This article is a part of my ambitious project, entitled "Jacques Lacan, dialoguing with Melanie Klein. The project consists of four essential parts: (Ⅰ) their conceptualization of the unconscious; (Ⅱ) their theories of the origin of symbolism; (Ⅲ) their difference in oedipus complex and sexuality; (Ⅳ) as a corollary of the three previous ones, interpretation and analytic technique.
The problems alleged here is the conceptualization of the unconscious. Klein and Lacan differ in two levels. Each of these levels can be epitomized by Klein's and Lacan's two kinds of remarks, namely, that "the Unconscious is structured by the phantasies(Klein) or like a language(Lacan)", and that "the Unconscious is the symbolic links(Klein) or the discourse of the Other(Lacan)". The former stands for unconscious formation and the latter refers to unconscious position.
Firstly, I point out that for Lacan the unconscious is structured like a language whereas for Klein the unconscious is structured by phantasies. what do they both mean? At the most obvious level, what Lacan means by the unconscious is structured like a language is that "it speaks". Lacan means that the formation of the unconscious consists in it signifying properties, in its ability to convey a message through rhetorical means, that is to say, metaphor and metonymy(i.e., condensation and displacement). In other words, the essence of the unconscious lies in its symbolic capacity.
Lacan argue that in Kleinian theory the unconscious is conceived as consisting essentially of unconscious phantasies. He criticised Kleinian theory "imaginarizes the symbolic". By this he means that the symbolic is reduced to imagos, to phantasies, and th the interplay between these imagos - to what Klein would call "internal object relations" For Klein, phantasies are the primary content of unconscious mental processes. She argued that phantasies are the psychic representatives of instinctual drives, and that therefore, they constitute the internal objects of parents-figures. Hence, Lacan emphasizes th formations of the unconscious, which are said to be symbolic. Klein stresses its imaginary content.
Jacques-Alain Miller strongly argued that "Lacan's discovery was not that the unconscious is structured like a language … it is the objet petit a, instead, Lacan called his discovery in psycho-analysis." what this objet a is cannot be defined succinctly because Lacan uses it basically to name a problem. The problem becomes even more complicated when we consider that this objet a is an element in Lacan's definition of phantasy, namely: $◇a. the barred subject implies the subject who has become symbolically castrated in conjunction with the other and a is objet a. Now, if phantasy is partly objet a, and if objet a is never fully absorbed by the symbolic, then the unconscious is both language and phantasy.
Secondly, as for unconscious position, Lacan argues that "the Unconscious is the discourse of the Other". One of the several meanings of this remark is that the unconscious is trans-individual, rather than a dark box inside the individual. The unconscious in Lacan is an unconscious that binds; for Lacan language is something that links, that ties. And the unconscious is not one; there is no such thing as an unconscious of analyst and an unconscious of the patient; there is no individual unconscious; there is no collective unconscious either. The unconscious is something that interplays in the dual order; the unconscious is something that goes over the heads of the analytical partners: the analyst and the analysand. The unconscious exists when there is an event in the analytical relation. And that it can manifest itself through the mouth of either one or the other. This is the unconscious as a sort of knowledge.
According to Lacan, Klein shared Freud's view of the unconscious as being individual. However, she attempted to conceptualize this "linking" that the unconscious does through concepts such as projective identification and through her emphasis on transference/counter-transference relation. These are concepts which call into question the individuality of the unconscious. A conception of the unconscious as being trans-individual would make all these concepts unnecessary. This means that the unconscious in Klein is also the symbolic links.
Lastly, I argue that the structuring of the unconscious ends in the reproduction of the culture. For this, I conceptualize "the unconscious of the culture" and delineate a unique characteristics of the methods for studying the unconscious of cultural levels in social theory.