Lacan's return to Freud under a philosophical perspective: a work with the concept of symptom

• Grant number: 18/22954-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2019
• End date: May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Philosophy of Language
• Principal Investigator: Lauro José Siqueira Baldini
• Grantee: Elisa Mara Do Nascimento
• Supervisor: Pascale Gillot
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université François-Rabelais, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 18/05244-9 - The symptom conception since Freud to Lacan considering its relations with language, BP.IC

Abstract

The purpose of this research, to be conducted under Prof. Pascale Gillot's advice at Université de Tours, consists of two steps: at first, I intend to investigate Althusser's singular return to Marx, and then Lacan's return to Freud's work. I intend to analyse how Althusser imports concepts from Psychoanalysis, such as "Symptom" and "Overdetermination", to handle the notion of "symptomatic reading". The concept of "symptomatic reading" formulated by Althusser is understood as an entirely new conception of reading based on the work of Marx (in particular, its climax represented by The Capital). Althusser did not read Marx searching for a hidden meaning or a true interpretation of his work, but indicated its apparent gaps and highlighted his radical rupture with classical economists. After focusing on the concept of "symptomatic reading", I will investigate how Lacan imports concepts from Linguistics to handle the theoretical gaps regarding language in Freud's work. Although Freud acknowledged the relevance of language and mentioned that Psychoanalysis intends to achieve a talking cure by means of the free association method, he had no conception of language proper. Since the focus of my Scientific Initiation research (FAPESP 2018/05244-9) lies in the concept of symptom from Freud to Lacan, considering its relation to language, this research project proposes a discussion regarding the very concept of symptom, understood as an "effect of language", in light of Althusser's concept of "symptomatic reading". (AU)