Presenter: Bruce Fink, PhD
This presentation will highlight similarities and differences between Lacan’s approach to psychoanalytic technique and both Freud’s approach and that of numerous contemporary analysts from non-Lacanian traditions. Whereas in Lacan’s approach the unconscious remains fundamental, the royal road to it is neither 1) the analyst’s countertransference, projective identification, self-disclosure, or intuition, nor 2) the analysand’s affective states. With his reformulation of the unconscious as the “subject supposed to know” and his reconceptualization of the psychoanalytic setting, we will explore Lacan’s innovations in technique with neurotics, including punctuation, "oracular" interpretation, scansion, the variable-length session, delayed use of the couch, and the focus on nonmeaning as opposed to understanding. The role of analysts as "giving what they do not have" as opposed to what they do have will be explored at length.
