Speaking Being: from Heidegger to Lacan

Abstract

The article discusses the connections between the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan in the approach to the problems of speech and language. The author analyzes the relation between the Lacanian subversion of the subject and his speech and Heidegger’s ontology of language. The article presents an attempt at a terminological review on this topic, taking into account the Lacanian conceptual apparatus, French translations of Heidegger's works, the linguistic works of Ferdinand de Saussure and Emile Benveniste, as well as the works of Jacques Derrida. The central concept of the article is one of Lacan's definitions of a human being — être parlant (speaking being), the origins of which the author connects with both Freudian psychoanalysis and Heidegger's existentials. The analysis of Lacan's Return to Freud is proposed for consideration with the help of Derrida’s deconstruction, taking into account its origins in Heidegger's treatise "Being and time".