In the World of Language but not of It Lacanian Inquiry into the Subject of Discourse Psychology

This paper examines the possibility of facilitating and maintaining the tension of dialogue between Lacanian psychoanalysis and discourse psychology. In the context of contemporary debates surrounding the discursive position of the speaking subject, Lacanian psychoanalysis and discourse psychology both attend to a project congruent with the analysis of socially articulated ways of producing knowledge, the ethical situation of the subject in context of the demands of interested others, and the configuration of subject position with reference to socially discrete linguistic acts. Despite these similarities, the understanding of the constituting nature of speech differs dramatically under these accounts. As we seek to clarify the similarities and differences between Lacanian discourse analysis and discourse psychology, we aim at illuminating the possibility of how an encounter with Lacan may further discourse psychology's theorization of the human subject as the subject of speech.