Alienation and separation

Abstract

The essay seeks to understand what the concepts of alienation and separation mean for Lacan, avoiding the usual comparison with their meaning in Hegel and Marx. Instead, it favors a comparison with the use of these concepts in psychology, in the Freudian theory (considering the role of the Oedipus in separation) and in the current prevailing forms of individualism. An interesting reference is to the circular conception of time and the role of the anterior future in Lacan. The relationship between alienation and separation is interpreted through a circular conception of time, although this does not imply any form of mutuality: what goes from alienation to separation is not the same thing that goes from separation to alienation.