanting to complete ourselves is what moves us.

59. Psychoanalysis is an extremely efficient instrument, and because it gains more prestige every day, it is in danger of being used for a purpose other than that for which it was created, and in this way we can degrade it

In this sentence Lacan reflects his belief that distorting the basic pillars of psychoanalysis can cause the degradation of the psychoanalytic paradigm.

60. Being a psychoanalyst is simply opening your eyes to the evidence that nothing is more absurd than human reality.

In this sentence Lacan reflects his opinion that the human psyche is something complex and difficult to understand.

61. Possible reservations aside, a fictional story even has the advantage of revealing a symbolic need in a purer way, insofar as we can make it appear arbitrary.

Fiction incorporates a certain element of imagination, which in turn is a reflection of the unconscious. In this way, a fictitious narrative can come to reflect a real need or drive in the patient.

62. What does it matter how many lovers you can have if none of them can give you the universe?

No matter who we are with, we are all incomplete beings that cannot be completed by anyone else.

63. The reason we go after poetry is not that pursuit of philosophy, but rather the dismantling of philosophy.

Poetry is a symbolic element that can pretend to represent the interior of the person, her impulses and passions. In this way Lacan considers that he dismantles philosophy in that he tries to offer an explanation to the world, in a way that is closer to the conscious.

64. The sexual relationship does not exist

With this phrase Lacan indicates that he considers that there is no true understanding of the sexual act.

65. The subject does not speak but is spoken

The self is a part of the psyche that is spoken by the unconscious, and not the other way around.

66. The symptoms, what you think you know from other people, may seem irrational, but it is because you take them in isolation, and want to interpret them directly.

The symptoms being analyzed may seem strange from the outside, but they are understandable if the person is understood holistically. We cannot understand the suffering of others if we try to separate the symptoms from the rest of the surrounding context.

67. Life goes along the river touching the shore from time to time, stopping for a while here and there without understanding anything. The principle of analysis is that nobody understands anything that happens. The idea of ​​the unity of human life has always produced the effect of a scandalous lie.

A reflection on life, indicating the lack of understanding of most of what we are going to live.

68. I think where I am not, then I am where I do not think

Again, the confrontation between conscious and unconscious, the second being for Lacan what makes us be.

69. Psychoanalysis is not, on the one hand, a faith, but on the other I don't like to call it a science either. Let's say it is a practice and that it works on what is not right.

Lacan expresses his conception of what psychoanalysis entails.

70. If at some point psychoanalysis clarifies some facts of sexuality, it does not do so in terms of the reality of these acts, nor in their character of biological experience.

Sexuality is a frequently worked issue and a core part of psychoanalysis, especially that of Freudian. However, the point of view offered by this paradigm does not refer to the act itself, but to its symbolic elements and its development.

71 I love you, but inexplicably and because I love something more about you than you do, then I mutilate you

This phrase refers to the link between people and the relationship between what the person is and what we want him to be, between what he is and what we would like him to complete us.

72. The truth has a fictional structure

As fiction is imagination and is partially linked to reality, the structure of both has similarities.

73. The desire of man is the desire of the Other

In this sentence Lacan speaks to us of one of his own concepts, that of the Other as the conception of the external and backbone of the ego structure.

74. The secret by which the truth has always initiated her lovers, and by which they have accessed her paths is that it is in the hidden where she delivers the greatest amount of truth

For Lacan the truth is in the hidden, in the imperceptible, in the unconscious.

75. When in love I ask you for a look, that act is condemned to be unsatisfactory in any way. Because you will never watch me from where I see you

Each person has their own way of understanding the world, so it is difficult for even in love to find an identical conception between both people.

76. When you really love, this has nothing to do with sex

Love and sex do not have to be linked for Lacan.

77. Anxiety as we know it always has a connection to a loss. With a relationship that is two-sided and can fade simply by being replaced by something else. Something that no patient can cope with without feeling a sensation of vertigo

In these phrases Lacan relates anxiety with fear of loss.

78. Life has only one meaning, being able to gamble it, and gambling life has some gambling

This phrase tells us about dare to live despite the risks.

79. "Saying" has something to do with time. The absence of time is something that is dreamed of is what is called eternity, and that dream consists of imagining that one wakes up

A reflection on what it means to dream. We are talking on the one hand about the conscious and symbolic (saying) and the unconscious (dreaming).

80. The unconscious is very precisely the hypothesis that you don't dream only when you sleep

In this phrase Lacan indicates that dreaming, wishing, is something we do continuously and what governs us from the unconscious.

81. However, the analytic truth is not so mysterious, or as a secret, so that it prevents us recognize people who can direct their consciences to see the truth spring up spontaneously

Although the analysis of the psyche is complex and complicated, it is something that is possible to achieve.

82. The unconscious, it is said, does not know the contradiction; it is surely why it is necessary for the analyst to operate for something that does not make its foundation on the contradiction

The analyst must work on the patient in a way that does not contradict the subject's unconscious drives, since the unconscious is not contradictory.

83. It is not necessary to wait for Freud to access the knowledge that there is a part of our psychic functions that are beyond our conscious reach.

Lacan indicates that the fact that there is something unconscious in us can or should be easily perceived due to different aspects such as instincts or intuition.

84. It is the analyst's duty to take the place of the dead

This phrase indicates that whoever analyzes the patient must locate the reason or origin of the suffering. Likewise, the role of the analyst is to help the patient express himself, without guiding him.

85. What could be more convincing, however, than putting your cards face up on the table?

This phrase tells us about the persuasiveness in the search for truth.