Looking (Out) for New Masters

Abstract

Lacanian theory has been called upon to make helpful critical interventions in psychology (see especially Neill and Derek Hook), sometimes to good effect. The present chapter is concerned with some impediments to robust critique that appear rooted in a culture of “Lacanianism,” having referents in Lacan’s own writing, which are fueled by a commitment to a fantasy of purity. They concern: (1) the Lacanian imperative to patrol the boundaries of psychoanalysis against would-be misinterpreters; (2) the tension between a Lacanian critique of psychology and a frank unwillingness to engage with the field; (3) the tension between a persistence of imaginary identification in Lacanian writing and Lacan’s critique and reformulation of psychoanalysis itself; and (4) the tension between “mastery” and the structural possibility of reflexivity. We will then examine briefly some manifestations of these arguably structural problems when Lacanianism is deployed at the contemporary sociopolitical level, specifically vis-à-vis colonialism, transgender people, and cisgender women.