Why Lacan Loved Harpo Marx

Among the five Marx Brothers—vaudeville legends turned Hollywood comedians whose films defined American screen comedy in the 1930s—Harpo stands out. Silent and seemingly childlike, he plays something between a pure fool and a savant. The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, better known for his dense reinterpretations of Freud than for film criticism, was fascinated by him. In Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959–60), Lacan described Harpo as having a “face with its smile which leaves...