The Ego as Useful Fiction: The Case of Mrs. J.

Abstract

Using a clinical case as a starting point, we pose the following hypothesis: in clinical practice, Lacan’s decentering of the ego is neither its demolition nor its praise, but its conceptual delimitation. This idea will be argued through the analysis of a woman’s case, in the light of certain points from Seminar 2 and other references that are implied in this text: Jeremy Bentham’s theory of fictions and Freud’s construction in analysis. This clinical-theoretical analysis will guide us to contemplate a possible conceptual delimitation of the ego: the ego as a useful fiction.