A-bording the subject. A reflection on the dynamical foundations of psychoanalytical theory and practice.

In this paper, we revisit the concept of “dynamics” in psychoanalysis to study its fundamental role for the emergence of the subject. Usually, this concept is reduced to a rather vague idea of “conflict” in the intra-psychic sphere. This position has a direct consequence on theory and clinical practice which becomes then a technical device used to manage defenses. We will show that both for Freud and for Lacan, dynamics stands as a key concept that founds the subjective construction as the emergence of the meeting of two distinct fields: individual and culture or, more precisely, the living and language. The notion of “drive” is the nodal point of our analysis that will concentrate on the link between dynamics and energetics and will specify the differences between these two approaches. This will open the way to introduce the subject and its binding to the Other starting from the notions of interval and field. Finally, we present a clinical sequence concerning the distinction of scenes in the discourse of a patient so as to show the importance of a dynamical analysis. This will introduce the question about the clinical structure in terms of “dynamic modalities”.