Question: How valid are the teachings of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan? Lacan promoted the ideas of Freud and it has been said that Freud is a fallen being. But what about Lacan? Lacan said that the unconscious mind is structured like a language and psychosis is sometimes caused by the foreclosure of a principal signifier, thereby unraveling the entire network of signifiers in the unconscious mind.
Answer from the Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2026 Lithuania Conference.
It is almost impossible to answer a question like, How valid are the teachings? Because you can look at the teachings of Freud and you can say there is some validity to them, but it does not necessarily mean they are the highest way to look at it. Some of Lacan’s ideas can be useful. Now, if you look at what we have actually been saying over many years now, is that human beings are at many different levels of consciousness and they need teachings for different levels of consciousness. We are giving teachings from the ascended level for certain levels of consciousness, but not for all. There are many teachings that are needed that can help people at a certain level rise to a higher level. But this is not guaranteed in the teaching. You cannot give an outer teaching, which you have all said, even our ascended master teaching. It is not a mechanical process. There is no guarantee that somebody who reads the teachings will reach a higher level of awareness. It is a matter of how it is applied.
What you can say is that Freud, in a sense, was just attempting to explain how the subconscious mind works. Lacan and others have continued working with that, based on the model of Freud. And it is not that they are invalid. They can be useful for some people. But of course, they only go to a certain level. And the problem with Freud was that he was focused on abnormal psychology. Whereas, of course, there is a whole other level which is now pursued by some who talk about positive psychology, for example. Where they say, instead of looking at the abnormalities, why do not we look at the potential? Again, you can see that in the psychological profession, there is a movement from focusing on the abnormalities to focusing on the potential. And how high does human potential go? This can then lead people to discover a spiritual teaching that talks about that there is more to the mind than the physical brain. What I would encourage everybody to do is to seek out psychological teachers or writers who are talking about the higher potential, positive approach to psychology, and going beyond the brain, that there is more to the mind than the brain.
Because many of these older teachings—with older I am talking about Freud and those who were his contemporaries, have now become outdated in the sense that they are not at the forefront of psychology anymore. It does not mean that there are still some people who could not be helped by them. Yes, you can explain that the subconscious mind is a sort of a language structure. It is just one way to explain it. We have talked about how there are subconscious selves that have a certain illusion that is formulated in words. In a sense, the subconscious mind, the subconscious self, can have a certain language that is not always the same language you have in the waking mind, in the waking state. And it is not necessarily a rational language. It can also be an emotional language. There are many different modalities here. But what you have to realize is that many of these modalities are a mixture. You cannot say: “Oh, this person gave a valid teaching. That must mean that everything that he or she said is valid.”
That is not the case for most of these teachings. They are a mixture. You have to be very discerning and see, is there something there that helps you? Then you take advantage of it. But it does not mean you take everything. It is not a package deal that you have to accept everything that Freud said, for example.
Copyright © 2026 Kim Michaels