Based on the indication provided by Lacan, this paper aims to clarify aspects of Freud's work that provided the structural reading of psychoanalysis. The paper pursues a dual objective: to outline the outstanding concepts of Lacanian interpretation of the unconscious, showing these are the result of an interpretation of Freud's work, and highlight the heuristic value of the development of Lacan, to the extent where this path contributed to make some very difficult concepts of Freud's theory of representation intelligible. It concludes that the Lacanian theory can in no way be reduced to a simple importation and application of the concepts from structural linguistics to psychoanalysis.
Freud; Lacan; Representation; Signifier; Unconscious