On the Missed-Successful Encounter Between Deleuze and Lacan

Abstract

The article starts with the question whether there is an encounter between the philosophy of Deleuze and the psychoanalysis of Lacan. It claims that there is evidence of such an encounter, not only on an anecdotal level, but on the conceptual level as well, since the concept of the encounter plays a significant and central role in Lacan’s later teachings and also in Deleuze’s philosophy. In late Lacan it is presented through the interconnection of tyche and automaton, themes of the Real as impossible and the drive. In late Deleuze the theme of encounter is closely linked with the conceptualisation of becoming, event, and concept as interruptions. For the author the encounter between Deleuze and Lacan is neither a failure nor success, for now its status remains undecidable.