Treatments of Anxiety in the Lacanian Clinic: Phobia, Paranoia, Inhibition

Chantal Degril: Phobia, a treatment of anxiety? 1

In this series of six seminars, we explored the clinical application of Lacan’s theory of anxiety, based on his formulation of the construction of subjectivity in the three registers of imaginary, symbolic and real. In Lacan’s Seminar X, Anxiety, he defines anxiety as the lack of lack – the object that should be missing is suddenly present – and while we will focus on this work, we will also consider his later developments. Specifically, we will examine the implications of his theory for the treatments of anxiety in phobia, paranoia and inhibition.