라캉의 대학담론과 자본주의:『세미나 17』을 중심으로

University Discourse and Capitalism in Lacan’s Seminar XVII

Jacques Lacan’s theory of the four discourses--master’s discourse, hysteric’s discourse, university discourse, and analyst’s discourse--is a psychoanalytic attempt to account for the discursive structures that constitute a given social formation, and their transformation. Lacan’s detailed discussion and analysis of the four discourses are contained in his Seminar XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis (2007), the collection of his lectures delivered in 1969-70. This seminar reveals that Lacan’s thought on the four discourses holds much profounder theoretical connotations and political insights than have been known since Taesook Kim’s introduction of the theory in 2004. What is most striking about the seminar is, among others, the way Lacan discusses the capitalist political and libidinal economy, especially in terms of the university discourse. The university discourse turns out to be the fundamental discursive structure that constitutes the capitalist social system. In this regard, Lacan’s university discourse provides an important theoretical link that connects Lacanian psychoanalysis to the analysis of capitalism. Jacques Lacan’s Seminar XVII emerges as a seminal text that fills in the gap between psychoanalysis and Marxism.