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Language as the source of human unconscious processes

par Bazan, Ariane ;Geerardyn, Filip;Knockaert, Veroniek;Van Bunder, David;Van de Vijver, Gertrudis
Référence Evolution and Cognition, 8, 2, page (164-171)
Publication Publié, 2002

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

A neuropsychoanalytic framework is proposed for the study of unconsciously determined human behavior as expressed in psychic symptoms and dreams. First, some clinical observations are operationalized in an analytical Freudo-Lacanian perspective. In particular the notion of the human unconscious as a linguistically structured dynamic system is presented. Second, these psychoanalytical notions are integrated with current neuroscientific insights on language. This framework essentially conceives human language as the one object of two evolutionarily radically different neurological processing circuits, acting partially in parallel. The oldest pathway processes the ‘objective’ or phonemic qualities of language input subcortically while the second and typically human pathway processes language neocortically on its semantic qualities. The affective processing of raw phonemic material therefore is thought to operate in relative autonomy from the semantic processing and thereby able to induce so-called ‘false connections’. It is further proposed that (1) meaningful access to language is essentially a(n articulatory) motor event, (2) imagined speech also induces this motor activation and (3) unspoken phonemes give rise to ‘linguistic phantoms’. In final, a structural hypothesis for the Freudo-Lacanian unconscious is proposed conceiving this system as a raster of latent phonemic phantoms, eventually functioning as ‘attractors’ for the subject’s affective attention.