ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis relies upon interpretation although it is not entirely clear what text is being interpreted nor who precisely is performing the interpretation. Therefore, while hermeneutics, or the theory of interpretation, may be an appropriate point of entry for psychoanalytic theory, the psychoanalytic process in fact has altered our understanding of hermeneutics as much as it has been elucidated by it.
The writing and teaching of Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) focused on the discursive aspects of the psychoanalytic encounter, the functions of speech, its reliance upon language and the limits encountered in that discursive practice. We can approach the work of Lacan then by considering the hermeneutic functions of psychoanalysis and especially by considering the limits and ruptures in that function. For Lacan the encounter with speech and language is important for the psychoanalyst to consider because it calls forth that which in fact refuses the representational frame. The limits of the hermeneutic are the place of the psychoanalytic act.
