Descartes, Freud and Lacan: the passage to the act and the nightmare

Abstract

Starting from the Lacanian notion of passage to the act the process of doubt and the key moments of its overcoming are interpreted in terms of a passage to the human act that will give rise to the cogito and a divine act that will give rise to the immutable order of the eternal truths. In this way, the paper tries to explain the way in which Descartes constitutes the fantasmatic framework of science. Although the reference text to monitor the process of doubt is Metaphysical Meditations, it is indicated how in this process the echo of a decisive dream experience that Descartes had at the age of 23 is recognizable, an experience that helps to understand as much the impact of anguish behind the Cartesian metaphysical turn as the pre-subjective reverse from which the awakening to self-awareness that takes place in the cogito emerges. The preferred path used in the interpretation carried out is that of psychoanalysis as developed by Lacan.