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The Formation of the Subject: Curriculum as an Unfinished Symptom

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A Lacanian Theory of Curriculum in Higher Education

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Abstract

This chapter explores the relation between curriculum and the formation of subjectivity, i.e. the notion of “who we are” as individuals. This relation is theorized by positing as a main premise that the curricular act is decisively involved in the structuration of the subject by means of the psychoanalytic phenomenon of the transference. A crucial insight that emerges from this theorization is the understanding that curriculum functions as an unfinished symptom. The chapter closes with a discussion of the notion of curriculum as a “conversation” from the psychoanalytic perspective of the transference involved in and through the dialogical encounter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In a trend fostered and directed by international economic organizations such as the World Bank and the OECD, universities all over Europe and in most countries in the American continent are adopting curricular designs based on practical skills, the use of quantitative standards of measurement, and imposing cost-efficiency rationales on their programs, causing a reduction in the length of degree programs, the reduction of classroom interaction on exchange for computer platforms, a lowering of standards for student admission and graduation, among other transformations to the spirit and purpose of the university.

  2. 2.

    The paper was to be delivered originally in 1936 but he was interrupted 10 minutes into his presentation and forced to step down, as the main organizer of the conference deemed it impenetrable. This did not discourage Lacan from continue to develop his theoretical (and stylistic) approach, and thirteen years later gave the same paper again, this time gaining international attention.

  3. 3.

    See, for example, James Kirylo’s. (2013). “A Critical Pedagogy of Resistance : 34 Pedagogues We Need to Know”.

  4. 4.

    This is a central element in the diagnosis that Norbert Lechner (2002) does of Chilean civil society after the violent US intervention in the country in the 70s. Neoliberal democracy’s failure to represent people in their fears and dreams help explain societal disaffection for civic participation.

  5. 5.

    Lacan’s framework of subjectivity also follows a tripartite model, just as the topology of the psyche in Freud. The Freudian psychical apparatus is formed, as the reader will recall, by the Id, the Ego , and the Super Ego . The Ego (in charge of self-preservation) is continuously in a position of having to reconcile the demands of the Id (drives and instincts) and the Super Ego (sense of obligations). In such relation of mediation, in which the Ego actively tries to seek pleasure and avoid unpleasure, tensions are bound to emerge.

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  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Fernando M. Murillo

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  1. Fernando M. Murillo
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Correspondence to Fernando M. Murillo .

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Murillo, F.M. (2018). The Formation of the Subject: Curriculum as an Unfinished Symptom. In: A Lacanian Theory of Curriculum in Higher Education. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99765-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99765-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99764-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99765-0

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