The present research aims at exploring identity construction in two novels by Doris Lessing, a British contemporary novelist, in the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis. With this in mind, the research data concern two novels by Lessing, namely, Fifth Child (1988) and Ben, In the World (2000). Fifth Child narrates the story of Harriet and David and their fifth child, Ben Lovatt, who seems to be unable to adjust himself to the conventions of civil life. The sequel to this novel, Ben, In the World, portrays the rough life of Ben, now an eighteen-year old boy, who is betrayed by almost every one. Due to the events happing to him, he departs to different destinations, the last one being Andes mountains, a place more appropriate to his life. The events of these two novels render Ben, as an apt case to be scrutinized through psychoanalytical theories conceptualized by Jacques Lacan. The research seeks to demonstrate how Ben Lovatt's subjectivity gets fragmented, preventing him from confronting his complexes, problems and obsessions, thus playing a constructive role within the world of the symbolic order.
