The subject of psychology: A Lacanian critique

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of Jacques Lacan's views on psychology, paying particular attention to how such critiques support a distinctively Lacanian view of the subject. Lacan attacked various facets of psychology, including: psychology's objectifying (and objectivistic) tendencies; the discipline's historical attempt to model itself on the natural sciences; its conceptual and practical prioritizations of the ego and consciousness; its frequent prioritization of developmental, biological and physiological paradigms above a careful analysis of the structures and operations of language and speech. The aim of the paper is not to systematically work through Lacan's various criticisms, still less to refute them. Ultimately, Lacan's historical attacks against psychology—apposite as they are—have their greatest value in helping us to strike some distance from commonplace assumptions and psychological assumptions about the nature of the subject.

Key Episodes in The History of Testing in Central Western Europe

“…Some authors have also suggested that Binet had few followers because of how he interacted with his coworkers (Schneider, 1992). Instead of a focus on testing and assessment, French psychology and especially clinical psychology has long been influenced by psychoanalytic work and especially the psychoanalytic theories of the Frenchmen Jacques Lacan (Botbol & Gourbil, 2018;Hook, 2017). Lacan had critical views on behavioral methods and also psychoanalytic work in the egopsychology tradition that is popular in the US.…”