The Site/Sight/Cite of Jacques Lacan or Forget Slavoj Žižek? Implications for Art and Its Education

This essay attempts to introduce Jacques Lacan in an accessible manner through the explanation of a joke as formulated by Slavoj Žižek in order to develop what is the key to grasping Lacanian psychoanalysis—objet a. It is hoped that difficulties that surround other important terms within the Lacanian lexicon become more accessible through this example. Also, a strong distinction is developed between Lacanian psychoanalysis and post-structuralism, which has become hegemonic in visual cultural studies. I argue that Lacan is not a post-structuralist. Lastly, the essay attempts to question the Žižekian appropriation of Lacan by maintaining that there is another account of the psychic Real as forwarded especially by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, as well as Julia Kristeva, that may well have more import for the arts and their education. This remains as an unresolved tension.