Abstract
Lacanian psychoanalysis constitutes a very powerful theory and a socially significant practice. This chapter focuses on Jacques Lacan's four discourses: the master's discourse, the university discourse, the hysteric's discourse and the analyst's discourse. In the master's discourse, the dominant or commanding position is filled by slave, the nonsensical signifier, the signifier with no rhyme or reason, in a word, the master signifier. In the discourse of the university, 'knowledge' replaces the nonsensical master signifier in the dominant, commanding position. In the hysteric's discourse, the split subject occupies the dominant position and addresses slave, calling it into question. The hysteric's discourse is the exact opposite of the university discourse, all the positions being reversed. The hysteric maintains the primacy of subjective division, the contradiction between conscious and unconscious, and thus the conflictual, or self-contradictory nature of desire itself.
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