Jacques Lacan: Difference between revisions

In his introduction to the 1994 Penguin edition of Lacan's ''[[The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis|The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis]]'', translator and historian [[David Macey]] describes Lacan as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]]".<ref name=controversial_quote>[[David Macey]], "Introduction", Jacques Lacan (1994). ''The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis'', London: Penguin Books, p. xiv</ref> His ideas had a significant impact on [[post-structuralism]], [[critical theory]], [[20th-century French philosophy|French philosophy]], [[film theory]], and clinical psychoanalysis.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Marta | first=Jan | title=Lacan and post-Structuralism | journal=The American Journal of Psychoanalysis | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=47 | issue=1 | year=1987 | issn=0002-9548 | doi=10.1007/bf01252332 | pages=51–57| pmid=2437811 | s2cid=21435280 }}</ref>

Others have dismissed Lacan's work wholesale. {{ill|François Roustang|fr}} called it an "incoherent system of [[pseudo-scientific]] gibberish", and quoted [[linguist]] [[Noam Chomsky]]'s opinion that Lacan was an "amusing and perfectly self-conscious [[charlatan]]".<ref>Roustang, François, [http://bactra.org/reviews/lacanian-delusion/''The Lacanian Delusion'']</ref> The former Lacanian analyst Dylan Evans (who published a dictionary of Lacanian terms in 1996) eventually dismissed Lacanianism as lacking a sound scientific basis and as harming rather than helping patients. He criticized Lacan's followers for treating Lacan's writings as "holy writ".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Evans |first1=Dylan |chapter=From Lacan to Darwin |title=The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative|url=https://archive.org/details/literaryanimalev00gott_879 |url-access=limited |date=2005|pages=[https://archive.org/details/literaryanimalev00gott_879/page/n64 38]–55|publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]]|location=[[Evanston, Illinois]]|editor1=Jonathan Gottschall|editor2=David Sloan|citeseerx=10.1.1.305.690 }}</ref> [[Richard Webster (British author)|Richard Webster]] decried what he sees as Lacan's obscurity, arrogance, and the resultant "[[Cult]] of Lacan".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.richardwebster.net/thecultoflacan.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020910203351/http://www.richardwebster.net/thecultoflacan.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=10 September 2002 |title=The Cult of Lacan |publisher=Richardwebster.net |date=14 June 1907 |access-date=18 June 2011}}</ref> Others have been more forceful still, describing him as "The Shrink from Hell"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psychiatrie-und-ethik.de/infc/en/Shrink_from_Hell.htm|title=Raymond Tallis|website=www.psychiatrie-und-ethik.de|access-date=21 May 2019|archive-date=13 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613142302/http://www.psychiatrie-und-ethik.de/infc/en/Shrink_from_Hell.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Tallis|first1=Raymond|title=The Shrink from Hell|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/the-shrink-from-hell/159376.article|website=Times Higher Education Supplement|access-date=27 August 2016|date=31 October 1997}}</ref> and listing the many associates—from lovers and family to colleagues, patients, and editors—who were left damaged in his wake.

of how most members of the [[École Freudienne de Paris|Association]] talk about Lacan."{{efn|When the French Society of Psychoanalysis requested official recognition from and affiliation with the ''Association Psychanalytique Internationale'' ([[International Psychoanalytical Association]]) in 1959, the API demanded the sidelining of Jacques Lacan as a didactician. Two currents of the ''[[Société Française de Psychanalyse]]'' (French Society of Psychoanalysis) then stood opposed at each other: one current, which became the majority in the SFP in November 1963, was led by Daniel Lagache, and others, while a second current, which became the minority, brought together the supporters of Jacques Lacan.}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Turkle |first=Sherry |date=1978|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/228963082/Psychoanalytic-Politics-Freud-s-French-Revolution-Sherry-Turkle|access-date=October 24, 2023|author-link= Sherry Turkle |title=Psychoanalytic Politics: Freud's French Revolution |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0465066070}}</ref>

In an interview with anthropologist James Hunt, Sylvia Lacan said of her late husband: "He was a man who worked tremendously hard. Tremendously intelligent. He was... what is called, well, a domestic tyrant... But he was worth the trouble. I have absolutely no reproaches to make against him. Just the contrary. But it was not possible to be a wife, a mother to my children, and an actress at the same time." <ref>{{Cite web|last=Hunt|first=Jamer Kennedy|date=1995|title=Absence to presence: The life history of Sylvia [Bataille] Lacan (France)|url=https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/16832/9610654.PDF?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|access-date=24 October 2020|website=Rice Digital Scholarship}}</ref>

In ''Les Freudiens hérétiques'', the 8th tome of his work ''Contre-histoire de la philosophie'' (''Anti-History of Philosophy''),<ref name=anti>{{cite book |last= Onfray |first=Michel|author-link=Michel Onfray |date=2013 |title=Les Freudiens hérétiques : Contre-histoire de la philosophie|language=French|trans-title=The heretic Freudians: Anti-History of Philosophy|volume= 8th |publisher=[[Éditions Grasset]] |isbn=978-2246802686}}</ref> [[Michel Onfray]] describes Lacan's ''[[Écrits]]'' as "illegible".<ref name=anti/>{{rp|49}}. According to Onfray, Lacan engages in constant [[word play]], has a taste for the formulaic, and deploys "incantatory [[glossolalia]]" and unnecessary [[neologism]]s. He calls Lacan a "charlatan," and a "dandy figure" who "sinks into autism," eventually becoming senile.<ref name=anti/>{{rp|49-5049–50}}

*[[John Forrester (historian)| Forrester, John]] (1985) ''Language and the Origins of Psychoanalysis'', Basingstoke and London: Macmillan.