Abstract

This paper begins by dealing with the difference between the neo-liberal conceptions of transmission of knowledge and the Lacanian doctrine of Scilicet . We will provide a brief overview of the implications of the Freudian unconscious on the distinction between truth and knowledge, and then develop in what sense this division can be the basis for a modern form of education. Our paper then seeks to draw a thread from the original Freudian discovery to Žižek’s own didactic method, by referencing three figures of psychoanalytic transmission – the myth, matheme, and joke. We argue that Žižek deploys this triad in such a way that it cuts across the current division between the hermetic and the vulgar, raising important questions regarding methodology and rigor. Finally, we relate the problematics of didacticism in Žižek to the notion of “attention” developed by Jacques Rancière, examining in what ways a Žižekian transmission might have “equality as its starting point."