Abstract

The importance of Lacan's thought for philosophical reflection has become obvious since the publication of A. de Waelhens's book Schizophrenia. De Waelhens, an historian of modern philosophy and a phenomenologist in his own right, became convinced by studying psychoanalysis and particularly the writings of Lacan that a Cartesian self-awareness was even less possible than Husserl had shown. De Waelhens also learned from Lacan that to be a subject is different from being conscious, or that there is thought in man elsewhere than in his consciousness. De Waelhens's study of Lacan, furthermore, demonstrated the importance of language in the constitution of the subject.