In Life With Lacan Catherine Millot (loc 598) describes an exchange which Lacan had with a trans patient, in front of his students:
Lacan confronted the patient by pointing out how reality gave the lie to his delirious psychic constructions. Thus, when talking to a transsexual who demanded to be treated as a woman, Lacan continued to insist that he was actually a man whether he wanted to be or not, and that no operation would ever turn him into a woman. And he ended up calling him ‘old fellow’. This was a way of affirming his masculinity yet again while at the same time challenging him in an almost friendly fashion.
How typical was this? Until reading this odd little book, by an analysand who entered into a romantic relationship with the still married (?) Lacan for twenty years, I hadn’t realised there was a practice of inviting students into the clinic.
Mark Carrigan 