In European philosophical psychology, the work of Jacques Lacan has exerted a great deal of influence but it has received little attention from analytic philosophers. He is famous for the view that the unconscious is a repository of influences arising from language and the meanings it captures, but the presentation of his ideas is sometimes perplexing and impenetrable and its conceptual links with analytic philosophers like Frege and Wittgenstein are not easily discerned. In fact, there are a number of such (...) links and they are worth pursuing for those interested in language, mind, and the unconscious. If we explore Lacan's claim about the link between signification and the tuchè (the encounter with the real) we find that the mental content of the subject is essentially tied to the external world both causally and linguistically. The means of tying the two together arise in the context of human interactions and therefore are charged with personal and emotive content as well as the semantic content with which we are normally concerned in philosophy of language. When we pursue the implications of his view it becomes plausible both that the unconscious is structured like a language and that language borrows much of its meaning and significance to a subject from the interpersonal medium through which it has been inscribed on that subject. His approach is therefore illuminating both for linguistics (especially psycholinguistics) and for the psychology of the unconscious. (shrink)

Reflexivity and detachment: a discursive approach to women's depression This paper explores a discursive approach to understanding women's depression by presenting the results of research into women's narratives of their experiences. The discursive approach taken acknowledges women's immersion in cultural practices that determine the subject positions available to them and places a value on attributes of reflexivity and detachment that are not usually associated with their performance. The social and cultural context of the individual's experience is significant because if the (...) focus is simply on the individual this supposes that the problem lies solely with the individual. An understanding of cultural expectations and their relation to mental distress is important to mental health nursing practice. The psychotherapeutic relationship that is fundamental to mental health nursing practice requires an understanding of the meaning of individual's responses in their cultural context in order to provide facilitative and meaningful care for the women that they nurse. (shrink)