Description
This paper theoretically explores the convergences and divergences in Klein and Lacan’s concepts of anxiety, phantasy/fantasy, and desire and their added value to the field of Ontological Security Studies (OSS). Despite an emerging scholarship inspired by their psychoanalytical work, Lacan and Klein are usually approached in isolation. While Lacanians posit that fantasy represents a fleeting, yet perpetual quest for an unattainable sense of ontological security, Kleinian interpretations locate ontological (in)security within the interplay of paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, informed by unconscious phantasies. Interestingly, despite their theoretical divergences, Klein and Lacan align on a decentred understanding of the subject, whereby anxiety split their existence. In this piece we synthesise their contribution to OSS, critically engaging with the literature, and interrogating whether it is possible to propose a psychoanalytical framework for OSS, whereby subjectivity is understood as a decentred construct.
