Analytica: Revista de Psicanálise

The antiphilosophical operation of Lacan’s theory of signifier

Alberto Warmling Candido da Silva — 2025-08-28

This paper examines the theory of the signifier as conceptualized by Lacan, along with the philosophical dimensions that his proposal raises. Our thesis is that there is an antiphilosophical operation in the way how Lacan assimilates the concept of signifier. We argue that a better understanding of the radical nature of this assimilation requires a critique of the history of philosophy, particularly within the metaphysical tradition. Thus, we first explore the notion of antiphilosophy in Lacan through the work of philosopher Alain Badiou. Our aim in this presentation is to explore the epistemological consequences of the signifier and the issues raised by Lacanian anti-philosophy. To achieve this, we will trace the historical development of the Lacanian conception of the signifier and engage in a debate with central themes such as meaning, the unconscious, metaphor, and metonymy. We argue that the relationship between philosophy and psychoanalysis, within the framework of anti-philosophy, does not merely reflect a critique or rejection of the philosophical tradition, rather, it signifies the potential for a form of reason or truth that acknowledges the significance of determination.

Contemporary suffering and anxiety disorders: a psychoanalytic analysis of the rise of this diagnostic category and its relationship with current cultural aspects.

Lucas Gabriel Baviera — 2025-08-28

The aim of this article is to explore, using a psychoanalytical reading, how some contemporary categorizations of suffering, centered around the psychodiagnosis of so-called anxiety disorders. Freud problematizes, through his concept of discomfort in civilization, how the form of becoming ill and suffering psychically is intrinsically related to the structural organizations of the culture in which the individual is inserted. In this sense, using a bibliographic review methodology, this article focuses on searching for notions of subjective and cultural character in today’s society that dialogue with the pragmatic nosology of anxiety disorders. Based on the categorization proposed by Birman, which divides the modalities of contemporary suffering into three registers (the body, the excess and the intensity), we relate and deepen, with Freud, Birman and Han, with other authors in complement, how these registers relate to panic, generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders. The relationship was established mainly on the basis of a way in which anxiety manifested in contemporary times is expressed in ways that go beyond the classic models of transference neuroses, related to castration anguish.

Keywords: Anxiety disorders. Contemporary psychoanalysis. Suffering in culture.

The pubescent body on the scene: rites of passage, adolescence and anorexia

Dayane Costa de Souza Pena — 2025-06-12

If in traditional societies rites of passage function as a symbolic treatment for the reality of puberty and preparation for entry into adulthood through the establishment of new modalities of engagement with the social Other, in modern and hypermodern societies the ideals offered by culture already they no longer manage to metaphorize enjoyment. It is there where the Other reveals itself to be most inconsistent that the teenager increasingly finds himself thrust into the urgency of creating unique solutions. In this article, we propose that anorexia triggered during adolescence can emerge as one of those unconscious solutions that the subject resorts to in the face of unbearable anguish, of uncontrollable and excessive enjoyment that breaks out in the body during puberty. In view of this, we also bet on the fruitful dialogue between psychoanalysis and cinema, bringing to our debate some fragments of the film Tem um vidro sob minha pele (2014), by brazilian director Moara Rossetto Passoni, which tells us the story of the character Beatriz and of his anorexia between the ages of eleven and eighteen. We believe that Passoni’s invention, in this filmic work, puts on stage valuable elements and articulations that will allow us to extract consequences for approaching in the clinic the impasses of the subject in anorexia with his body in the face of the invasion of puberty.

Old age and dementia: what kind of clinic can we offer to the subject?

Francisca Maria Timoteo Silva — 2025-06-12

The clinic with old age, especially when we follow cases of patients affected by dementia, it cannot be done without managing transference and obstacles. The family, caregivers, doctors, other specialist colleagues in the clinical area are listened, the patient with dementia is often the last to be listened to and, even so, seen as someone who “says nothing about nothing”, “has no logic in speech” or “cannot answer logical questions”, statements commonly heard by these same respondents. From an organic point of view, these patients have a considerable cognitive deficit, which leads professionals to disregard what they say. Through psychoanalysis, however, we come across another order of knowledge, which places the subject at the center of the discussion, considering the role of listening to the subject and its effects based on the analyst’s desire. As final considerations, we consider that although at the beginning of psychoanalysis, listening to the elderly was not the target of major investigations, listening to the unconscious opened doors to the complexity of the clinic and its vicissitudes, making listening to old age a possible clinic, and whose clinical focus is given due to the particularity and subjectivity of each patient, in the case of working with the subject of the unconscious in a state of dementia. When the notion of dementia as a mental disorder, not necessarily the result of natural aging, is expanded, we offer a treatment to the subject based on the place of the subject’s knowledge.

Judaism and Psychoanalysis: reflections on the life and work of Freud

Ana Paula Vedovato Marques de Oliveira — 2025-06-12

This article seeks to reflect on the origin and construction of the psychoanalytic field, starting from Freud’s relationship with Judaism. To do so, we examine the place of Judaism in the author’s life, based on his relationship with his father, which culminated in a unique appropriation of his Jewish heritage. We revisit Freud’s criticisms of religion and question what place Judaism holds in his life. We note that, through a particular appropriation of Judaism, Freud appears to have elaborated on part of his affective ambivalence directed towards the paternal figure, thus overcoming the “resigned father” who inhabited his memories. Freud’s elaboration of the “parricide” is present in our conjectures in his bold reinterpretation of monotheistic religion, in which the traumatic experience of exile, experienced by himself and his ancestors, gains new origins and meanings. Finally, we draw parallels between the fields of Psychoanalysis and Judaism, particularly from the idea of non-place, of deterritorialization. We highlight the courage of Freud’s undertaking, which, despite not breaking with the “monotheistic logic”, revealed the traumatic nature of its establishment and perpetuation.

Keywords: Freud. Judaism. Psychoanalysis. Monotheism.

Suicides in adolescence: psychic effects of impasses in the social bond

Luciana Gageiro Coutinho — 2025-06-12

This article is part of a larger research that interrogates suicide in adolescence and its relationship with contemporary social impasses, based on the fact that it currently constitutes the second leading cause of death among young people worldwide. Starting from a bibliographical review on the topic, it aims to analyze two clinical cases involving suicide attempts in adolescence treated at an outpatient clinic to children and teenagers, based on the psychoanalytic theoretical framework. We maintain that the psychic effects of impasses in the social bond to which young people/adolescents are subjected interfere with the very meaning of life and existence, being associated with the fading of otherness, as well as the impossibility of narrating the anguish and helplessness in which they find themselves, often manifests itself in body and in action. Suicidal acts, so recurrent in adolescence today, can be situated in the paradigm of the subject’s discomfort in contemporary times in the face of the decline of the Other in culture and Education.

The concepts of body and psychosis in the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan

Daniele França Ferreira — 2025-06-12

The body is a recurring theme in Lacanian theory, in which the subject’s relationship with its body is mediated by both the image and the signifier. This complex dynamic is articulated in two pivotal moments of Lacan’s teaching. Firstly, his mirror stage theory posits the image as the primary operator of the body’s subjectivation, situating the subject’s constitution predominantly within the imaginary register. Later, Lacan shifts emphasis to the symbolic register, where the signifier becomes the paramount mediator of the subject’s relationship with its body, now conceived primarily as a support for the inscriptions of the letter. This research examines the concept of the body in Lacan’s theorization of psychosis, drawing on his analysis of the Schreber case. This case is chosen for its instrumental role in developing Lacan’s theory of psychosis and the prominence of bodily symptoms in its clinical presentation. The study adopts a theoretical-conceptual approach, focusing on Lacan’s third seminar (1955-1956) and his interpretation of Schreber’s memoir. Through this analysis, Lacan argues that the symptoms and phenomena involving the psychotic subject and its body can be understood as attempts at stabilization, compensating for the absence of the paternal signifier when symbolic mediation is unattainable.

The double in paranoid delusion: a psychoanalytic commentary on The Black Swan

Fabiano Chagas Rabêlo — 2025-06-12

The article investigates the participation of the phenomenon of the double in the composition of paranoid delusion through the commentary on the film The Black Swan. The delusion is treated as an autonomous, singular and complex construction that supports an attempt at spontaneous healing, and the phenomenon of the double, as a strategic experience around which the paranoid delusion can eventually be based and developed. It is argued that the study of delirium woven around the phenomenon of the double is capable of shedding light on important aspects of the organization of the psyche in psychosis, especially with regard to narcissistic disorders. Interpolations are made between Aranofsky’s film, the book The Double, by Dostoevsky, the ballet Swan Lake, by Tschaikowsky, and the fairy tale The Stolen Veil, by Musäus. As a theoretical basis, contributions from Freud, Lacan, Quinet, Maleval, Rabinovitch, Soler and Melman are brought. Articles originating from research carried out on the SCIELO and PEPSIC platforms are also cited using the descriptors: “Black Swan” OR/AND “Psychoanalysis”. The text has the following structure: initially the specificities of the constitution of narcissism in schizophrenia and paranoia are situated. These theoretical contributions follows the analysis of the first act of the film, which shows Nina in her routine before the outbreak of the first crisis. The second topic focuses on the crisis and stabilization work. In the final part, the hypothesis is raised that the fusion with the specular double required at the culmination of the performance may have triggered disintegrating effects on Nina, leading to a passage to the act . One then asks about the possibilities of therapeutic management in the face of such a situation, considering the recurrence of similar manifestations in concrete clinical contexts.

The terror of the disruption of funeral rituals in the COVID-19 pandemic

Sophia Thomazini de Aguiar — 2025-06-12

At the end of 2019, the coronavirus emerged in China, triggering a global pandemic due to its high contagion rate. Isolation and social distancing measures were adopted to contain the spread of the virus, resulting in significant changes to social routines. The need for physical distancing has significantly affected interpersonal relationships, especially during times of loss such as funerals. Given this, the restrictions imposed by the pandemic interrupted or made goodbyes and funeral rituals more difficult, profoundly impacting the way people experience and deal with grief. Mourning is understood by Psychoanalysis as the evidence presented by the subject in the face of the loss of a person or abstraction linked to it. Thus, not performing these rites during the pandemic generated difficulties in symbolizing loss, resulting in fantasies of fear, terror, guilt and pain. This study sought to study, through a psychoanalytic analysis, the impacts that the lack and/or non-performance of death rites caused during the pandemic period. The nature of this research is applied, with a qualitative approach, with exploratory objectives and field study procedures. Through interviews and data analysis, we examined how participants coped with the death of loved ones, the cause of death, and the experience of farewell lockdowns affected by social distancing. The results highlighted feelings such as stress, anxiety, sadness, helplessness, anger and impotence related to grief during social isolation. We observed a difficulty in the psychic realization of the loss and in the elaboration of mourning, highlighting the importance of funeral rituals in the accessibility of the irreversibility of death. It was concluded that such rituals play a fundamental role in meeting the psychological and social needs of individuals, emphasizing their importance during periods of crisis, such as the pandemic.

Editorial

Renata Cristina Gonçalves — 2025-06-12

Facial harmonizations: a psychoanalytic perspective of contemporary malaise

Janaína Maria Santos Silveira — 2025-06-12

Facial harmonizations are aesthetic, non-surgical procedures that have been being highlighted as a growing phenomenon in contemporary society. In this matter, we identify the face as a source of discomfort, or as a punctum, a concept created by Mieli to define the place of one’s own body that causes discomfort, and the desire to undo it. In this regard, the interest in carrying out bibliographical research on psychoanalysis arose, intending to draw a link between the pursuit of facial changes and psychoanalytic propositions about body interventions. We aim to understand the discomfort that affects bodies increasingly younger, choosing as subjects men and women between the ages of 20 and 40 who underwent the procedure. We question whether the motivation for the increase in procedures is due to the fear of aging. This article is justified because of the incidence of facial aesthetic procedures leading the top five positions of non-surgical methods most performed in Brazil, according to data from the last census of the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery (SBCP, In Portuguese: Sociedade Brasileira de Cirurgia Plástica). We conclude that the choice for harmonization procedures corresponds to crossings of the cultural dimension, such as the media, and the fear of aging, since the two most performed non-surgical procedures are intended to prevent and treat wrinkles and expression lines, and with a higher incidence of aesthetic procedures in the age group between 19 and 50.

Everyday war: the psychoanalytic listening of social bonds in the face of political violence

Marília Fernanda Garcia Costa — 2025-06-12

This article aims to discuss the psychoanalytic listening of social bonds based on the work in a community preparatory course for university entrance exams, with an average of 70 young people, mostly residents of favelas and peripheral regions of the city of Rio de Janeiro, who face political violence daily. Amid precarious living conditions, sustained by neoliberal rationality and necropolitical apparatuses ingrained in brazilian subjectivities and institutions, the subjective effects arising from this precarization end up being silenced and normalized, which can lead to psychological suffering. To address these issues and consider possible interventions, we rely on the implementation of a psychoanalytic listening device named “Tá na roda: clinical-political interventions in educational spaces.” This device is based on the methodology of operative groups, that is, groups organized around a task. In this case, the task that defines the groups is to circulate speech through the movement of collectivized free association. Thus, based on two years of participation in the project, the results show that collective constructions have the potential to act as an instrument of care and recognition of individuals, strengthening social bonds. As they seek to break the silencing of emotions and challenge the subjective alienation of individuals in the face of hegemonic discourses, these devices reveal their clinical-political character.

Proper name: the screen as a (un) tie of the symptoms

Thauany Duarte Diniz — 2025-06-12

The present work sought to understand the relationship between proper name, body, and virtuality from a psychoanalytical perspective in order to analyze the crossings of self-naming in cyberspace through the authorial words of Cielo Latini. In order to achieve this objective, freudian and lacanian works –first teaching- were taken up again, as were authors who approached this theme under the theory of these two great psychoanalysts. Furthermore, the autobiographical work Abzurdah (2006), by the argentine author Cielo Latini, was given as the object of study, considering that the theoretical points were discussed from such narrative. Thus, through document analysis, it was possible to investigate how Cielo uses the virtual environment to remain in a position of jouissance, considering that the names chosen for its users referred to their symptoms. It was still possible to perceive the protagonist’s constant attempt to occupy the place of ideal for the Other, which, in her childhood, was occupied by her mother and, already in adolescence, by the Other sex, Alejandro. The purpose of this article is not to exhaust the subject’s discussions, but rather to provide a critical opening on the theoretical crossings concerning the published case’s absurd life.