But what Freud showed us… was that nothing can be grasped, destroyed, or burnt, except in a symbolic way, as one says, in effigie, in absentia.
Jacques LacanRead
Psychoanalysis is a terribly efficient instrument, and because it is more and more a prestigious instrument, we run the risk of using it with a purpose for which it was not made for, and in this way we may degrade it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote warns against the misuse of psychoanalysis, suggesting that its prestige may lead to inappropriate applications.
Jacques Lacan highlights the dangers of treating psychoanalysis as a tool that can be applied for superficial or unintended purposes. The quote reflects a concern that as psychoanalysis gains recognition and prestige, there is a risk that practitioners may utilize it in ways that compromise its true purpose, thereby undermining its efficacy and integrity. Lacan emphasizes the need to respect the origins and intended functions of such a powerful instrument of psychological exploration.
Themes
PsychoanalysisMisuseRiskPrestigeIntegrity
In practice
Example use cases
In a therapy session when discussing the ethical use of psychoanalysis.
More from Jacques Lacan
All quotes →The real is what resists symbolization absolutely.
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If psychoanalysis clarifies some facts of sexuality, it is not by aiming at them in their own reality, not in biological experience.
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I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think. I am not whenever I am the plaything of my thought; I think of what I am where I do not think to think.
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The reason we go to poetry is not for wisdom, but for the dismantling of wisdom
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Meaning is produced not only by the relationship between the signifier and the signified but also, crucially, by the position of the signifiers in relation to other signifiers.
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