On the limits of psychiatrics: Lacan and his 1932's thesis

Abstract

The problematic that Lacan discusses at the moment ofwriting his thesis - De Ia Psychose Paranoiaque dans ses Rapports avec la Personnalité (1932) - is closely associated to the contemporary psychiatrics dilemmas: 1) questions about the pertinence of the term 'mental illness'; 2) discussions about the specificity of the Psychiatrics and 3) debates about using organogenics or psychogenics theoriesto justify the psychopathological cadres' causality. On this context, Lacan has rhe ambition to construct a third way to the Psychiatrics proposing a new object of srudy, an original merhod of investigation and, mostly, the hope of scientificity, The intention to construct a bird way to the Psychiatrics is also proposed by another contemporarypsychiatrist - Henri Ey - whose theorerical and clinical importance cannot be disconsidered. The uneasy dialogue between Lacan and Ey reveals the difficulties to construct a new way to the Psychiatrics, which will conduct the young Lacan to another area: the freudian psychoanalysis.