Collapsing Knowledge: Art Education and the Epistemology of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Both Freud and Lacan were keenly interested in the teaching of psychoanalysis and made specific reference to the place of psychoanalysis in the university. While the discipline of the visual arts has at times found psychoanalysis to be useful as one of its medley of applied theories, the fundamental discovery of the Freudian field-the subject of the unconscious-remains largely under-utilised and often misunderstood in visual arts pedagogies. On the basis of a psychoanalytic epistemology and with specific reference to Lacan's discourse theory, this paper proposes that the discipline of visual arts is in a problematic yet potentially subversive position from which to intervene in the relationships of power and knowledge within institutions such as the university. With reference to two artworks by student artists, and to a series of exhibitions focused on the proposition that the work of art occupies the place of the analyst, the paper discusses how the place of the analyst in Lacan's teaching has relevance for art education.