As discussed by Hewitson (2012), Lacan’s intervention does not represent the deployment of knowledge in terms of a spoken interpretation, much less suggestion. Neither is it the gratification of a hysterical demand for love – it represents a surprise, rather than a response or capitulation to comfort seeking. It is offered as an example of analytic work where a therapeutic shift is effected by an intervention related to a specific signifier. The production of a new signifier – or the new interpretation of an existing one by the analysand – leads to a shift in the suffering associated with a childhood trauma. The traumatic effect of the signifier is loosened via the analysand taking up a more personal and idiosyncratic use of that signifier. In terms of Lacanian Discourse, the location of S1 as Product is, of course, an indication of the Discourse of the Analyst. Within the Discourse of the Analyst, we can see the actual location and effect of the analyst’s Knowledge. Not as suggestion or an instruction about self-care—but rather Knowledge positioned as the analyst’s unconscious Truth—allowing for the installation of the analyst by the analysand as the Supposed Subject of Knowledge. We hear Hommel’s interpretation of Lacan’s wordless interpretation – Lacan’s actual intention and explanation becomes extraneous to the effect it has. In this emphasis on the effect of an interpretation rather than the apparent truthfulness of its content, we are brought back to Freud’s position regarding the assessment of interpretations in ‘Constructions in Analysis’ (1937).
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