What is Lacanian Psychoanalysis?

Jacques Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and Psychiatrist who lived between April 1901 and September 1981. He has been described as the French Freud.

The reason for this particularly faltering similitude, is that Lacan draws on the ideas of Sigmund Freud but takes them in a radically different direction. Lacanian Psychoanalysis not only focuses on our relationship with others, but places significant emphasis on language and on identity.

Lacan suggests that the unconscious mind is structured like a language that comprises of symbols, signs and meanings.

During the process of Lacanian Psychoanalysis the analyst listens carefully to the language the patient uses to describe their struggles. While attending to the specific words used by the patient the analyst thinks carefully about how the patients use of language, their identity and their desire impacts on their wellbeing and on their relationship with others.