Lacan and Culturalism: A Chronicle of an “Untimely” Resistance to Psychoanalysis

• Published in: Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association Vol. 71; no. 1; pp. 33 - 60
• Main Author: Guérin, Nicolas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.02.2023; SAGE Publications (UK and US)
• Subjects: History, 20th Century; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Psychoanalysis - history; United States; United States; neo-Freudians; new subject; culturalism; social criticism; Lacan; Freud; Adorno; Horney; Marcuse; Fromm; French psychoanalysis; Zinberg; Social criticism; Psychanalyse française; nouveau sujet; culturalisme; critique sociale
• ISSN: 0003-0651; 1941-2460; 1941-2460
• DOI: 10.1177/00030651231154623

Although neither Sigmund Freud nor Jacques Lacan ever neglected the place of culture and the social field for the subject, they always opposed “culturalist” ideas, even when such ideas no longer used this label. It is important to examine what both of these figures said about culturalism, but it is just as pertinent to return to other criticisms of this movement, which developed in the United States during the last century, because at present this movement has returned covertly within French psychoanalysis. First, “culturalism” is neither a specifically American problem nor one that belongs to the past. Second, some decisive criticisms of this movement remain both germane and original: they are able to throw light on a theoretical current that, at least in France, now characterizes a dominant orientation of psychoanalytic work. Third, although Lacan himself foresaw it, the misuse of some of his notions has unexpectedly served as a Trojan horse that has enabled culturalism to return.