Claire Piette -The Effect of the Forgotten Signifier Behind “Savant” Meaning

According to Lacan, because Freud depicted sexuality we suppose he knew what it all meant! It would be a poor show to read it like that because “he does not know it. The reason he does not know it is precisely what prompts him to discover the unconscious. That is, the effects of language at play in that place where the word “sexuality” might make sense “[1]

Once more, the concept of the unconscious is depreciated by certain neuroscientists who want to reduce it to everything that is of the order of the non-conscious.

It is therefore a sliding of the signifier which is “the manner in which one has to skid-sideways on the surface of things” [2]

This is not without effects since the belief of mastering the parlêtre by means of the scientific gaze, focusing on the brain, disguises the dream of a master’s discourse where remainder(s) would be reabsorbed by the explanation of the functioning or dysfunction of this organ. This is where the danger of such an ideology is to be found.

In this issue you will discover how the protocols for the autistic or aphasic – built from this new neuroscientific entity – are a means of training any speaking being which is not without evoking “mental manipulation”, where the meaning of scientific terms flourish; while psychoanalytical practitioners, rather than drifting to the passion of the gaze, are attentive to the trace of lalangue for each subject!

Translation: Raphael Montague

[1] Lacan J., « Le discours psychanalytique », Lacan in Italia, en Italie Lacan, Salamandre, Milan, 1978, p. 39.

[2] Lacan J., « Le discours psychanalytique », Lacan in Italia, en Italie Lacan, Salamandre, Milan, 1978, p. 36.