Borders of Language: Uprooting and Testimony in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

We address the problem of language in psychoanalysis, pointing out how it deals with the limits it encounters in its language exercise. We show the relationship between letter, place, and language borders. From the approach of exile and uprooting in the field of art and literature, we problematize monolingualism and place the importance of the act of receiving testimony in psychoanalysis. How to listen to what escapes representation? We point out the political dimension of the practice of lalangue as a way to reinhabit the language, a resource whose writing enables new readings of the world. Psychoanalysis thus faces the challenge of bringing to light/emerging what has been erased/silenced, contributing to the production of new linguistic territories that are respectful of difference and make transit between languages possible. Reading with the translinguistic is a way of highlighting the movement of those who are on the margins and provides clues for the necessary reinvention of the place of listening.