The Most Hysterical Psychoanalyst

This paper is an investigation into the prominence of hysteria in Lacan's work and the enduring significance of the diagnosis for contemporary practice. Beginning with Lacan's theory of neurosis, the importance of language, and symbolic functions, we will begin to understand why the hysterical symptom is the symptomatic structure par excellence. Lacan lauds hysteria as the neurosis in direct dialogue with a given historical moment, teaching the psychoanalyst where we are in the unfolding struggle between neurosis and civilization. He returned to the case of Dora throughout his twenty-eight years of teaching to refine his work. He even saw psychoanalysis as the progressive "hystericization" of the patient and depicted himself as an hysteric walking around on a stage, not knowing what he was saying, while attempting to teach the psychoanalysts. Lacan's reading of Dora seems to mark important shifts in his own life, from his beginning to write as a psychoanalyst, to being thrown out of the IPA, to struggling with his own school and the ensuing political eruptions in France in 1968. By tracking his elaboration of Dora we can witness the evolution of Lacan's work and how he uniquely positions the analyst in the transference.