Jacques Lacan, Barred Psychologist

Abstract

This paper reviews a series of contradictions between the discipline of psychology and the work of Jacques Lacan. Psychology here is the academic and professional domain of theory and practice developed in Western, specifically Anglo-US American, culture to describe and explain behavioural and mental processes. Lacan is characterized with reference to the elaboration of his theoretical and clinical work, with the focus primarily on his own writings. The main argument is that there is a fundamental incompatibility between Lacan's work and psychological views of the individual subject, and therefore attempts to assimilate the two traditions are misconceived. This means that psychologists looking to Lacan for answers must question underlying assumptions about theory and methodology in their discipline if they are to take his work seriously. The incompatibility between Lacan and psychology also has important consequences for clinical psychologists who may wish to adopt ideas from the Lacanian tradition, for it highlights the dangers that psychology holds for psychoanalysis if psychological theories and methodologies are taken on good coin. The motif of Lacan as `barred psychologist' is designed to emphasize these arguments as well as the distinctive account of the human subject that his work entails.

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