The Psychoses: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan

During the third year of his famous seminar, Jacques Lacan gives a concise definition of psychoanalysis: Psychoanalysis should be the science of language inhabited by the subject. From the Freudian point of view man is the subject captured and tortured by language. Since psychosis is a special but emblematic case of language entrapment, Lacan devotes much of this year to grappling with distinctions between the neuroses and the psychoses. As he compared the two, relationships, symmetries, and contrasts emerge that enable him to erect a structure for psychosis.
Freuds famous case of Daniel Paul Schreber is central to Lacans analysis. In demonstrating the many ways that the psychotic is inhabited, possessed by language, Lacan draws upon Schrebers own account of his psychosis and upon Freuds notes on this case of paranoia. The analysis of language is both fascinating and enlightening.