Lacan's practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Lacan's efforts in the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of patients with structural deficits aim at separating truth, desire, and ideals from each other so that the analysand is freed up to find or create the desire that gives him or her "joy." This paper presents Lacan's use of the "bridge metaphor" towards that purpose, and illustrates the application of Lacan's early concepts in actual clinical work.