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Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
Published in: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 4/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Scientific Contribution

Psychoanalysis and bioethics: a Lacanian approach to bioethical discourse

Author: Hub Zwart

Published in: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy | Issue 4/2016

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Abstract

This article aims to develop a Lacanian approach to bioethics. Point of departure is the fact that both psychoanalysis and bioethics are practices of language, combining diagnostics with therapy. Subsequently, I will point out how Lacanian linguistics may help us to elucidate the dynamics of both psychoanalytical and bioethical discourse, using the movie One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone as key examples. Next, I will explain the ‘topology’ of the bioethical landscape with the help of Lacan’s three dimensions: the imaginary, the symbolical and the real. This will culminate in an assessment of the dynamics of bioethical discourse with the help of Lacan’s theorem of the four discourses. Bioethics, I will argue, is not a homogeneous discourse. Rather, four modalities of bioethical discourse can be distinguished, all of them displaying specific weaknesses and strengths, opportunities and threats. This will be elucidated with the help of two case studies, namely the debates on human reproductive technologies and on the use of animals as biomedical research models.
Footnotes
1
In his dissertation Lacan analyses the case of Aimée, a psychiatric patient who, after writing two unsuccessful novels, stabbed a famous actress with a knife (Lacan 1932).
 
2
The word ‘term’ comes from the Latin terminus: i.e. the temporary endpoint of a diachronic process.
 
3
Unlike specific (iconic) symbols, which tend to retain some connection with tangible items (such as the balance, as a symbol for justice).
 
4
To paraphrase the Gospel of Saint John: In principio erat verbum, et verbum erat apud Magistrum.
 
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Metadata
Title
Psychoanalysis and bioethics: a Lacanian approach to bioethical discourse
Author
Hub Zwart
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy / Issue 4/2016
Print ISSN: 1386-7423
Electronic ISSN: 1572-8633
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-016-9698-1

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