When we use the expression “the Lacanian orientation”, this means that our activities are guided, inspired and disciplined by the psychoanalyst and theoretician Jacques Lacan’s teachings. Lacan’s influence extends far beyond both French intellectual life of the second half of the 20th century and clinical psychoanalysis.
We distinguish Psychoanalysis as a clinical praxis from psychoanalysis in extension which includes Lacanian theories’ employed within literature studies, philosophy and art studies. Lacanian orientation covers both these two sections.
The difference between a Lacanian orientation and the schools of psychotherapy is simply this: Have you seen a therapist in a Hollywood movie? Well, this is not it. Have you seen Hitchcock’s Spellbound with those dream scenes designed by Salvador Dali? You are slightly closer. Speaking of Spellbound, all that ushered into was Ego psychology. It supports your ego. Lacanians think Ego is the reason why symptoms persist, not the other way around. In contemporary capitalism, there are other miracle treatments, some call themselves cognitive behavioral therapists, also originally from America. They do evidence-based miracles like in the Book, we don’t!
But, let’s be concise: if you are curious, which is not necessary for starting a psychoanalytical treatment, then you may watch Sans Soleil by Chris Marker, or reflect upon the difference between the white background and the white foreground in Malevitch’s White on White. Then, you are already at the vicinity of a point, topologically situated between one signifier and another, and, paradoxically, you may anticipate your entering a space where the effects of a Lacanian orientation can touch upon the real as the centre of gravity for a more serious clinical praxis.
