Abstract
“The unconscious is structured like a language” is the first of his formulations that most people would quote. The author is not so sure about this response to the question. This is not to deny the importance of the entire first phase of the Lacan’s work. The creation of something new invariably involves a shock. People see this in the fine arts and in literature. It is no less true for psychoanalysis. Freud’s work was a shock in his time. What is particularly interesting to the author is central importance of psychosis now in Lacanian psychoanalysis. If one reads widely beyond psychoanalysis to include psychiatry, clearly there is a recognition that something is changing in the way people are presenting for help. Sometimes escabeau is described also as a stepladder, and in Lacan’s text part of the Joycean play on words associated with escabeau is the way in which the word escabeau includes word beau, which means “good” in French.