ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud died in Hampstead, London, in 1939. Paul Verhaeghe has trawled through the works of both Freud and Lacan and it is inarguable that his finding is none other than the subject of the ‘talking cure’. Like Freud, Verhaeghe does not say what a subject is, but shows how one comes into being, and this provides a rationale to underpin the diagnosis of aberration in subject-formation. According to Verhaeghe, subject-formation takes place within a relational perspective. Verhaeghe is very thorough in the presentation of theoretical propositions that justify his therapeutic procedure. Verhaeghe’s fulcrum, like Freud’s, is concerned with aetiology and the mechanisms of defence. The therapeutic aim of work with the psychotic is stabilization. Presented in subject-formation terms it does seem that the psychotic structure is permanent and therefore the aim must be tailored to consequent limits.
