Lacanians on 'Identity and Identification'

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JOURNAL REVIEW
LACANIANS ON ‘IDENTITY AND IDENTIFICATION’
Umbr(a) #1, 1998, pp. 1-77, Centre for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture, State
University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.
INTRODUCTION
What is the Lacanian theory of identity? What is the main difference between a
theory of identity and a theory of identification? What do the Lacanians have to
teach us about these themes? These then are the three main questions that are
addressed in this special issue of a Lacanian journal that was edited by the members
of the Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture at the State University of
New York at Buffalo. The importance of these themes relates to the fact that the sense
of human identity is itself a consequence of identification. Any form of identification has
‘transformative’ effects on the subject. An important dimension in Lacanian
psychoanalysis then is to work out the trajectory of identifications that constitute the
patient’s sense of identity. Identifications have both an imaginary and a symbolic
dimension.1 Progress in clinical analysis is based on being able to differentiate
between these two dimensions; the term ‘identity’ should however not be conflated
with ‘subjectivity.’2 The maturity of the patient also depends on being able to shed
the imaginary dimensions to the extent possible though it is incorrect to believe that
1 Jacques Lacan is by no means the only psychoanalyst interested in a theory of identity. See,
for instance, Erik H. Erikson (1970). ‘Autobiographical Notes on the Identity Crisis,’
Daedalus, Vol. 99, No. 4, pp. 730-759.
2 On this analytic distinction in the Lacanian theory of the subject, see Bruce Fink (1995). ‘The
Lacanian Subject,’ in The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance (Princeton:
Princeton University Press), pp. 33-79. For a concise history of subjectivity, see Donald E.
Hall (2004). Subjectivity (New York and Oxfordshire: Routledge).

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any human being can overcome the order of the imaginary once and for all.3 The
fantasy of overcoming the imaginary is itself a dimension of the imaginary order. A theory
of identity and identification must also be situated within the levels of psychic
distortion that affect all the ‘formations of the unconscious.’ The imaginary
dimension is a form of distortion - albeit a necessary form of distortion since all humans
are subject to an existential form of alienation in the order of the imaginary.4 This
alienation is a consequence of the fact that the subject derives his identity by
identifying with the imaginary dimensions of the mirror image and the symbolic loci
that constitute the Oedipus matrix. Furthermore, it is important to note that the
imaginary is not the only register of distortion in analysis. The dream work, the joke
work, and the formations of the unconscious are all subject to systematic forms of
distortion (that are known as ‘condensation, displacement, and secondary
representation’ in clinical analysis). The purpose of distortion is to veil the endemic
conflicts that constitute the psychic life of the subject. Distortions are themselves a topic
of great interest in the ‘human sciences’ since we can see distortions at work not only
in the human psyche but also in the economy and society. In other words,
economists, sociologists, and psychologists should all be interested in forms of
distortion that constitute the imaginary dimension of the symbolic.
THE FUNCTION OF DISTORTIONS
An important gain in studying psychoanalysis is that it makes it possible to identify
distortions in ourselves and in the world around us. In order to do so, however, the
subject must have an intuitive sense of reality. The distortions must then be
compared to what the reality of the situation might have been like if reality had not
been distorted for the purposes of deception or examination. That is why a theory of
identification is important. It not only helps to differentiate between ‘appearances
3 See, for instance, Bruce Fink (2014). ‘Lacanian Clinical Practice: From the Imaginary to the
Symbolic,’ Against Understanding: Commentary and Critique in a Lacanian Key (London and
New York: Routledge), Vol. 1, pp. 27-46.
4 The Lacanian theory of the imaginary is based on the formative influence of the mirror
stage. See Jacques Lacan (1949,1977, 1992). ‘The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of
the ‘I’ as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience,’ Écrits: A Selection, translated by Alan
Sheridan (London: Tavistock/Routledge), pp. 1-7. The main theoretical move that Lacan
makes in this paper is to argue that the mirror stage has a formative influence because it
triggers off an anticipatory structure in the subject who feels that his image in the mirror is
more wholesome compared to his infantile experience of lacking adequate motor co-
ordination. This becomes a symbolic expression of seeking or anticipating forms of being in
the future that the subject’s experience of lack precludes in the here-and-now. For an
exposition and development of this theme in psychoanalysis and cultural theory, see the
section on the ‘Imaginary’ in Richard Feldstein, Bruce Fink, and Maire Jaanus (1996). Reading
Seminars I and II: Lacan’s Return to Freud (Albany: SUNY Press), The Paris Seminars in
English, pp. 109-169.

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and reality,’ but to also delineate clearly who is examining whom and to what effect
whenever there is a distortion in one’s immediate surroundings. Another purpose of
deliberate distortion could be to ascertain the examinee’s levels of stability. Extreme
distortions will make it possible to identify the levels of stability that are inherent in
a particular patient or examinee because distortions can activate the unconscious.
Insofar as we define stability as the ability to manage the ‘promptings of the
unconscious,’ distortions in our immediate surroundings serve an important
function for testing purposes. The Lacanian theory of identity and identification, for
instance, can go a long way in analysing the forms of distortion that are used by
examiners like Mark Carney of the Bank of England in their ongoing efforts to ‘fight
threats to stability in the G20.’ The main method used in such examinations is to
collect personal information about examinees by tracking them; ask if there is
anything symptomatic in this information; distort the information by citing the
examinee’s comments ‘out of context’ in the media; and in then waiting patiently to
see if the examinee will act-out any of these themes in his everyday life. If the examinee
acts-out any of these themes, then, that particular theme will be worthy of further
examination. The examinee’s main strategy in ‘scoring very high marks’ in such
exams must be to hold firm when he or she encounters any specific instance of
distortion in his immediate surroundings. If the patient doesn’t have the intuitive
ability to identify distortions, then, his unconscious will conflate the imaginary with the
symbolic and he will immediately act-out repressed conflicts.5
COMPREHENSIVE THEORY OF STABILITY
That is why the recent interaction between psychoanalysts and central bankers in the
last few years within the ‘financial system’ has made it possible to develop a more
comprehensive theory of stability in the context of the subject’s professional and
personal identity. Or, to put it simply, a psychoanalytic approach to stability will make
5 The main wager here is that those who have a propensity to act-out repressed conflicts in
the symbolic should not seek out executive or decision making positions. If they do, they
should be aware of the risk factors involved in doing so. A decision maker is also more
likely to act-out in contexts that he is not able to understand due to socio-cultural differences
or when value systems are extremely different from those in which he might have been
trained to lead. This insight, if internalized as a part of a decision maker’s psyche, can make
it much more likely that expatriate managers will succeed when posted abroad. For
definitions and the theoretical basis of the concept of acting out in psychoanalysis, see
Charles Rycroft (1968, 1995). ‘Acting Out,’ A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (London:
Penguin Books), pp. 1-2. See also Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis (1973, 1988).
‘Acting Out,’ The Language of Psychoanalysis, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith,
introduction by Daniel Lagache (London: Karnac Books), pp. 4-6. The Lacanian
interpretation of this concept is available in Dylan Evans (1996, 1997). ‘Acting Out,’ An
Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (London: Routledge), pp. 2-3.

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it possible to identify the underlying fantasy in the subject rather than merely
ascertain from an analytic point of view that the subject has a propensity to act-out
under provocation. The fantasy that propels any instance of instability in the subject
is more important than just the brute fact of acting-out. If the underlying fantasy has
been correctly delineated in the gap between a provocative ‘stimulus’ and the
subject’s ‘response’; then, it is possible to show why the subject acted out in any
given instance in his professional or personal life.6 That is why Mark Carney
identifies the gap between the stimulus and response as the locus in which an exam
will be conducted for the subject in a way that bears an interesting analogy to how
Lacanians cut a clinical session when a gap emerges in the discourse of the patient.
This forces the examinee or the patient to ask himself why the sudden emergence of
the gap in his consciousness is important for his progress or eventual cure. Most
Lacanian insights then are generated in-between the sessions rather than within the
clinical session itself. This is a Lacanian manoeuver to reduce the gap between what
the analyst knows about the patient and what the patient’s unconscious knows
about the patient’s own illness.7
PROVOKING THE ANALYST
It would not be a stretch to say that those who lack the stomach to work-through
distortions will not make it as either central bankers or as psychoanalysts. This is just
another way of saying that an analyst must be able to work-through anxiety in
himself before he can help his patients.8 The main reason for this is that the hysterical
patient will do everything in his power to provoke the analyst. If the analyst gets
provoked, it will bring the analysis to an end. The patient would have then
demonstrated in the symbolic that his analyst is not stable enough to analyse him.
Provocative behaviour is the main symptom in both the male and female forms of hysteria.
The only difference is that provocative behaviour in ‘male hysterics’ is better concealed
6 For an analysis of this theme, see Bruce Fink (2014). ‘Fantasies and the Fundamental
Fantasy: An Introduction,’ Casesand Commentary in a Lacanian Key (London and New York:
Routledge), Vol. 2, pp. 39-52.
7 This distinction was first made by Freud himself. See Sigmund Freud (1940, 1993). ‘Outline
of Psychoanalysis,’ Historical and Expository Works on Psychoanalysis, translated by James
Strachey, edited by Albert Dickson (London: Penguin Books), Vol. 15, Penguin Freud
Library, p. 411.
8 See, for instance, Megan Williams (2000). ‘Anxiety in the Gap,’ analysis, No. 9, pp. 158-174.
The Lacanian theory of anxiety is based on Jacques Lacan (2004, 2014). Anxiety: The Seminar
of Jacques Lacan, Book X, translated by Adrian R. Price, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller
(Cambridge: Polity Press).

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in a patriarchal society than in female hysterics.9 An important component in clinical
training therefore is to be absolutely honest within the counter-transference in
matters where the patient is resisting the flow of free-associations in the direction of
the primal repressed. The closer the analysis approaches the patient’s core symptom,
the more likely it is that the patient will try something brazen to put the analyst off
the trail of the repressed. This approach however should not be conflated with the
deliberate forms of provocation used by examiners for testing purposes - be they
central bankers or others trying to form a team (provided they understand what they
are doing in terms of a formal theory; and are able to delimit the main question that
is being asked of the examinee on any given occasion).
THE METHOD OF GAP ANALYSIS
If somebody like Mark Carney gets provoked by an examinee, for instance, it could
have devastating consequences for his credibility, reputation, and career as a central
banker. This is one of the main reasons that analysts in training start as a patient
themselves. It makes them more empathetic to not only the plight of the patient, but
also gives them the brutal strength necessary to work through the anxieties that
constitute their counter-transference to a patient.10 That is also why Lacan took
counter-transferential resistance more seriously than the resistance put up by the
patient. The limits of the analysis are actually determined by the amount of anxiety
that the analyst can work-through. A theory of identification becomes important
precisely because the subject’s identity, or self, is split between his real and his ego-
ideal. The unconscious emerges then in the gap between the real and the ego-ideal of
the subject’s identity. This fact can be easily demonstrated in subjects who speak
more than one language or who live in multi-cultural societies. So, for instance, if
Mark Carney is a bilingual speaker who was raised in Canada, his subjectivity is split
between English and French. In other words, the implications of this insight for testing
purposes should be obvious. It will be much easier for Mark Carney to remain stable
9 There is an interesting literature on this theme that is informed by the concerns of both
feminism and psychoanalysis. See, for instance, the section on ‘Hysteria’ in the Lacanian
journal analysis, No. 7, 1996, pp. 85-112; Elisabeth Bronfen (1998). The Knotted Subject:
Hysteria and its Discontents (Princeton: Princeton University Press); Dianne F. Sadoff (1998).
Sciences of the Flesh: Representing Body and Subject in Psychoanalysis (Stanford: Stanford
University Press); Juliet Mitchell (2000). Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria and the
Effect of Sibling Relationships on the Human Condition (London: Penguin Books); and, most
recently, Asti Hustvedt (2012). Medical Muses: Hysteria in 19th-century Paris (London:
Bloomsbury).
10 For an exposition of the differences between the transference and the counter-transference,
see Pat Radford (1970). ‘Transference,’ and ‘Counter-Transference,’ in Humberto Nagera
(Ed). Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on Metapsychology (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd),
pp. 168-199, and pp. 200-206, respectively.

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if provoked in English or in French. Carney’s levels of stability are more likely to
determined with a high level of accuracy if the exam is pitched in the gap between
English and French in his psyche. If the examiner does not take cognizance of this
gap in Carney’s bilingual consciousness; then, that is tantamount to only testing him
repeatedly using a behaviourist model. The examiner will then remain endlessly
befuddled as to why and how Mark Carney remains stable under provocation. That
is why I have been making a case for incorporating the need for gap analysis, as
articulated in psychoanalysis, within a more comprehensive model of how both
central bankers and psychoanalysts can think about stability in the years to come
without falling prey to the reductiveness of behaviourism. This approach that
deploys gap analysis will also yield powerful insights if we want to develop a canon
of leaders who are stable in domains like law, business, and politics.
CONTEXTUAL INTELLIGENCE & STABILITY
What such leaders have in considerable measure is ‘contextual intelligence’ that
helps them to sort out the imaginary distortions in the environment that can affect
lesser beings. There is good reason to believe that stability is an important indicator
of contextual intelligence in the history of the professions.11 This is true not only for
decision makers, but also for those who do performance appraisals of employees
from both a domestic and an international human resource management
perspective. That is why stabilizers like Mark Carney in the Bank of England will be
able to do their job better if they are informed by theories of cultural differences.
What is at stake then is not the importance of stability as such, but in working out
the criteria for identifying, in any given instance, how to measure levels of stability. If
Mark Carney is willing to go public with his metrics, he will find that he can easily
start a second career as a consultant to HR firms. The higher the score that a job
applicant gets in terms of the Carney Metric, the more he will be desired by
prospective employers. In order to make this kind of inquiry possible, however, it is
11 My interest in the role that contextual intelligence plays in building a canon of leaders in
law, business, and management was triggered-off by reviewing a book on business history
by Dean Nitin Nohria of the Harvard Business School wherein he and his co-author
Anthony J. Mayo make a compelling case for a business canon on the model used in literary
studies. See Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria (2005). ‘Introduction,’ In Their Time: The
Greatest Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century (Boston: Harvard Business School Press),
with a Foreword by Warren Bennis, pp. xv-xxx. Nohria and Mayo mainly use the survey
method to determine the criteria of inclusion in the canon of business legends. Since many of
those included are not alive, it is worth considering how Nohria and Mayo will determine
the criteria of inclusion amongst contemporary business leaders. What sort of examinations
would be methodologically justifiable, given the huge preoccupation with stability in recent
times (in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08) for being included in the canon of
business legends?

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important to understand what psychoanalysis has to teach us about theories of
identity and identification since there are important correlations between identity,
stability, contextual intelligence, and decision making abilities in those who would
like to lead institutions, organizations, and firms in a hyper-connected world.12 That
is why this special issue on the Lacanian approach to identity and identification is
important even though it does not directly touch upon all the specific themes that I
have enumerated above.13 There are eight papers, including an editorial by Marina
de Carnieri, in this issue of the journal. In addition to the titular topics of identity
and identification, there are also papers dealing with themes like passionate
attachments and dis-identification; the role played by identification in obsessional
neurosis; the conceptual opposition between identity and difference when conceived
as metaphysical categories; theories of the proper name; the differences between the
function of sex as symptom and as fantasy; and an inquiry into the conceptual
difference between quality and quantity in a theory of the subject. These papers also
make it possible to situate the Lacanian theory of the sexual relation in the context of
the Lacanian subject. These papers address both the structural and the historical
dimensions of subjectivity though the emphasis is on how Lacan’s forays in
mathematics, logic, and topology can be invoked to formally represent his theory of
gender, femininity, and the sexual relation. In other words, both clinicians and
theorists will find something useful here.
CONCLUSION
The burden of this journal review has been to argue that the insights collected here
can also help to incorporate psychoanalysis within the mainstream of professions
like law, management, and business. It can play an important role in evaluating the
performance of professionals as well given that human behaviour is propelled by
unconscious forces, fantasies, symptoms, and forms of identification that are not
within the conscious awareness of the knowing subject (the theorist) or the doing
subject (the practitioner). That is why psychoanalysis is important for the
management and evaluation of human resources. What Lacanian theory can also
make possible is the construction of a theory of the unconscious within which
12 For more on the theme of the role that psychoanalysis can play in training leaders and
decision makers and for a bibliography of related articles, see Manfred Kets de Vries and
Elisabet Engellau (2010). ‘A Clinical Approach to the Dynamics of Leadership and Executive
Transformation,’ in Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana (Eds.) Handbook of Leadership Theory
and Practice: A Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium (Boston: Harvard Business
School Press), pp. 183-222.
13 See also Herminia Ibarra, Scott Snook, and Laura Guillén (2010). ‘Identity-Based
Leadership Development,’ in Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana (Eds.) Handbook of
Leadership Theory and Practice: A Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium (Boston:
Harvard Business School Press), pp. 657-678.

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organizational psychologists can think-through areas like motivation and volition by
articulating the forms of identification that constitute much of human behaviour.14
This is because the Lacanian ‘graphs of desire’ and ‘schemas of the subject’ are
conceived as a dialectical response to how the subject is located vis-à-vis the locus of
the symbolic Other. In other words, the modalities of attachment, identification, and
dis-identification are not conscious processes, but implicated within a theory of the
unconscious. It is only when we recognize the relationship between the subject and
the Other that we will begin to recognize why, how, and where the subject performs;
and, even more importantly, for whose gaze the subject performs; or is, who he
claims to be. The relevance of such a theory of the subject for an analysis of
employee behaviour or employer-employee dynamics should now become obvious;
the unconscious is that which is activated in the gap between the subject and the
Other; in the gap between the consultant and the client; and in the gap between the
employer and the employee.15 What the parties to a professional transaction activate
to suture this gap of the ‘split subject’ then could be identification, a fantasy, or a
symptom.16 Lacan’s problematization of the sexual relation is also relevant because it
makes it possible to ask why and how; if at all, HR personnel can build better
relations between employers, employees, and their respective stakeholders; and in
identifying the role that the unconscious could play in hindering these attempts if its
existence remains unrecognized; only then will it become possible, as psychoanalysts
put it, to ‘manage in a psychoanalytically informed manner.’17
SHIVA KUMAR SRINIVASAN
14 This is however not just a Lacanian claim; see Laurence Miller (1986). ‘In Search of the
Unconscious,’ Psychology Today, December, pp. 60-64, for an attempt to identify the
neurological basis of the unconscious.
15 See, for instance, the pioneering work of Manfred Kets de Vries (2009). ‘Action and
Reflection: The Emotional Dance between Consultant and Client,’ INSEAD Working Paper
2009/21/EFE/IGLC
16 For more on this theme, see Gilles Arnaud and Stijn Vanheule (2007). ‘The Division of the
Subject and the Organization: A Lacanian Approach to Subjectivity at Work,’ Journal of
Organizational Change Management, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 359-369; Gilles Arnaud (2002). ‘The
Organization and the Symbolic: Organizational Dynamics Viewed from a Lacanian
Perspective,’ Human Relations, Vol. 55, No. 6, pp. 691-716; and Kate Kenny (2009). Journal of
Organizational Change Management, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 214-228.
17 Adrian Carr (2002). ‘Managing in a Psychoanalytically Informed Manner,’ Journal of
Managerial Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 343-347.

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