The Structure of the Split Subject in Jacques Lacan

Nam, Kyung-Ah

Department of Philosophy Graduated School, Kyungpook National University
Daegu, Korea(Supervised by Professor Moun, Jean-Sou)

(Abstract)

The objective of this study is to explain the structure of the split subject in Jacques Lacan and to find the therapy method for schizophrenia in that structure. We, human beings have a tendency to immerse ourselves in our consciousness. Those tendency is based on our belief that we can find any kind of answer in our consciousness. However, it is not easy for human being to get a definite answer to his own destiny.
Jacques Lacan asserts that human being tries to be conscious of himself by thinking and it is human nature. On the other hand, he contends that we can not recognize our existence through thinking. There is therefore a profound abyss between his thought and his reality. He points this gap as a main cause of the schizophrenia. He says that we cannot approach to our existence by thinking, we can only experience a sort of fantasy thought it instead; he names such psychological agent making such a fantasy “objet a”. It is not a existence itself but “objet a” which enables the subject to think his self-existence; this is not the original aim the subject is at. Therefore, the content of thought is different from the real existence consequentially; it is a kind of illusion, that is to say, the fantasy. This is the main reason which causes schizophrenia. Lacan emphasizes that all kind of thoughts targeting at real-existence make fantasy; subject experience necessarily the gap between the real-existence and his thought. Thus, it is, he says, it is inevitable for subject to suffer from schizophrenia, for subject is under a such structure.
The subject should realize that all of his thoughts are a kind of by-product of “objet a” in order to overcome the schizophrenia, if the schizophrenia is derived from mistaking the “objet a” for real-existence. Now, “objet a” can function on the cause of the schizophrenia and at the same time, the way by which our symptoms are healed.
The subject can be faithful to existence itself when he desire only the “objet a” without concentrating extremely on the meaning of real-existence. The subject may be the most autonomous and intent on his existence itself when he mistake the “objet a” for the meaning of real-existence. It is from this context that we can draw a therapy method which Lacan’s psychoanalysis suggests. In other words, the present schizophrenia can be overcome by the new one; it is to eliminate the present fantasy by adding the new “objet a”.