Philosophical (Re)Construction of Postmodern Identity Through the Teachings of Lacan, Heidegger and Plato

Abstract

The present article deals with the application of Jacques Lacan’s psycho-linguistic model of the chain of signification to the fragmented postmodern subject. Because of the inherent instability of the external as well as the internal environment of the subject, anxiety arises as a result of the fragmentation of the self, which, according to Lacan, has its basis in the interaction between the Symbolic order and the Real. Even though anxiety is a phenomenon that is impossible to evade, Lacan’s teachings, coupled with their immersion in Martin Heidegger’s understanding of the essence of technology, and the contemporary reinterpre-tation of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, show that the subject can teach himself to navigate the complexities of anxiety and, consequently, even learn to use it for his benefit.