Neurosciences, Psychoanalysis, And The Hole of Politics A contribution to the round table on The Lacanian Unconscious: A No Brainer Lacan, in a conference called the Triumph of Religion, underscored that Freud, early in his career, said that the profession of the analyst, just like the profession of educating and the one of governing were impossible professions—since they were all lacking the key knowledge nec- essary to function correctly. In the case of psychoanalysis, it is the knowledge of what is a healthy mind that is lacking. In the case of the educator, it is the one of what is good for the edu- cation of a child, and in the case of the politician, it is the knowledge of what is the common good. As Socrates pointed out to Alcibiades, already 25 centuries ago, the knowledge of the common good actually does not exist in politics. Likewise, for the realm of mental health, Freud showed that the notion of happiness, as well as the idea that humans are naturally attracted to the Good, was nothing but an illusion. Finally, in the domain of education, the constant variation of theories about education also proved that the definition of what is a good education would re- main an open question until the end of time. In other words, the professions of ruling, educating, and analyzing are professions that are lacking a foundation since they all are professions that pre- tend to know something about what makes their action possible, while their knowledge is actual- ly grounded on an impossibility to know. An impossibility that Lacan calls also a hole. Now, in relation to this hole, psychoanalysis is in an even more impossible situation than educating or governing, since it is a very young profession that cannot hide its impossibility to know behind a strong tradition. Unlike educating or governing, which are profession that have thousands of years of history behind them, and a strong tradition to support their action, psycho- analysis is a total new comer. Lacan, commenting on this point in The Triumph of Religion, says: Governing and educating are quite different from analyzing in that they have been going on since time immemorial. And they are everywhere: governing and educating never stop. The analyst, on the other hand, has no tradition. He is a total newcomer. Thus, among the impossible positions, a new one happened to arise. Few analysts are especially comfort- 1