Jacques Marie Émile Lacan
The most controversial and inspirational analyst since Freud
13 April 1901 - 09 September 1981
Psychoanalyst . Psychiatrist
The most controversial and inspirational analyst since Freud
13 April 1901 - 09 September 1981
Psychoanalyst . Psychiatrist
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It's easy to be a Lacanian fan because, understanding his teachings is to be blessed with all the knowledge that he learned from all the many great minds of Earth. Introducing one of my favourite teachers... Lacan is known for his ability to learn from the old and evolve it with the times, which he felt was essential as humanity and our environments were evolving at such a great speed. For him to say that in his time means it's even more important now, because we are evolving faster than we can blink these days with our massive advancements in technology, knowledge absorption and capacity to adapt to quickly, which is all compounding. It has been an honour to experience his teachings, and we sure have learned a lot of old language that we no longer use in this updated world but carry so much meaning.
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Lacan is famous for emphasising the importance of understanding the different stages of life, language and the unconscious (such as dreams and slips and anxiety) being vital in assessment and knowing how to treat a person on an individual basis opposed to painting everyone with the same brush, is what would make the recovery successful. He invented many new powerful theories based on his own interpretations and collating material from all the old great minds, which are very much successfully used today by both professionals and alternate healers.
Lacan was a firm believer in uncovering where a person become unknotted in their life and helping them to reknot their Trinity. For him that was the Real, Imaginary and Symbolic, for Namaste, it's Body, Brain and Soul. |
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Part of my psychoanalysis exams is showcasing someone I admire and I chose to dedicate a web page to Lacan because of the profound difference he's made to my understanding of humanity and the game he had to play to serve the best interests of humans. First and foremost, he was an innovative rebel of his time, pushing against the things he knew didn't work for humans and advocating healing on an individual level. He was very against standardising on mass scale. Very against conforming and slamming square pegs into round holes. He demanded each person be analysed and treated uniquely based on their criteria and empowered with how to help themselves and he was banished, excommunicated, kicked out, shunned and smeared by many professionals for this belief, which didn't stop him. He kept going because he believed in human healing. He was even removed from institutions that he started himself because he stuck to what he believed was right. He was often at war with academics about their standard procedures and felt they were detrimental to a person's healing eg: He felt 45 min regular sessions were counter productive and fought against this implementation. As you can tell by today's global sessions, they didn't listen to him and still practice this today. I too concur with him and find my sessions are best dealt with a full assessment on day one and then regular check ins for how ever long or short they are, when the person has questions.
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Another belief that got him smeared was he felt that before academics give their diagnosis to their patients, they should discuss it with a group of peers to make sure they aren't painting everyone with the same brush but rather giving each person a fair unjaded assessment, which was very unwelcomed and for him a red flag. You see this practice in government sector with students and varsity professors and doctors. Government institutions will sit with multiple assessors and have a group discussion about what the treatment should be for the person and there are several professionals involved with a person and not just one. But you don't see this in private sector, cloaked under patient confidentiality. Each academy professional has carte blanche on their patients to cocktail them as they please, which I do believe is dangerous, based on my own personal experience going through government and private sector for 10 years. Luckily I recovered from that and it is what lead me to creating the Namaste Therapy Journey. I healed myself through learning from all the Greats who stuck their necks out in the face of ridicule, alienation and danger to do what is best for humanity and the rest of Earth. Lacan is at the top of my hero list in this regard. Lacan believed that you cannot just learn academics alone and be a good analysand, he believed that you had to have actual personal experience.
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Another reason I resonated so much with Lacan is his Borromean Knots, which is a trinity made up of the Real, the Imaginary and the Symbolic, which he basically teaches that this is the core of anyone's issues. If this trinity is not knotted together, you will experience toxicity. He believed that a person's healing lay at reknotting this connection and that psychoanalysis comes in to assess where the knots have unknotted, which is very much in line with what I already teach with the Trinity work, focusing on the Body Brain Soul integration, my theory, practice, research and experience also elude to this, if the trinity is not integrated, we have a breakdown in healthy human functioning, which is where I come in, to see where the breakdown is and guide the person to integrate them once again. The process is interactive and once the person has an understanding of this, they can help themselves any time with any future breakdowns. So we can easily see why academics and pharma did not want to align themselves with this method as it doesn't create a repeat customer. Another reason to love Lacan is his ability to take the gems from old times and refresh them into modern talk, updating the great ideas and theories of the past and made room for evolution of man and earth, which is something I strive to do everyday with my Therapy Journeys.
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Lacan's Influencers
Although his teachers were predominantly men, he learned from the every day man and woman as well. He did not really distinguish between men and women as he saw us all as equal, but that we could not be equal because of the demands and circumstances of the world and that would play a part in a person's recovery. He didn't separate man from woman when it came to diagnosis, he believed we could all suffer from the same things.
Although his teachers were predominantly men, he learned from the every day man and woman as well. He did not really distinguish between men and women as he saw us all as equal, but that we could not be equal because of the demands and circumstances of the world and that would play a part in a person's recovery. He didn't separate man from woman when it came to diagnosis, he believed we could all suffer from the same things.
