Peter Klepec (ZRC SAZU)



On the Element of Surprise in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis


The question of surprise appears in philosophy in various ways but is primarily associated with the concept of contingency (origins of philosophy, event, predictability, mastery). Surprise is also inextricably linked to psychoanalysis in many respects. It concerns both its contingent historical emergence and the way in which its central concept—the unconscious—manifests itself. Surprise plays a crucial role in recognising the persistent social and scientific resistance to psychoanalysis that continues to this day. Indeed, it is remarkable and significant that psychoanalysis remains a force to be reckoned with, offering valuable insights that continue to resonate. This is only possible if psychoanalysis itself remains attuned to the importance of the category of surprise in both its theory and practice. This applies from the formations of the unconscious to Lacan's category of the real, the Lacanian subject, and the objet petit a. In essence, psychoanalysis is the ‘guardian of surprise’. This means that it must resist the temptation to understand something prematurely, whether through over-interpretation or premature recognition (as Freud noted in relation to déjà vu and fausse reconnaissance). This principle applies both to the application of psychoanalysis outside of itself and to its most fundamental activity in the form of therapeutic practice. It is important to remember that, for Lacan, interpretation must also be a surprise for the analyst himself.