There are problems with Lacan's system of thought, from a shamanistic viewpoint. The fundamental crux of the problem lies here:
The paradigm of shamanism disagrees. Or I do, on it's behalf. The shamanistic paradigm -- which involves conceptual doubling of the self -- is arguably related to an abnormal psychology, but the shaman's use of their mind nonetheless constitutes a profound adaptive leap in consciousness. Lacan's split subject is belied by shamanistic knowledge, which allows for a simultaneous dualism of consciousness whereby the lower and the higher minds are in communication with each other.
This adaptation represents an advance in human consciousness, since the different parts of the mind are brought together to work in tandem, not in opposition.
In other ways, Lacan's paradigm readily lends itself to a shamanistic viewpoint. One can view the three levels of consciousness of Lacan's paradigm as generally relating to the three levels of human neurological structure. The cerebral cortex handles the work of the "Symbolic", in Lacan's system. The lower, "limbic system", is responsible for producing the discourse that pertains to Lacan's "Imaginary"; and that which operates at the level of registering "the Real" is R-Complex -- the reptilian brain, which is the oldest part of the human brain system in evolutionary terms.
Once can see the mental products of the limbic system and R-complex as forming one side of Lacan's subject, and the mental products of the cerebral cortex as forming the other side, with an effective bar of psychological repression keeping them apart. Thus, one can process ideas from either one side of the mind, or from the other side, but not simultaneously from both -- according to Lacan's system.
By contrast with this representation of the mind and its mode of functioning, shamans can access information coming from all levels, at any time.
So it is that I have learned to consciously allocate a division of labor to the different parts of my mind. Concerning issues of power -- especially when there is an allergy within normal society, to dealing with such issues directly -- I consciously hand over the responsibility to work on improving my political status in the world to R-complex. (R-Complex is able to bypass all excuses generated by the consciousness of conventional society, in order to get to the bottom of issues of power, and restore balances. It is ferocious, though, and one often has to return to the use of conscious mediation to protect certain targets against the exacting coldness and determinism of R-Complex's destructive fury.)
Matters of sexuality are handled by the limbic system, without the necessary interventions of the conscious mind, if one is shaman.
Intellectual knowledge draws on all three systems of discourse, stemming from the three systems of the brain, and their separate spheres of knowledge, which are allowed to interact under the guidance of the cerebral cortex.
The task of a shaman is to use one's conscious knowledge of how these other systems of the mind work in service of the higher mind's practical goals.
Lacan’s subject—the subject of the “return to Freud,” the true subject of psychoanalysis—is none other than the split subject: the barred S. ...
The bar functions here as and/or. The elements split by the bar convey exclusive meanings, only one of which can be taken at a time. ... One side of the bar—an exclusive choice—must be chosen. Thus the subject—S—is split into two (parts/aspects), only one (path) of which can/must be chosen/followed.
[See: http://massthink.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/the-lacanian-subject-according-to-fink-the-barred-s-alienation/ ]
The paradigm of shamanism disagrees. Or I do, on it's behalf. The shamanistic paradigm -- which involves conceptual doubling of the self -- is arguably related to an abnormal psychology, but the shaman's use of their mind nonetheless constitutes a profound adaptive leap in consciousness. Lacan's split subject is belied by shamanistic knowledge, which allows for a simultaneous dualism of consciousness whereby the lower and the higher minds are in communication with each other.
This adaptation represents an advance in human consciousness, since the different parts of the mind are brought together to work in tandem, not in opposition.
In other ways, Lacan's paradigm readily lends itself to a shamanistic viewpoint. One can view the three levels of consciousness of Lacan's paradigm as generally relating to the three levels of human neurological structure. The cerebral cortex handles the work of the "Symbolic", in Lacan's system. The lower, "limbic system", is responsible for producing the discourse that pertains to Lacan's "Imaginary"; and that which operates at the level of registering "the Real" is R-Complex -- the reptilian brain, which is the oldest part of the human brain system in evolutionary terms.
Once can see the mental products of the limbic system and R-complex as forming one side of Lacan's subject, and the mental products of the cerebral cortex as forming the other side, with an effective bar of psychological repression keeping them apart. Thus, one can process ideas from either one side of the mind, or from the other side, but not simultaneously from both -- according to Lacan's system.
By contrast with this representation of the mind and its mode of functioning, shamans can access information coming from all levels, at any time.
So it is that I have learned to consciously allocate a division of labor to the different parts of my mind. Concerning issues of power -- especially when there is an allergy within normal society, to dealing with such issues directly -- I consciously hand over the responsibility to work on improving my political status in the world to R-complex. (R-Complex is able to bypass all excuses generated by the consciousness of conventional society, in order to get to the bottom of issues of power, and restore balances. It is ferocious, though, and one often has to return to the use of conscious mediation to protect certain targets against the exacting coldness and determinism of R-Complex's destructive fury.)
Matters of sexuality are handled by the limbic system, without the necessary interventions of the conscious mind, if one is shaman.
Intellectual knowledge draws on all three systems of discourse, stemming from the three systems of the brain, and their separate spheres of knowledge, which are allowed to interact under the guidance of the cerebral cortex.
The task of a shaman is to use one's conscious knowledge of how these other systems of the mind work in service of the higher mind's practical goals.
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