The Place of the Other in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

This article presents a mystery of the psychoanalysis doctrine: the place of the other and the place of the Other. The reader will consider a condition that orients this essay: the experience of analytic treatment interrogates the doctrine in order to purge it of its difficulties, changes, contradictions and objections. Jacques Lacan took on the task of clarifying the question we discuss here in the treatment and in the doctrine of psychoanalysis. In the first place, the essay is limited by the irregular state of the texts concerning this teaching, which is a mixture of oral and written teaching along with unpublished texts.

It is proposed to follow there the path of difficulties, triumphs, failures and the points of catastrophe that this subject underwent. That path is covered by three essential registers of subjectivity: the imaginary, the symbolic and the real. In each one it is possible to locate the place of the Other/other. The essay discusses a “work in progress” and not a prêt-à-porter.