Jacques Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He is known for his return to the original writings of Sigmund Freud, which he reread and reinterpreted in innovative ways. For Lacan, psychoanalysis is a language-based practice: the unconscious is structured like a language, and analysis unfolds through language. He rejected mainstream approaches such as ego psychology, object relations theory, and the school of Melanie Klein.
Lacan’s work has had a profound influence far beyond psychoanalysis — particularly in philosophy, literary theory, film, and the arts. Thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek, and Hélène Cixous have drawn on his concepts and extended them in new directions. His thinking continues to shape contemporary discussions on subjectivity, language, power, and desire.
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