Some Reflections on Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Politics. Exploring the Intellectual Trajectory of Alain Badiou

Abstract

In the light of some recent criticisms, this text seeks to promote a debate that takes place on two fronts: on the one hand, the logic of the origin of logic and, on the other hand, the relationship between psychoanalysis and Marxism. To this end, some texts published by Alain Badiou towards the end of the 1960s, in which he polemicizes with Jacques-Alain Miller around the concepts of "suture" and "subject" (Zizek), are recovered in order to situate both the different positions and the coherent reconsiderations throughout his intellectual trajectory. Indeed, from "The Concept of the Model" to his most recent trilogy (Theory of the Subject, Being and the Event and Logic of Worlds), a perspective is proposed that, far from establishing hierarchies and subordinations, seeks to promote connections based on specificities and differences through that particular path that is philosophy. In this way it is possible to appreciate that, despite his critique of the primacy of the logic of the signifier, the concepts proposed by Jacques Lacan functioned as a notorious source of inspiration for Badiou, especially in relation to the subject of the unconscious.