Praxis of Theory in Psychoanalysis: An Ethical Question

Abstract

The problem of the relation between theory and praxis in psychoanalysis is here approached through the question of ethics and through the question of praxis, as exposed by Althusser. Althusser namely pointed out that before Lacan there was simply no theory of analytical practice and that this introduced the question of truth into science. Analytical practice is not only a technical question; it depends upon the power and the pertinence of the psychoanalytical concepts. Lacan also conceptualizes the question of the act which indicates that the theory acts in the analytical field as a tool for the praxis. Analytical theory is the very structure of our tools and, as such, indispensable for us to know what we are actually doing. This discerns the ethical coordinates of the analytical act, they had to be understood as praxis of theory, but here we can also see the certain ethics of psychoanalysis as conceptual art.