Encountering and speaking to the unconscious

This paper tries to answer the question: what is it about the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis that makes it fundamental? The paper argues that the fundamental rule is fundamental to psychoanalysis because it is fundamental to human being that we are animals who think and speak and understand ourselves in logos - that is, in a special form of responsibility-bearing language. We learn how we bear these responsibilities by learning how to take a Sabbath-like rest from them. The fundamental rule is fundamental because in its very structure it probes deeply into and thus reveals and thus gives practical access to the beings we are.