Lacan, Nietzsche, and the Problem of a Supposed Decentered Subject from Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The objective of this article is to compare some aspects of Friederich Nietzsche’s and Jacques Lacan’s conceptions of the subject. The text proceeds from the observation that in both Nietzsche and Lacan, human language, its function, and its field are considered from a primary and founding perspective of the world, that is, poetic, even though such proximity to this point of view hides some differences and tensions, which we will also try to identify. Such contrasts occur especially with regard to the greater breadth and radicality in the scope of Nietzsche’s critical reflection on the problematic nature of the characterization of the unity of the Self, even though Lacan’s decentered subject seems to follow in the same direction.

Keywords

• Subject, decentering, listening, speech, word.