LACAN AND BION - PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE MYSTICAL LANGUAGE OF UNSAYING

We examine the theory and language of psychoanalysts Jacques Lacan and Wilfred Bion, regarding central issues such as the role of healing, t he viability of truth and its location, and the status of the unconsci ous, including where it is and who can know it. We place Lacan and Bio n in a critical dialogue with the language of mystical 'unsaying', as exemplified in the writings of Plotinus, John the Scot Erigena, Ibn 'A rabi, Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart. On the basis of this comp arison, we argue that the languages of Lacan and Bion, on the one hand , and that of the above-cited mystics, on the other, are mutually illu minating of a central and often misunderstood human phenomenon, the la nguage of unsaying.