Practice

Jonathan Ohadi, LCSW, who works with those who seek to engage in psychoanalytic work for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to those who have questions regarding or challenges with: the self; the body; identities; love relationships; sexuality; family relationships; gender; purpose; professional relationships. 

A Lacanian Analysis

Psychoanalysis privileges the speech of the subject, what an analysand* says, over any theory. Over time and through the work of speech — the work of making oneself understood, to the addressee and to oneself — the subject’s speech becomes clarified. With clarity, the subject identifies that which their speech revolves around, the symptom. What could be called “the symptom” is that which runs through one’s life, and knots it together. 

More than unique, the symptom is singular. And that is why it is up to each one, each analysand, to locate it, gain a knowledge of it, and name it for themselves. Through this process, the symptom is refined, rendering it into something that can be used by the subject rather than only suffered. 

As Jacques-Alain Miller says in Analysis Laid Bare, “On the analytical path, a stone of speech emerges that is related to a mode of jouissance. Lacan named it after the Greek word agalma. This stone might very well be precious.”

*The analysand is the one who does the analyzing. It is a word that emphasizes the activity of the one in analysis. It is used here instead of “patient.”