Tracking the Lacanian unconscious in language

Abstract

This paper makes two contributions to the emerging field of Lacanian Discourse Analysis (LDA), one by way of theoretical exposition, a second oriented toward the challenges of empirical analysis. In the first section of the paper I illustrate and develop upon the elusive Lacanian notion of the unconscious structured as a language. This discussion yields a series of important ideas: the assertion that a matrix of latent significations shadows any utterance; the distinction between statement/enunciation; and the concept of repression-in-language. These concepts provide a platform for the second section of the paper which draws on textual material collected by the Apartheid Archive Project (AAP) in order to demonstrate a particular procedure of LDA. This procedure entails an attention to discontinuous narrative components and the role of symbolic juxtapositions. It points, furthermore, to the value of making novel combinations of given textual elements as a way of querying what may be repressed in the text. Two important conclusions are drawn from this discussion, each of which indicates a priority for Lacanian practice. Firstly, the idea that the ongoing work of symbolic juxtaposition may be more profitable than 'depth' interpretations in conducting analysis. Secondly, that facilitation of lateral significations and associated significations should take priority over the aim of extracting a single over-arching message.

“This Is a Disease” and “Disease Has No Sin”: Discourse Constructions of Individuals With Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder With Regard to Being Diagnosed

“…By employing these key elements, researchers using the LDA perspective aim to gain insights into how language constructs reality, how meaning is created, and how power and authority operate within the discourse. Research examples that adopt this methodology can be examined for further information (Baltacı & Gençöz, 2019; Brock, 2016; Dempsey, 2021; Frosh et al, 2003; Hook, 2013; Koren, 2014; Malone & Barabino, 2009; Roberts & Malone, 2014; Stavrakakis, 2014; Swales et al, 2019).…”

Do planning concepts matter? A Lacanian interpretation of the urban village in a British context

“…For Lacan, the function of language is to evoke, rather than inform, to seek a response from the other. Therefore, this approach can extract something that is implied but not explicitly stated by the Symbolic (Hook, 2013).…”

“…Lacan’s four discourses are the core part of LDA (Hook, 2013; Malone and Roberts, 2010; Neill, 2013; Parker, 2005). It emphasises the subjectivities in discourse and consequently reveals the social effects of these subjectivities (Bracher, 1993).…”

Analyzing Silence in Psychoanalytically Oriented Psychotherapy Sessions with Conversation Analysis

“…Eğitimimin son 3,5 yılında Lacanyen Psikanaliz üzerine çalışmalar yürütmekteyim. Teorik yaklaşımımda ve buna paralel olarak uygulamalarımda yaklaşımımı şekillendiren Lacan, psikanaliz için dilin kullanımının önemini vurgulayan ve bilinçdışının analizanın konuşması üzerinden çalışılması gerektiğini (örneğin dil sürçmeleri, eş sesli kelimeler, çift anlamlı kelimeler gibi) savunan bir psikanalisttir (Hook, 2013). Lacan'ın sese (voice) olan vurgusu (Lagaay, 2008) ve buna ek olarak S. Hanım'ın önemli bir konu üzerinde konuşulduğunu düşündüğüm sırada sessizleşmesi ve zaman zaman da konuyu değiştirmesi, terapi anlarında ortaya çıkan sessizlikler konusunda beni bir araştırma yapmaya yöneltmiştir.…”