Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Psychoanalysis and Ontology: Lacan, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty

  • Chapter
Immersing in the Concrete

Part of the book series: Analecta Husserliana ((ANHU,volume 58))

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to show the relationship between Merleau-Ponty and Lacan. Our concern is to examine how the relationship changed from Merleau-Ponty’s early thought to his later philosophy. In addition to this, in order to explore the complicated relations, we must take into consideration that Freud’s theory and Heidegger’s thought were combined in the later philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. It is true that their influence on Merleau-Ponty has been considered separately by many scholars, but as it is for Merleau-Ponty Freudian thought had to be interpreted ontologically and so Merleau-Ponty’s ontological psychoanalysis was created. Our second aim is to then compare Lacan’s ideas and Merleau-Ponty’s ontological psychoanalysis. In relation to this comparison, the issue of negativity will be taken up, because in negativity both thinkers came close to agreeing, even though with respect to the same we can find a marked difference between the two.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “L’Enfant vu par l’adulte,” Merleau-Ponty à la Sorbonne: Résumé de cours 1949–1952 (Grenoble: Éditions Cynara, 1988 ), p. 108.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ibid., p. 113.

    Google Scholar 

  3. David Michael Levin, “Vision of Narcissism: Intersubjectivity and the Reversals of Reflection,” in Merleau-Ponty Vivant, ed. M. C. Dillon ( Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991 ), p. 62.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Jacques Lacan, “Merleau-Ponty in Memoriam,” in Merleau-Ponty and Psychology, ed. Keith Hoeller (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1993 ), p. 78.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  8. James M. Edie, Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy of Language: Structuralism and Dialectics (Washington, D.C.: Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology and University Press of America, 1987), p. 18. Though Edie thinks that there is not much clear thought in The Visible and the Invisible, I do not regard it as contradictory or “a footnote” to his second period.

    Google Scholar 

  9. James Schmidt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Between Phenomenology and Structuralism ( Boston: Boston University; Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1985 ), p. 108.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale, published by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye with the collaboration of Albert Riedlinger (Lausanne and Paris: Payot, 1916 ), pp. 31–32.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension ( Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1966 ), p. 34.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Lacan, “Merleau-Ponty in Memoriam,” op. cit.,p. 78.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Marc Richir, “Un tout nouveau rapport à la psychanalyse,” Les Cahiers de Philosophie 7 (1989), p. 165.

    Google Scholar 

  14. M. C. Dillon, Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology ( Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988 ), p. 194.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ibid., p. 196.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Jacques Taminiaux, Le Regard et l’excédent, Phaenomenologica 75 ( The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1977 ), p. 108.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Dillon, Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology, op. cit., p. 206.

    Google Scholar 

  19. M. C. Dillon, “The Unconscious: Language and World,” in Merleau-Ponty in Contemporary Perspectives, Phaenomenologica 129, ed. Patrick Burke and Jan Van Der Veken (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993 ), p. 80.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis: Preface to Hesnard’s L’Oeuvre de Freud,” in Merleau-Ponty and Psychology, ed. Keith Holler ( Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1993 ), p. 68.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ibid., p. 71.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Renaud Barbaras De l’être du phénomène: Sur l’ontologie de Merleau-Ponty (Grenoble: Editions Jérôme Millon, 1991), p. 315.

    Google Scholar 

  23. David Michael Levin, “Vision of Narcissism,” op. cit.,p. 68.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “Themes from the Lectures at the Collège de France 1952–1960,” in In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays, trans. John O’Neill (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970 ), p. 159.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, zweiter Band (Pfullingen: Neske, 1961 ), pp. 358–359.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Sigmund Freud, “The Unconscious,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XIV ( London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-analysis, 1957 ), p. 201.

    Google Scholar 

  27. J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, The Language of Psycho-analysis, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-analysis, 1973 ), pp. 62–65.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Merleau-Ponty, “Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis,” op. cit.,p. 67.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Ibid.,p. 71.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Sigmund Freud, “The Outline of Psycho-analysis,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XXIII ( London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-analysis, 1957 ), pp. 148–151.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Laplanche and Pontalis, Language, op. cit.,p. 292.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Merleau-Ponty, “Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis,” op. cit.,p. 69.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ibid., p. 68.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Freud, “Outline,” op. cit.,p. 69.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Groupe de Recherches sur la philosophie et le language, Merleau-Ponty: La philosophie et son langage, Recherche sur la philosophie et le langage 15 (Grenoble: Université Pierre Mendes, 1993 ), p. 17.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Lacan, “Memoriam,” op. cit.,p. 79.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Jacques Lacan, Écrits: A Selection, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: W.W. Norton and Company; London: Tavistock, 1977 ), p. 150.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Bice Benvenuto and Roger Kennedy, The Works of Jacques Lacan ( New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986 ), p. 129.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Lacan, Écrits, op. cit.,p. 199.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Ibid., p. 217.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Ibid., p. 287.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Ibid., p. 288.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, La Nature: Notes: Cours du Collège de France,compiled and annotated by Dominique Séglard (Paris: Édition de Seuil, 1995), p. 290.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Benvenuto and Kennedy, Works, p. 110.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Ibid., p. 114.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Alan Sherdidan ( New York, London: W. W. Norton and Company, 1978 ), p. 81.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Ibid., pp. 81–82.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Ibid., p. 90.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “The Child’s Relations with Others,” trans. William Cobb, in The Primacy of Perception, ed. James M. Edie ( Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964 ), pp. 125–141.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Ohtaki Musubu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA

    Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka

  2. Kobe City College of Nursing, Japan

    Shoichi Matsuba

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Musubu, O. (1998). Psychoanalysis and Ontology: Lacan, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. In: Tymieniecka, AT., Matsuba, S. (eds) Immersing in the Concrete. Analecta Husserliana, vol 58. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1830-1_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1830-1_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5035-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1830-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation