Relevance of the psychoanalytic approach of the body

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the way in which Freud and Lacan address the body issue from the discovery of the unconscious so as to foreground the influence exerted by such discovery, in that it alters dramatically the notion of the body conceived from Cartesian rationality. Following Jacques Lacan’s teachings on his approach of the three orders, the way the body can be thought of from the Symbolic, the Imaginary and the Real is developed. Thus a counterpoint can be established both with the biologic concept and the contemporary approach linked with late Modernity or post modernity. This article casts light upon two opposing notions of the body, valid and opposed, where it is possible to verify both the validity of the psychoanalytic approach and the political impact of its discourse on our society, taking the debate on decriminalisation of abortion, discussed in Congress, as a point of reference.