One point of departure for this consideration is Jacques Lacan’s notion of the »subject supposed to know« (sujet-supposésavoir) to describe a relationship to knowledge between the analyst and analysand. Another consideration is the paradoxical quality of this structure for the psychoanalytic candidate: How does one learn to be in the position of the one who does not know? What is the crucial difference between the ignorant not-knowing of the initiate and the serviceable not-knowing of an effective analyst? She considers that the implications of this structure mean that the candidate undertakes an apprenticeship in not knowing from a master who does not know, as well as how this absence is central to psychoanalysis. She weaves these theoretical strands together with reflections on her own analysis and a reading of Clarice Lispector’s, An Apprenticeship or the Book of Pleasures. She explores how Lóri’s journey of becoming a soulful human in An Apprenticeship dovetails with thinking about psychoanalysis as a modern art of refashioning the soul, a practice that pulsates with not knowing.

Paige Sweet (she/her) holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and is Associate Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. At the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, she is Chair of the Sexuality and Gender Initiative and Co-Chair of the Colloquium Committee. She received the Symonds Prize in 2023 for her essay »Mask Up« and her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Autotheory and Its Others (Punctum Press, 2026), Studies in Gender and Sexuality, The New Inquiry, Parallax, ARIEL, and other places. She is also a Licensed Psychoanalyst with a private practice in New York City.

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