Mahdi Momeninia

Mahdi Momeninia

The Ontology of Nothingness: An Ontological Reading of ‘Rapport’ in Lacan

The central focus of this research is the relationship between philosophy and psychoanalysis. From this perspective, I will first argue that Lacanian psychoanalysis, despite its clinical success in treatment, can only be properly understood when it is recognized within the horizon of philosophy and given an ontological account of the unconscious. Hence, preparing an ontological reading of Lacan appears necessary. In this regard, prominent interpreters of Lacan such as Badiou and Zupančič have rendered a philosophical and ontological approach to Lacanian psychoanalysis possible by, respectively, bringing Lacan’s thought into proximity with mathematical formalization and by interpreting sexuality through the lens of a Kantian antinomy. The present research, while engaging with these interpretations and focusing on the key concept of relation in Lacanian thought, highlights the evidence and traces -sometimes implicit- within Lacan’s works, and, contrary to Lacan’s negative stance toward ontology, develops an ontological reading of the concept of relation. The hypothesis of this research is that an ontological reading of relation -rather than the linguistic reading emphasized by Lacan- enables philosophy to approach the previously inaccessible domain of the unconscious, while at the same time requiring psychoanalysis to assume responsibility for the philosophical implications of its principles and concepts.

Keywords :  rapport, ontology, lack, nothingness.