This is the second of a 2-part series that will explore Lacanian psychoanalysis, the unconscious, and subjectivity from a Lacanian perspective. Specifically, Dr. Brenner discusses a compelling argument that autism is a singular subjective structure, a mode of being that is not reducible to psychosis. He elucidates foreclosure in autism and psychosis, and further explains that autistic subjects do not have access to the symbolic order. Instead, the early foreclosure for the autistic subject provides a different mode of access to language through signs, the basic linguistic unit. At the end of the episode, we talk briefly about society’s social effect on how autism unravels, or causes many people to find refuge in rejection. In spite of Dr. Brenner not engaging with this topic directly in his book, we discuss how his theory of the psyche can progress psychoanalytic vocabulary, which can then influence the work of political activists.  

Dr. Leon S. Brenner is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Potsdam, a prospective postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ghent and lecturer at the International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin. He is a member of the APPI, LOB, and a founder of Lacanian Affinities Berlin (laLAB) and Unconscious Berlin. His latest book on the subject of the psychoanalysis of autism is called The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language, where he presents a novel account of autistic subjectivity from a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective. 

Dr. Brenner's personal website, Lacanian Affinities Berlin website, Unconscious Berlin on YouTube and Facebook, The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language, Instagram, and Twitter. 

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Featured Song: Unquiet Mind by Laurence (@laurencemusic992)

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