The Psychology Book

122

T H E U N C O N S C I O U S

IS THE DISCOURSE

OF THE OTHER

J A C Q U E S L A C A N (1901–1981)

P

sychoanalysts explain the

unconscious as the place

where all the memories that

we wish to push aside are stored,

and cannot be retrieved consciously.

The unconscious sometimes speaks

to the conscious self in limited

ways: Carl Jung believed that the

unconscious presents itself to

the waking self through dreams,

symbols, and in the language of

archetypes, while Freud saw it

as expressing itself through

motivational behavior and

accidental “slips of the tongue.”

The one thing that the various

psychoanalytical schools do agree

on is that the unconscious holds

a bigger picture than that retained

by the conscious self. For French

psychiatrist Jacques Lacan,

however, the language of the

unconscious is not that of the

self, but of the “Other.”

A sense of self

We easily take for granted the

notion of the self—that each of us

exists as a separate, individual

being, who views the world through

our own eyes, is familiar with the

boundaries that separate us from

others and from the world around

us, and assumes a separateness

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Psychoanalysis

BEFORE

1807 German philosopher

Georg Hegel states that

consciousness of self depends

on the presence of the Other.

1818 German philosopher

Arthur Schopenhauer claims

that there can be no object

without a subject to observe it,

and that perception of the

object is limited by personal

vision and experience.

1890 William James in

The Principles of Psychology

distinguishes between the self

as the knower, or “I,” and the

self as the known, or “me.”

AFTER

1943 French philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre states that

our perception of the world

around us, or the Other, alters

when another person appears;

we absorb his or her concept

of the Other into our own.

The Other is everything that

lies beyond the boundaries

of ourselves.

We understand the world

through the language

(discourse) of the Other.

We define and redefine

ourselves through the

existence of the Other.

We also use that language for

our innermost thoughts.

The unconscious

is the discourse of

the Other.