Pierre Bayard’s Idea of “Applied Literature” and Shoshana Felman’s Notion of “Implication”: A Lacanian Perspective

Employing a descriptive-analytical method, this article, first of all, deals with some of the criticisms on the methodology of “applied psychoanalysis”. Then, discussing Pierre Bayard’s idea of “applied literature” and, at the same time, referring to the 17th seminar of Jacques Lacan, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, the paper points out that the terms “applied psychoanalysis” and “applied literature” seem to presuppose an external relationship between literature and psychoanalysis. On the contrary, Felman’s notion of “implication” is based on a simultaneously internal and external relationship between the two domains. In this way, the article highlights the weaknesses of Bayard’s idea and the stronger foundation of Felman’s arguments. Finally, in the context deliberately created for the conflict between these positions and points of view, the paper returns to some other aspects of Lacanian ideas such as the description of the term extimité and his subtle use of the English word “without”, asking whether it can be said that psychoanalysis is not “without” literature.