Guide to understand Jacques Lacan

Jacques lacan He is one of the greatest representatives of the psychodynamic current started years ago by Sigmund Freud, also one of the great figures of postmodernity. As admired by some as despised by others, his theoretical legacy has gone far beyond the clinical field in which it originated and has permeated many fields of philosophy and science social. Even such renowned intellectuals as Slavoj Zizek base his philosophy on Lacan's work.

However, Jaques Lacan is not known for formulating simple and easy-to-understand explanations, precisely. He left few written texts, preferred to disseminate his ideas orally in seminars and, furthermore, his ideas were reformulated several times over the years.

That is why people who set out to enter Lacan's work do not face an easy task. However, and although it is impossible to understand the work of this post-Freudian by reading a single article, it is possible to have a series of guidelines in mind to start studying his work.

7 principles to understand Lacan

Then you can read some ideas to understand Lacan.

1. Start by learning about Freud

Jacques Lacan structures his work based on the great ideas about the human psyche that Sigmund Freud proposed years ago. After all, Lacan is a follower of the psychodynamic current, and from his student years he wanted to apply the principles of psychoanalysis in the treatment of psychotic patients in mental institutions.

That is why to understand Lacan it is absolutely essential to know well the work of Sigmund Freud and his main theories, for example the one that talks about him. human unconscious.

2. Read about structuralism and post-structuralism

Lacan's work receives many influences from the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, which is considered one of the pairs of the structuralism. Learning about his distinction between signifier and signified is of paramount importance in understanding Lacan, who he theorized a lot about symbolic phenomena.

To contextualize Saussure's ideas, it is important to understand what structuralism is and, by contrast, the post-structuralism.

3. Read introductory books to Lacan

Begin to understand Lacan from introductory guides It can make the work of this intellectual begin to be internalized from a biased perspective, but if the starting point is chosen well, it totally pays off. These readings will allow you to detect in a relatively easy way which are the fundamental pillars of Lacan's theories, to start building knowledge from those foundations.

If you know English, for example, you can start with this introductory book to Lacan.

4. Read texts by Lacan, but better if they are commented

After having chosen an introductory book on Lacan's thought, you probably don't have time or feel like reading another to review the same topics from a slightly different point of view, so you can now venture to read the texts of this thinker.

However, it would not hurt if you used texts with comments from other authors interspersed. This will help you become familiar with the vocabulary he uses, which is important for understanding Lacan because he used terms of daily use with another meaning than he uses the bulk of the population. By the way, if you understand French, there is no excuse not to read the original texts.

5. Participate in learning groups

To convey his ideas, Lacan preferred to do it verbally, engaging his audience in a kind of learning session in real time based on the Socratic method. As we no longer have the possibility to attend Jacques Lacan's classes, the discussion sessions with other apprentices of Lacan's work can produce the same effect: confront ideas and interpretations, apply what has been read to recent cases, etc.

Especially interesting is this conference (which also had a moment of extreme tension, starting at minute 28):

6. Be aware of the limitations of Lacan's work

The proposals of the psychodynamic current have no basis to explain the functioning of the human mind, as Freud claimed, and Lacan's work is no exception to this. His contributions are, in any case, of a philosophical nature and of interest to the world of the humanities. It is necessary to take this into account so as not to fall into the trap of making everything that is known about reality have to fit into Lacan's explanatory schemes. That would be little less than fundamentalism and would not help to make a true image of the theoretical legacy of this thinker.

7. Be patient

Understanding Lacan is an arduous task and there are very few shortcuts to quickly learn about his work. That is why it is worthwhile to mentalize yourself in the idea that internalizing the Lacanian legacy will be a task that will require years of dedication in order not to get frustrated.