ABSTRACT
The metaphors for the analytic process and for its (mostly logical) end point which Lacan proposed are useful in guiding treatment even if it isn’t psychoanalysis. The analyst, whose main wish is to offer treatment, takes position as object of the patient’s thoughts and desires. Lacan also points out that the identification as object of the symbolic structure opens up the possibility for a link with the eternal. He makes the distinction between the first death—the moment when word kills thing and the second death, namely biological death. Lacan referred to Antigone as one who acknowledged she had no existence as subject outside the structure of the order of the family. While in his early teaching, Lacan focused on the diverse modes of undoing the Imaginary ego, in his later work he stressed the need for the combined activity of the three orders. Lacan also refers to identification with desire at the end of analysis as identification with the symptom.
