‘Who Speaks?’ Morgenthaler and/or Lacan Behind the Couch

Abstract

Is it possible to speak of conceptual conjunctions between Fritz Morgenthaler and Jacques Lacan? This question is explored in relation to the practical work of an analyst as she engages with their – at once completely different and yet complementary – theoretical perspectives. Both emphasize the active, demanding-desiring position of the analyst while simultaneously refusing any metapsychologically oriented interpretive technique. Both criticize the normative, denigrating impetus of too much psychoanalytic thinking, especially in the context of developmental psychology and pathologizing doctrine. They warn against too-certain knowledge on the analyst's part. Both emphasize primary-process drive-strivings and the emancipatory possibilities of psychoanalysis – as they both also attend particularly to the formal aspects of the analysand's speech.