Exploring the Importance of Language in Psychoanalysis

This essay delves into the critical role of language within the framework of psychoanalysis, examining its significance as a tool for understanding the unconscious mind. The discussion begins with an introduction to psychoanalysis, outlining its core principles and historical context, with specific reference to Sigmund Freud's foundational work. It then explores Freud's perspective on language acquisition and speech pathology, highlighting how he viewed language as central to the development of new meanings. The essay also examines Jacques Lacan's contributions, particularly his emphasis on speech as the primary means by which individuals express desires and articulate their inner world. The Schreber case study is included to illustrate how language functions within psychoanalytic practice. The essay further considers the concept of unconscious communication and how it is interpreted by analysts. Overall, the essay provides a comprehensive overview of the multifaceted relationship between language and psychoanalysis, emphasizing its importance in therapeutic settings.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
Importance of Language in Psychoanalysis
Name of Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:
1.

1IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
1. Introduction:
Psychoanalysis can be loosely defined as a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that
help professionals in the sector study the unconscious mind, more commonly to devise a
method to cure mental illnesses and disorders related to one’s health (Freud, 2017). An
individual specializing in psychoanalysis will be investigating how an individual’s mind is
working, especially when they are unconscious. This discipline has gained the knowledge it
hold from previous clinical experiments done to investigate the application of this theory.
Though psychoanalysis is more of a technique, professionals have stressed more on the
therapy aspect of the theory to make it clear to everyone else that psychoanalysis is more
related towards psychotherapy and not at all related to personal therapy, which is more
inclined towards philosophy and culture in general (Grunbaum, 2018).
Psychoanalysis has become a very familiar topic in today’s society as more people are
coming out in accepting their mental illnesses, providing more subjects for further research
into the matter. The theory has been largely rejected for the longest time in history, some
used to even call it taboo, until the 5th decade of the 20th century. Sigmund Freud had written
many essential points to be noted about the history of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is
based on the concept of cathartic therapy, which was primarily based on the case of Anna O
(Gammelgaard, 2015).
The spread of this theory has reached great distances not because there are more people
being interested in the concept, but because the theory has been used in various literature,
sociology and in religion which has sparked the interest in many people. However, its long
extended reach has a caused a high multitude and increased diversity in the data available for
analysis is now becoming a major problem for the theory’s success. Psychoanalysis can no

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longer be clearly defined for the general public, since there are a lot of exceptions to keep in
mind for any one individual (Vickers, 2017).
2. Discussion:
2.1. Contribution of Language in Psychoanalysis:
In Freud’s study of speech pathology, he had his first encounter with the issue of
language and during this research, it led him to understand the importance of knowledge and
be able to devise a new approach to analysing it (Stolorow & Atwood, 2017). In Freud’s
theory of aphasias, he tries to explain pathology in terms of elementary locations without
considering the difference between the concept of spontaneous language and automatic
language. According to him, it was not the repetitive dimension of language that defines its
entirety, but it is the ability of language to be able to develop new meaning and new semantic
forms that makes language a very important aspect of psychoanalysis (Parker, 2016).
In this study, Freud proposes a hypothetical theory where he tries to study speech in
regards to the impact of neurological functioning of language on the learning process of
reading, writing and speech. The interest of Freud was not on the system of language, but in
the process that is connects understanding with the activity of speaking. Having said this, it is
important to know what the two concepts are actually defined as, to be able to understand the
connection between and importance of both (Kakar, 2018). Language acquisition is defined
as the learning that integrates two aspects of an indivisible unit: sensory and motor. Learning
is defined as the neurological steps that are involved in the formation of the apparatus of
language, and the starting point of learning is how the word ‘language’ is represented.
Freud starts his research on language disorders from the unit of speech function – the
word (Nascimento et al., 2017). The complex representation of a word is a combination of the
several different sensory elements. In other words, defining the word as a complex

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representation will simply mean that the operation of language is implying a simultaneous
interference of the functions that relate to more than one point in the language territory. The
wholesome concept of language involves the association of the process where the subsequent
representations of the word are behaving similar to the contents of the language apparatus.
The various representations of the word can be explained by four elements which relate to the
sensory channels in the human body: sound image, letter’s visual image, speech’s motor
image and finally, the motor image of the writing (Adrade, 2016).
Through the pathological analysis of various speech disorders, Freud is able to build a
hypothesis that states the connection between the sole representations of the word with the
means of its sensory end to the representation itself of the object the word is in relation to.
The complex representation of the ‘word’, as mentioned, is the combination of various
acoustic, visual and synthetic elements that are attached to it. Whereas, the sound image of
the word is the sole point of intersection between the two associative complexes. With this in
mind, Freud concludes that a word is only able to acquire a specific meaning only when it is
connected to the representation of an object. This means that when the word is connected to
the representation of an object, it is the role of language to articulate the respective
representation so that it produces a meaning. Adopting Freud’s way of thinking, it can be said
that language does not hold only one encoding function, but is comprised of two other
functions which are expressive and creative function.
2.2. Importance of Language in Psychoanalysis:
Psychoanalysis, as described by Jacques Lacan, is the practice of speech and the
theory of the subject who is speaking. According to him, someone analysing the concept will
be mainly studying the subject’s speech. Lacan addresses the fact that Freud referred to
language only when he was focusing on the unconscious aspect of the human body. However,

4IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
as Lacan would like to explain the meaning of language, is that he describes it as a “talking
cure” (Dulsster et al., 2019).
In Lacan’s point of view, the importance of language in psychoanalysis theory is that
speech is the main dimension by which the individual subject is able to express and articulate
their personal desires. He points out that there are three interacting orders which are
conceived in relation to language as a spoken tool, which enables him to form his own school
of psychoanalytic thought (Zhao, Dong & Feng, 2019). The first is the Imaginary order which
consists of various phantasies and images. This order is said to evolve out of the mirror
phase, but is able to extend into the relationships of adult subjects with other individuals. The
greatest example of this order would be when an infant sees its reflection before a mirror, and
is very fascinated by what he/she sees. This order also includes the preverbal stage structure
of the primitive phantasies that children have, along with patients who are psychotic and
perverse.
The second order is known as the Symbolic order, and this is concerned with the
function of the various symbols and the entire system of symbols. In Lacan’s view, language
is a part of the Symbolic order because it enables the subject to represent their desires and
feelings through spoken words.
The last order that Lacan talks about is the Real order, which is considered to be the
most elusive of the three categories; it is also related very closely to sexuality and death. This
order seems to be in the outside purview of the subject of language (Mafakher, 2018). The
domain of the Real order is in relation to concepts which are inexpressible; things that cannot
be spoken about or for which there is no language for. This is the order where the individual
subject meets with the inexpressible joy and death.

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2.2.1. Unconscious Communication
It was in Freud’s opinion that the only way psychoanalysis can be effective is when
the individual, who is being studied, must be able to share with the consultant everything that
crosses their mind during the hour that they are being studied in the clinic (Freud, 2018).
Unconscious thought can sometimes be classified as irrelevant and non-consequential or even
completely random, but this is important for the analyst to have access to that information to
be able to successfully examine the other materials that will be studied in the session with the
client. A part of the study of the unconscious mind involved the student to be expressing their
feelings and thoughts they are having about the analyst so they are able to comprehend what
transferential issues are at hand. Freud’s interpretation of unconscious thoughts is to compare
it against the associated details present in the patient’s dream because most of the times,
patients are only able to provide certain highlights of the dream, not the details.
Lacan had thought Freud’s ideas of the “slip of tongue”, jokes and his interpretation
of one’s dreams are all concentrated on in the agency of language when related to a
subjective constitution – an individual. Lacan had proposed the thought that the unconscious
is structured like a language. According to Lacan, the unconscious thoughts are not primitive
and archetypal as compared to the conscious thought, but are actually as complex and
structurally sophisticated as the conscious thought itself. In Lacan’s research, he stresses on
the fact that speech and language are, in fact, way beyond the control of the subject’
conscious mind. Speech and language come from a different place, which is out of the
consciousness of the subject. According to Lacan, the unconscious desire is what forms the
central point for the understanding of psychoanalysis (Vanheule, 2016).

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2.3. The Schreber Case Study:
Daniel Paul Schreber was a German judge who was suffering with his identity and
was later diagnosed as having dementia praecox, which was later defined as paranoid
schizophrenia. He described his mental illnesses, a second one diagnosed a few years later, in
his book called Memoirs of My Nervous Illness (2000). This book quickly became one of
most influential literature pieces in the history of psychiatry and psychoanalysis therapy
because of its interpretation by Sigmund Freud. The fundamental point in Schreber’s
cosmology was the nerves, which is both composed in the human soul along with the nature
of God with relation to humanity. In Schreber’s cosmology, he believed that every human
soul is composed with nerves which are derived from God, whose nerves are the definitive
source of the entire existence of humans. Schreber believed that God’s nerves and that of
humanity exist parallel to each other except when the order of the world was disrupted with
the fundamental foundation of the memoir by Schreber (Pheby, 2016).
Sigmund Freud came up with an interpretation of Schreber’s work by reading his
memoir, having never have interviewed him in the first place. Freud drew his own
conclusions in his essay which was titles “Psycho-Analytic Notes on an Autobiographical
Account of a Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides)” (1911). Freud had concluded that the
reason behind Schreber’s disturbances is the fact that Schreber had homosexual desires which
had roots during his infancy in relation to his brother and father. Findings from the Schreber
case led Freud to rethink his classification of the different mental disturbances. He then
argued that it is absolutely not clear what the differences between paranoia and dementia
praecox are, because the symptoms for each are capable of being combined in any existing
proportion, as can be seen in the Schreber’s case. With this thinking, Freud then concluded
that it could be necessary to introduce a completely new diagnostic theory, which would be

7IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
named as paranoid dementia, and this concept will do justice to the polymorphous
disturbances of the mental state of an individual, as Judge Schreber had exhibited.
2.3.1 Psychosis and Paternal Metaphor
According to Lacan, a child is always aware of the mother’s desire as a threat, but at
the same time there is an innate want for the mother to be able to occupy herself exclusively
with the child, and this obliterates the distinct difference between the mother and child
(Lehrer et al., 2016). It is the father that restricts the child from becoming one with the
mother, and in turn protecting the child from their desire of their mother. In this sense, Lacan
describes the father as one who is protects the child from a threat. This does not mean that the
father needs to be present in order for him to be able to as a father. When a mother says,
“Wait till your father comes home,” which causes the child to ponder what his or her father
would say. According to Lacan, the failure of the paternal function in an individual’s life also
gives enough observable consequences that an analyst can further examine (Malaspina,
Gilman & Kranz, 2015).
3. Conclusion:
Psychoanalysis has had an extensive development throughout the years of it being
studied; multiple rebirths of the concept, along with leading authors who have made their
respective complaints and analysis to the theory. From the theory’s inception, psychoanalysis
has been the prime object of criticism and controversy by many psychologists who want to
examine it further. Over the last few decades, psychoanalysis, as known by the work done by
Freud in particular, has been rebutted from various different perspectives and an array of
aims which are related to theoretical diversity. This paper has traced the various
interpretations of psychoanalysis by various different well-known psychologists. It can be
concluded that the community which analyses psychoanalytic behaviour is taking stock from

8IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
its current state to ensure that the theory does not descent into theory and number disarray.
The Psychoanalytic theory has results in empirical research to be done on its vibrant
understanding of the psychology of humans, along with techniques that can eliminate
suffering experienced by humans.

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