Jacques Lacan’s use of Hegel, particularly the *Phenomenology of Spirit*, plays a crucial role in shaping his psychoanalytic theory, especially in terms of the subject’s development, desire, and recognition. Lacan engages deeply with Hegel's dialectical method, most notably the *master-slave dialectic*, to explore the dynamics of subjectivity, self-consciousness, and desire within psychoanalysis. On the other hand, Schelling’s philosophy receives less attention from Lacan, and there are a few reasons for this divergence.
### How Lacan Used Hegel in His Theory:
1. **The Master-Slave Dialectic and Subject Formation**:
- Lacan appropriates Hegel's famous master-slave dialectic to explain the process of subject formation through recognition and desire. For Hegel, self-consciousness arises through a struggle for recognition between two consciousnesses. One becomes the master, the other the slave, and through this dynamic, self-consciousness develops. Lacan reinterprets this in psychoanalytic terms, where the subject's desire for recognition is key to understanding identity and self-consciousness.
- In Lacan’s theory, the subject emerges through a similar dialectic of recognition, not only with others but also through language and the symbolic order. The "Other" in Lacan’s thought is akin to Hegel’s master — it represents the social and symbolic structures that shape the subject and through which the subject seeks recognition.
2. **Desire and the Dialectic**:
- Lacan famously said, "Man's desire is the desire of the Other," meaning that human desire is shaped by the desire for recognition from the Other (a concept drawn from Hegel's dialectic). Lacan uses this to explain how the subject’s desires are never purely their own but are structured and mediated by the desires of others and by language.
- Hegel’s dialectical process, where self-consciousness is formed through a series of negations and contradictions, parallels Lacan’s notion of desire as being perpetually unfulfilled and driven by lack. The subject is always seeking something that is ultimately unattainable, leading to a constant movement of desire, much like Hegel’s notion of the dialectic as a movement driven by contradiction.
3. **The Mirror Stage and Hegelian Recognition**:
- Lacan’s famous concept of the *mirror stage*—where the child identifies with an external image of itself, leading to the formation of the ego—bears Hegelian influences. The child’s recognition of itself in the mirror parallels Hegel’s idea of self-consciousness arising through the recognition of another. However, Lacan emphasizes the misrecognition (*méconnaissance*) inherent in this identification, suggesting that the ego is an illusion shaped by external forces.
- This misrecognition relates to Hegel’s notion that self-consciousness is always mediated by the other and that the subject is never fully in control of its own identity, a key insight that Lacan deepens in his psychoanalytic work.
4. **Negativity and the Subject**:
- Hegel’s idea of negativity, where self-consciousness develops through the process of negating what it is not, resonates with Lacan’s theory of the subject. Lacan argues that the subject is defined by a fundamental lack (often symbolized by the "objet petit a"), and this lack or void is what drives desire. For Lacan, the subject is not a unified whole but is split, constantly striving to overcome this lack but never fully achieving it — a process that mirrors Hegel’s dialectical progression through negation and contradiction.
### Why Lacan Didn’t Use Schelling’s Philosophy:
1. **Hegel’s Focus on Subjectivity and Desire**:
- Hegel's philosophy, especially the *Phenomenology of Spirit*, offers a clear framework for understanding the development of subjectivity, recognition, and desire — all of which are central to Lacan's psychoanalytic project. Lacan saw in Hegel a structure that closely mirrored the processes he was exploring in psychoanalysis, such as the role of the Other, the nature of desire, and the subject's constant negotiation with the symbolic order.
- Schelling, on the other hand, is more focused on metaphysical and ontological questions, such as the nature of the Absolute and the interplay between freedom and necessity. While these are profound philosophical issues, they do not map as directly onto the psychoanalytic concerns with subjectivity and desire that Lacan was addressing.
2. **Schelling’s Focus on the Unconscious as Metaphysical**:
- Schelling was one of the earliest philosophers to talk about the unconscious, particularly in his later philosophy, where he explored the unconscious as a metaphysical force underlying existence. However, Schelling’s view of the unconscious was more cosmic and metaphysical, seeing it as part of the dynamic structure of reality itself.
- Lacan’s focus, by contrast, was on the unconscious as it relates to language, subjectivity, and symbolic structures, drawing heavily on Freud's psychoanalytic framework. While Schelling’s concept of the unconscious was important in the history of ideas, it did not offer the kind of practical, structural insights into the psyche and desire that Hegel’s philosophy did for Lacan’s purposes.
3. **Schelling’s Less Direct Engagement with Language and the Symbolic**:
- Lacan’s theory is deeply concerned with language and the symbolic order. He argues that the unconscious is structured like a language and that the subject is fundamentally shaped by its immersion in language. Hegel’s dialectical philosophy, with its focus on recognition, negation, and self-consciousness, provided Lacan with tools to think through how language and the symbolic shape subjectivity.
- Schelling, while a profound thinker, does not engage with language or the symbolic in the way Hegel does. His metaphysical approach to existence, nature, and freedom, while influential in other philosophical contexts, was not as directly useful for Lacan’s focus on the symbolic dimension of psychoanalysis.
### Summary:
Lacan used Hegel’s philosophy, particularly the *master-slave dialectic* and the idea of desire as mediated by the Other, to deepen his psychoanalytic theory. Hegel’s concepts of recognition, negation, and subjectivity provided Lacan with a framework for understanding the dynamics of desire, self-consciousness, and the unconscious.
Lacan did not focus on Schelling’s philosophy because Schelling’s concerns with metaphysical issues like the Absolute, freedom, and the cosmic unconscious were less relevant to Lacan’s focus on language, desire, and the symbolic structure of the unconscious. Hegel’s dialectical method, with its emphasis on subjectivity and recognition, proved more immediately applicable to the psychoanalytic theory Lacan was developing.
