ABSTRACT
The authors provide an overview of the essentials of Lacanian psychoanalysis as it pertains to anthropology, particularly the formation and structure of the psyche, including the Lacanian subject. This overview is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to serve as an introduction to Lacan for those not familiar with his work. This introduction informs readers about what from within Lacan’s writings will be the basis for mutual dialogue between Lacanian psychoanalysis and Eastern Orthodox theology, which is the overall focus of the book. Lacan was raised in a Roman Catholic environment, and this perfused his teachings to some degree throughout his career, despite his atheism. Following the chronology of his thought over time, this overview includes consideration of the subject (including deferred action, the Mirror Stage, alienation, separation, the Oedipus complex); the three psychic registers (imaginary, symbolic, real); the distinction between need, demand, desire, and drive (including discussion of jouissance and the lack); the Freudian unconscious; and subjective structure (including psychosis, perversion, and neurosis). Although Lacan reworked many of Freud’s ideas, he considered himself, to the last, a Freudian.
