The subject of Lacanian psychoanalysis is the subject of domination. In other words, Lacan elaborated a philosophical anthropology on the basis of the exploited subject. His model of subjectivity was the master-slave (Herr-Knechtschaft) dialectic found in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. But for Hegel such a moment in the system corresponded to a social relationship involving two subjectivities (two Selbstbesutssein), where the asymmetrical relationship leading to domination could be sublated. For Lacan, on the contrary, the master position was assigned to impersonal social order and the slave position to the subject. The subject is ontologically a slave. There is however a small chance for emancipation, capture in Lacan’s “ethics of psychoanalysis”: be faithful to your own desire, even if that leads to self-destruction and a radical confrontation with society. But this is capitalism’s promise: to save yourself through desire against the homogenizing powers of society, while at the same time it is this very society which urges you to do so.
Arturo Romero Contreras Profesor Investigador en Filosofía BUAP/ Professor Researcher in Philosophy BUAP, Mexico