The Cynical Psychology Series...Lacan

Cynical Psychology Series

You must have been potty trained to early?

Journal Entry: 1/22/18

Anytime I see the word Lacan, I am always reminded of a boat I once owned. I named her Toucan. Like the Bird. From time to time I would pick up this pirateious acting crew for a weekend of sailing. For some strange reason on this weekend, we got on the subject of my boats name. One thing lead to another, bit by bit, one snide remark after another, so I finally said, out of disgust, ”OK damn it! You rename her.” So they did. “Toucan Do It Too.” Still remains one of my favorite boats of all time. I had one other boat that I was quiet fond of. The Mary B., but that is a story for another time.

Today, I am in a more cynical mood. I want to think about some shit. Heavy shit, if you know what I mean. So I’m thinking...what’s some heavy shit to think about. That’s when Jacques Lacan crossed my mind. 

I see a lot of quotes and post that reference JACQUES LACAN, so let me give you a very short version of my thoughts on the man and his myth.

So fasten your seatbelts and put your seatbacks and tray tables in the full upright and locked position, because you're gonna need all the help you can get to grasp the Psychoanalytic Industrial Complex that is Jacques Lacan, the bigwig of French psychiatry. (Freud was Austrian, so pull it together).

Let it first be known that Lacan coined a lot of phrases and used complicated language to describe various psychological phenomena (mirror phase, objet, The Real, The Thing… yadda yadda yadda). Plus—bonus!—Monsieur Lacan was considered very controversial, even scandalous at times.  My, aren’t we all?

Think of Lacan as the Johnny Rotten of the Psychiatry World. First, there was that whole abolishing the Freudian School of Psychology in Paris thing. Sure, that hardly sounds like a high crime against humanity to most of us, but trust me, a whole lot of French intellectuals got their knickers in a twist over this move. But hey, Lacan had good intentions. He was worried that people had gone too far from the true Freud. Heaven forbid.

Then there's the fact that Lacan was so radical that he and his peeps got booted out of the International Psychoanalytical Association for "deviant practices." I know that sounds straight up insane, but it really came down to the fact that he didn't believe that 50-minute sessions were fundamental to analysis. He was more into this whole psychotherapy-as-speed-dating. A ten, five, or even three minutes on the analytical couch would do just fine.

Sadly, I must say, explaining his theories would be impossible to squeeze into a Lacanian-length therapy session. So for now I will just state his basic premise: 

Lacan's thing was that learning to talk was the crucial event of childhood. Once a kid gets to yakking, they have to parrot what the family and society tells them to say and they just bottle up all of the those little magic ideas they ever had before they could talk.

Guess what happens when that little kid does a really good job of holding those ideas inside? That's right: he gets himself a nice little mental illness—psychosis, if he's lucky. And that's where the psychoanalyst comes in: he's there to decipher all of that stuff held in from the pre-language phase. When you were still peeing in your diapers. 

And that, ladies and gents, is Lacanian therapy in a nutshell.

But always remember...things do not exist until they appear, 

We still have hope! Don’t we?

Doc

P.s. Did I ever tell you I did not want to be a doctor? I just wanted to be a bum and my mother wanted me to be a doctor. We both got our wish. Now I am just a bum doctor..;)

Medium By, Bill Gekas and his beautiful daughter from down Melbourne way...