America's Lacan AprÈs Coup

Area of Science:

• Psychoanalytic Theory
• Literary Criticism
• Feminist Theory

Background:

• Jacques Lacan's 1975 visit had a significant but limited impact in America.
• American psychoanalysts largely ignored Lacan in the 1970s-80s due to their focus on ego psychology.
• Lacan's work, particularly *Écrits*, challenged established psychoanalytic thought.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze Lacan's influence on American psychoanalysis and literary criticism.
• To examine the shift in understanding psychoanalytic process as acts of reading and listening.
• To explore how feminist critics reinterpreted Freudian concepts through a Lacanian lens.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of Lacan's theoretical contributions and their reception.
• Examination of feminist literary criticism's engagement with psychoanalysis.
• Historical review of psychoanalytic discourse in America and Europe.

Main Results:

• Lacan's ideas profoundly impacted literary critics, particularly feminists, altering their view of psychoanalysis.
• Feminist readings of Lacan liberated the theory of disavowal from castration complex anxieties.
• Lacan's work contributed to a conceptual shift in psychoanalysis, emphasizing acts of reading/listening over hidden meanings.
• Psychoanalysis, influenced by Lacan and feminist critics, began acknowledging social and historical realities.

Conclusions:

• Lacan's legacy lies in reframing psychoanalytic process and encouraging engagement with broader realities.
• Feminist interpretations extended Lacanian thought, integrating social and historical dimensions.
• A historical "unconscious agreement" to disavow trauma may have fueled the Lacan-ego psychology split.