Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Department, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
10.30465/os.2025.51111.2030
Abstract
Introduction
The formation of the subject and its transformation in connection with the symbolic realm is aware of the reciprocal interaction between the individual and the social realm from the very beginning. Our basic question is whether Lacanian psychoanalysis and his concept of the unconscious subject were able to breathe new life into political theory and socio-political analysis. Lacan believed in a socio-political analysis based on psychoanalysis, even if this objective field cannot be reduced to traditional essentialist views of social objectivity. Moreover, the link between psychoanalysis and politics does not mean that we create a single meta-discourse by linking the two fields. Psychoanalysis has always been present in the political realm in different ways. The meaning of civilizational and social values and the nature of individual desire are in conflict with each other. Society is a restrictive process that makes the individual a victim of the collective, and there is no way to circumvent it, even under the freest or most permissive social conditions.
Materials & Methods
the research method used in this study is descriptive-analytical. First, Lacan's thoughts on the concepts of the subject, the lack, the other, the political and the relationships between them are examined and analyzed. We will then evaluate the possibility or impossibility of the political on the basis of various positions. The author has made an effort to gather important themes from written documents, library sources and reputable databases in order to analyze and compare them.
Discussion & Result
Psychoanalysis is pessimistic about idealistic approaches to politics, and even those that seem desirable at first sight are confronted with a kind of aporia and contradiction. From this perspective, a politics that has its origins in Lacanian psychoanalysis is not only concerned with maintaining the status quo, but always seeks to uncover the lack in the symbolic realm and, consequently, change and transformation. However, not all change can be permanent and stable, and the construction of any form of ideology is ultimately impossible. This politics not only challenges existing laws and norms, but also gives no space to major beliefs and political parties. In psychoanalysis, the return of lack is a revolutionary and transformative event that the symbolic realm deals with on various levels. On the other hand, each symbolic realm has a center of gravity that it seeks to preserve and maintain in order to avoid its own collapse. Since the elimination of the real element is necessary, psychoanalysis adapts to the inevitability of lack. Therefore, Lacanian politics aims to expose violence, elimination and lack, rather than offering a positive and definitive solution to it.
Conclusion
There are moments in psychoanalysis that play an important role in analysing political and social phenomena. Identifying the hidden layers of power and violence, criticising ideology and exposing the fundamental flaw within the symbolic order can be seen as the most important task of the political. The central insight of psychoanalysis in the social and political realm lies in its focus on the lack within the symbolic order and the big Other. Psychoanalysis has a stabilising function insofar as it assigns a fixed purpose and definition to the subject, the Other and the lack inherent in them; at the same time, it exposes the contradictions and obstacles within subjectivity and the symbolic order. Psychoanalysis is fundamentally political and capable of intervening directly in the political realm. However, this intervention is not aimed at advancing positive ideologies (such as liberalism or feminism); but identifies the elements that are excluded in the formation of ideology. The acceptance of the lack means the emergence of political and progressive political transformations — transformations that idealist approaches have previously prevented by preventing the uncovering of such hidden layers within political identities.
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