The unconscious as knots
Anca Carrington · 2024
Knot theory is where Lacan more or less left his work at the end of his life, with an implicit invitation to the next generation to take this further. The relevance of this particular subfield of topology to the clinic is examined in relation to the work of the analyst. If we take seriously the assertion that topology is the space of analysis itself, it follows mathematically that this type of intervention is intrinsically equipped to engage with the unconscious also understood topologically. Language, equally topologically structured, operates as an intermediate space between the analyst and the unconscious, a space in which movement takes place along knot-like pathways.