This article explores Jacques Lacan’s four discourses (Master, University, Hysteric and Analyst) and places them in the context of conflict resolution. This article begins a discussion of what Lacanian thought can do to help the analysis and practice of conflict resolution. Furthermore, there are certain existential problems within the field that are raised by the Lacanian perspective in Conflict Resolution.
Keywords: Lacan, Conflict Resolution, Analysis, Critical Theory, Conflict, Burton
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In all these events and accidents we see human activity and suffering in the foreground, everywhere something which is part and parcel of ourselves and therefore everywhere our interest takes sides for or against. – Hegel, Reason in History.
We all have our own biases within and as the field of conflict analysis and resolution (CAR), which we are taught to recognize, acknowledge and prevent from clouding our impartiality. Despite our work as agents of progress, positive change, and peace it seems we as a field are quite biased towards the status quo – and rightfully so. We also seem to lean away from purely theoretical approaches, ideas that cannot be applied in the field. This, also, is a proper tendency for our field. However, there is one prejudice that is quite hard to agree with. The field of conflict resolution possesses a severe lack of interest toward modern philosophy and toward philosophy in general. This is understandable since philosophy is difficult to apply in practice and is easily dismissed as a luxury we practical people do not have much time for. Precisely because the necessary time is not spent generating new ideas and perspectives for the practical purposes of using philosophy, the field of conflict analysis and resolution misses many opportunities to think more creatively about conflict.
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When our field begins to interact with the outside world, that is, the people in other disciplines and practices other than conflict studies, it runs into a significant number of issues. Primarily these issues revolve around making people understand what it is we are talking about! Even when, or perhaps especially when we talk about words that seem so commonplace. John Burton understood this as he attempted to define for the field “conflict” (a word that many of us use every day). Conflict is a term that is useful to define, primarily from an academic standpoint, as people generally understand what that is. However, a term that is perhaps even more ambiguous in many ways is “peace.”
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