Interpreting from the perspective of structural Lacanian psychoanalysis

"Beware of understanding!" Lacan's structural analysis: theory and practice of interpretation. This paper investigates the relationship of understanding and countertransference analysis in the process of analytical interpretation. Here self-image of the analyst is crucial concerning the direction of the analysis. As field and function of speech are pivotal, they will be briefly sketched to clarify the structural-analytic starting point of the following arguments. The basis of the ideas is a definition of the unconscious as what is not conscious available. Should the analyst see himself as the "knowing" one, as his patient also assumes, a false assurance will result and the analysis will lead nowhere. This is typical of a "forced" transference analysis in the here and now. The alternative is a strategy of hints, whose premise is, that we do not know. This assumption makes it unnecessary to rely on countertransference analysis. Instead, the spoken word and its contradictions are in the focus. This analytical attitude makes listening to the "subject of the unconscious" possible by means of the analyst and his hints.