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que:
way.
All this already provides a basis for refinements and rectifica..
tions, but I don't have the time to work them out right now.
others can say what they are and develop them at length, under
I
Note 1
[On Psychoanalysis]
tha:
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The practice
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Tile fact that psychoanalysis does not have a general theory at its
disposal, only a practice or a regional theory, confers a very
peculiar status upon it: it is not in a position to provide objective
proof of its scientificity - that is to say, it is not in a position
differentially to define (or locate) its theoretical object in the field
of theoretical objectivity (a field constituted by the differential
relations of the different theoretical objects in existence). Indeed,
the. only possible way to provide proof of the scientificity of a
reg.lonal theory is point to the differential articulation which
aS~l~S that regional theory its place in the articulated field of
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oe;on
Despite all the precautions Lacan has taken, one cannot say
that he - or, in any case, some of his disCiples - is not tempted
by this ideological misperception. Witness, for instance, the issue
of La Psycha11alyse on 'Psychoanalysis and the Human Sciences,'9
and the positions Lacan has taken [vis-a-vis] the work of LeviStrauss, as well as certain themes that he develops in discussing
the history of the Sciences [and] Descartes, or the (highly
ambiguous) use to which he puts the thought of certain philosophers (Plato, Hegel, Heidegger). It is quite striking that the use
to which Lacan puts linguistics in elaborating the concepts of the
psyc~oanalytic regional theory is totally exempt from the effects
what'
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~embled in order to constitute the general theory of psycho a~alysis, we have to set out from the c~aracteristics o.f the object
of the regional theory of psychoanalysIs: the unconscIous.
It is well known that this regional theory has been developed
on the basis of observations and experiences provided by the
practice of the cure as well as observations provided by other
phenomena external to the cure (the effects of the unconscious
in "everyday' life, art, religion, and so on).
We can characterize the unconscio'us as follows:
(a) The unconscious is manifested, that is, exists in its effects,
both normal and pathological: 11 these effects are discernible in dreams, all the various forms of symptoms, and all
the different kinds of 'play' (including 'wordplay').
(b) This manifestation is not that of an essence whose effects
are its phenomena. That which exists is the mechanisms of
a system that functions by producing these effects. These
mechanisms are themselves determinate. It may be said
that, in the narrow sense of the word that which exists is
the formations of the unconscious - in other words, the
determinate systems that function by producing certain
determinate effects. 'The unconscious' designates nothing
other than the theoretical object which allows us to think
the formations of the unconscious, that is, systems funcI