In Lacan: The Unconscious Reinvented (2014), Colette Soler offers a comprehensive examination of Jacques Lacan’s evolving conception of the unconscious throughout his teaching. She delves into the implicit questions and motivations behind Lacan’s continual revisions of psychoanalytic concepts, highlighting several key themes:
1. Evolution of the Unconscious: Soler traces Lacan’s progression from the early assertion that “the unconscious is structured like a language” to his later formulation of the “real unconscious.” This shift underscores a movement from viewing the unconscious primarily through linguistic structures to recognizing its ties to the Real, emphasizing elements that resist symbolization.
2. Symptom and Affects: The book explores Lacan’s redefinition of symptoms and affects, illustrating how his later work integrates these concepts with the Real. Soler discusses how symptoms serve as manifestations of the unconscious and how affects play a role in revealing the subject’s relationship to desire and jouissance.
3. Direction of Treatment: Soler examines the implications of Lacan’s evolving theories for psychoanalytic practice. She discusses how the understanding of the unconscious as real influences the direction of treatment, particularly concerning the aims and endpoints of analysis.
4. Political Dimensions of Analytic Practice: The text also addresses the broader political and ethical ramifications of Lacanian psychoanalysis, considering how the reinvention of the unconscious impacts the analyst’s role and the socio-cultural context of analytic practice.
Soler’s work provides an in-depth analysis of Lacan’s theoretical developments, offering insights into the dynamic nature of his concepts and their relevance for contemporary psychoanalytic thought.
