This paper analyses the function of optical instruments, in light of the concept of parallax, as keys to read Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time. In our reading of Proust's work, the influence of the observer's change of position on the perception of the phenomenon produces a dialogue with the concepts of psychic reality (Freud) and real (Lacan). Optical instruments, including the novel itself, serve to deform rather than to access the world. Thus, psychic reality doesn't come from perceptual data, but from constant rereading.
Key words:
Psychoanalysis; Proust; parallax; literature