ABSTRACT
In previous chapters the main focus was Lacan’s seminar on the ethics of psychoanalysis and the components of his claim regarding a fi liation between psychoanalysis and Reformation thought. In this chapter I will sketch the most important currents within medieval thought concerning conscience and natural law, after which I will explore an important point of convergence between Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and the theologies of Luther and Calvin, more specifi cally, the formation and internalization of conscience, as well as the two ways in which the imperatives of conscience function: a review of inner life and the regulation of outer duties. Although Lacan does not explicitly mention this issue as part of the fi liation between psychoanalysis and Reformation thought, the subject is highly relevant from the perspective of the dialectic between law and desire as conceived in Reformation theologies.
