In his project of returning to Freud, Lacan addresses the psychoanalysts of his time in reference to post-Freudian currents with what is usually understood as a demolishing aim at a deviation in reading. Such a deviation would have neglected the most subversive aspect of Freud's legacy. Although the overtness of Lacan's criticism is undeniable, there is a less observed aspect of his position - a more fundamental questioning, not so specific about the deviation in reading itself, but about the way of reading Freud - whose neglect has in turn led us to undermine the most subversive aspect of Lacan's proposals.

 

By walking the pathway of how Lacan returned to Freud - equipped with conceptual articulations where the notion of structure in the 50s played a central role - we may  count on more clarity regarding the epistemological distinction between Freud and Lacan, while assessing the pillars that have helped the conception of a clinic that may or not manage to take desire literally today.

 

Recommended Reading:

“The Direction of the Treatment and the Principles of Its Power,” in Écrits, trans. Bruce Fink (New York: Norton, 2006), 489-452.