ABSTRACT
Jacques Lacan described the scientific rationalism as 'the Discourse of the University'. The Discourse of the University is a 'gag' on science—that is, on the knowledge of the One, which, structured by the discourse of language, is transferred to another by the truth of the message. Rational discourse cut off from its unconscious roots becomes distorted to the point of charade, and malignant to the point of imposture. The three grand principles at the basis of the originality and scope of Sigmund Freud's discoveries were reformulated by Lacan as the three dimensions which structure subjectivity: desire, language, and the unconscious. Lacan deployed the structuralist strategy within the field of psychoanalysis in order to try and explain the meaning of language, and its consequences. The fundamental difterence between psychology and the conception of psychoanalysis which Lacan proposed, lies precisely in the significance placed on the spoken chain.
