Rene Lew and Psychoanalysis as an Impredicative Science

According to the French psychoanalyst René Lew (Paris, 1946), what the current situation of psychoanalysis requires is less a “restoration”, as was perhaps the case in Lacan’s time, than a clarification of the rationality underlying its principles. This is due to the following observation: that Freudian metapsychology is less concerned with a psychological endeavour (concerning “abilities”, “skills”, “wellness”, or the like) than with the logic of the function of the signifier. Today, Freudian practice requires accounting for reasons rather than simply finding “causes”. This requires an examination of the affinity of psychoanalysis with the impredicative sciences, making it necessary to elaborate an “organon for psychoanalysis”. The present text will address all these issues briefly.