Psychoanalysis theory and Buddhism aim to deconstruct a subject as a self-conscious being. Because both think that the problems of a subject are its dependence on "the unconscious," "ideology," "language," "Five Aggregates (Skandhas)," etc., thereby being excluded from the possibility of self-reform. In psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan describes that a human becomes a subject after he or she has undergone self-alienation and self-division. In Buddhism, 'Mind Only School (Cittamatra)' asserts that a subject is formed by six-sense-faculties, foundation consciousness, and the law of cause and effect. But, a subject can't perceive its position, and it makes a fictive image, or a characteristic of self. Accordingly, a subject is nearly a prisoner or a puppet who perceives only his or her own shadow in the cave. Both theories describe that a subject exists within the limit of self-consciousness and pursue how to be freed from it. They emphasize that a subject must make a "decision" to confront an "event" which is not regulated, or "a withdrawal into self" where the subject severs all links with "Big Other" or its society. This is an experience which a subject can't attain without encountering an event as an absolute loss. After an event, a subject becomes a void (empty-self), free from desire. Therefore, psychoanalytic theory and Buddhism are very similar in that both deny fatalism, interpreting it as a kind of karma done by a subject.

Psychoanalysis theory and Buddhism aim to deconstruct a subject as a self-conscious being. Because both think that the problems of a subject are its dependence on "the unconscious," "ideology," "language," "Five Aggregates (Skandhas)," etc., thereby being excluded from the possibility of self-reform. In psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan describes that a human becomes a subject after he or she has undergone self-alienation and self-division. In Buddhism, 'Mind Only School (Cittamatra)' asserts that a subject is formed by six-sense-faculties, foundation consciousness, and the law of cause and effect. But, a subject can't perceive its position, and it makes a fictive image, or a characteristic of self. Accordingly, a subject is nearly a prisoner or a puppet who perceives only his or her own shadow in the cave. Both theories describe that a subject exists within the limit of self-consciousness and pursue how to be freed from it. They emphasize that a subject must make a "decision" to confront an "event" which is not regulated, or "a withdrawal into self" where the subject severs all links with "Big Other" or its society. This is an experience which a subject can't attain without encountering an event as an absolute loss. After an event, a subject becomes a void (empty-self), free from desire. Therefore, psychoanalytic theory and Buddhism are very similar in that both deny fatalism, interpreting it as a kind of karma done by a subject.

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psychoanalysis theory, Buddhism, self-conscious being, Jacques Lacan, Decision, Mind Only School (Cittamatra), Big Other