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Unconsciousness Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis pp 41–59Cite as

Merleau-Ponty’s Conception of the Unconscious in the Late Manuscripts

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Part of the book series: Contributions To Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 88))

Abstract

Original and daring, the late Merleau-Ponty’s conception of the unconscious marks a culmination of his phenomenological project. Inseparable from his primacy of perception and his philosophy of the flesh, this conception involves essential dimensions of his anthropology as well as his ontology. I explore this thematic in a dynamic development, following the philosopher’s evolution, first in a negative approach – the critique of consciousness, but also of our mistaken conceptions of the unconscious –, which gradually gives way to a positive description. Merleau-Ponty’s reflection on the unconscious goes far beyond his reception of psychoanalysis: supported by his philosophical intention, rooted in his (anti) Cartesian scenario, it leads to his final answer to the Cogito. In its development, it involves his phenomenology of perception, his late work on imaginary and expression, and raises the delicate question of the relationship between flesh and being. In Merleau-Ponty’s late manuscripts, consciousness becomes autistic, blind, while the unconscious holds the most positive if not the most expressive, the most opened if not the most fertile dimension of our being-in-the-world. It participates at the same time to the most archaic and the most refined aspects of our relationship to the world, to the other, to being. The collection of unpublished manuscripts constituted by the Notes on the body proves to be a major document apropos this subject.

Translated by Audrey Petit-Trigg

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Notes

  1. 1.

    About this reception, cf. Saint Aubert (2013).

  2. 2.

    PhP: Phénoménologie de la perception. 1945. Paris: Gallimard. 2012. Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. Donald A. Landes. London and New York: Routledge.

  3. 3.

    After each passage cited from Merleau-Ponty, we indicate the pagination of the French edition, followed, when possible, by the pagination of the corresponding publication in English. In our reference to unpublished manuscripts stored at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, we specify the classification numbering established by the B.N.F. in square brackets, followed, when it exists, by Merleau-Ponty’s manuscript pagination in round brackets. The letter “v” following the classification number of a folio page indicates that it refers to the verso of this page.

  4. 4.

    NT: working notes edited by Claude Lefort. 1964. Le visible et l’invisible. Paris: Gallimard. 1968. The Visible and the Invisible. Trans. Alphonso Lingis. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  5. 5.

    Proj: “Projet de travail sur la nature de la Perception” (April 1933), handwritten text presented for obtaining a grant from the Caisse nationale des Sciences. 1989. In Le primat de la perception et ses conséquences philosophiques, 11–13. Grenoble: Cynara. Reprinted. 1996. Lagrasse: Verdier.

  6. 6.

    EtAv: “Être et Avoir”. Review of Gabriel Marcel’s Être et Avoir. 1936 . In La Vie intellectuelle, 8e year, new series, volume XLV: 98–109. Reprinted. 1997. In Parcours 1935–1951, 35–44. Lagrasse: Verdier.

  7. 7.

    “Any given consciousness is by principle something else than what it claims to be”, “only thematizes something by leaving a whole implicit residue” (MSME, p. 175). MSME: preparatory notes for the 1953 course at the Collège de France on “Le monde sensible et le monde de l’expression”. B.N.F., volume X. 2011. Le monde sensible et le monde de l’expression. Genève: MétisPresses.

  8. 8.

    UAC: L’union de l’âme et du corps chez Malebranche, Biran et Bergson. 1978. New French edition, revised and augmented with a new unpublished fragment. Paris: Vrin.

  9. 9.

    N-Corps: “Notes sur le corps” (1956–1960, and especially 1960), unpublished. B.N.F., volume XVII.

  10. 10.

    Cf. N-Corps [84](1), [86](5), [91]v, [92], Natu3 351/283, RC60 179/198–199. Merleau-Ponty relies on Freud himself at times. “Everything that is repressed must remain unconscious; but let us state at the very outset that the repressed does not cover everything that is unconscious. The unconscious has a wider compass: the repressed is a part of the unconscious”, Freud (1915), p. 166.

  11. 11.

    Natu3: preparatory notes for the 1960 course at the Collège de France on the concept of Nature, “Nature et Logos: le corps humain”. B.N.F., volume XVII. 1995. La Nature. Notes, cours du Collège de France. Paris: Seuil. 2003. Nature: Course Notes from the Collège de France. Trans. Robert Vallier. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  12. 12.

    On this subject, cf. Saint Aubert (2004), section B.

  13. 13.

    PbPassiv: preparatory notes for the 1955 course at the Collège de France on “Le problème de la passivité: le sommeil, l’inconscient, la mémoire”. B.N.F., volume XIII. 2003 . L’institution. La passivité. Notes de cours au Collège de France (1954–1955). Paris: Belin. 2010. Institution and Passivity: Course Notes from the Collège de France (1954–1955). Trans. Leonard Lawlor and Heath Massey. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  14. 14.

    EM3: “Être et Monde”, unpublished. B.N.F., volume VI, mainly April to May 1960 , some rewritings in October 1960.

  15. 15.

    PM: “La prose du monde” (1950–1951, especially summer 1951; some rewritings much later). B.N.F., volume III. 1969. La prose du monde. Paris: Gallimard. 1973. The Prose of the World. Trans. John O’Neill. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  16. 16.

    OE: “L’Œil et l’Esprit” (July–August 1960). 1964 . L’Œil et l’Esprit. Paris: Gallimard. Reprinted. 1985. Paris: Gallimard, “Folio essais”. 1964. “Eye and Mind.” Trans. Carleton Dallery. In The Primacy of Perception. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  17. 17.

    RC: Résumés de cours. Collège de France, 1952–1960. 1968. Paris: Gallimard. RC60: Husserl aux limites de la phénoménologie / Nature et Logos: le corps humain. 1988. “Themes from the Lectures at the Collège de France 1952–1960”. Trans. John O’Neill. In In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  18. 18.

    Except for a furtive occurrence, of little interest, in Sorb(SHP), p. 399/318 (1951–1952). Sorb: Merleau-Ponty à la Sorbonne, résumé de cours 1949–1952. 1988. Grenoble: Cynara. Sorb(SHP): Les sciences de l’homme et la phénoménologie (1951–1952). 2010. Child Psychology and Pedagogy: The Sorbonne Lectures 1949–1952. Trans. Talia Welsh. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  19. 19.

    “The esthesiological structure of the human body is thus a libidinal structure, the perception is a mode of desire, a relation of being and not of knowledge.” (Natu3, p. 272/210).

  20. 20.

    S: Signes. 1960. Paris: Gallimard. S(Préf): “Préface” (February and September 1960). 1964. Signs. Trans. Richard C. McCleary. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  21. 21.

    ChRe: “Christianisme et ressentiment”. Review of French translation of Max Scheler’s L’Homme du ressentiment. 1935. In La Vie intellectuelle, 7e year, new series, volume XXXVI: 278–306. Reprinted. 1997. In Parcours 1935–1951, 9–33. Lagrasse: Verdier.

  22. 22.

    Merleau-Ponty takes advantage of translations processes, French language introducing here different nuances that are less obvious in German.

  23. 23.

    SNS: Sens et non-sens. 1948, 1958 . Paris: Nagel. 1996. Paris: Gallimard. SNS(roman): Le roman et la métaphysique (March–April 1945). 1992. Sense and Non-Sense. Trans. Patricia and Hubert Dreyfus. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

  24. 24.

    In the first writing phase of The Visible and the Invisible, echoes an Heideggerian hint, imprint of the reading of texts on science and technique (in Vorträge und Aufsätze) recently translated in French by A. Préau and J. Beaufret (1958 ). Furthermore, we have found a copy of Gelassenheit (1959 ) in Merleau-Ponty’s library, but without any reading marks.

  25. 25.

    Merleau-Ponty probably comes across the Bejahung – literally “affirmation”, the act of saying “yes”–, in Lacan’s “Response to Jean Hyppolite’s Commentary on Freud’s Verneinung”.

  26. 26.

    As we know, Merleau-Ponty clearly expressed his opposition to Lacan on this matter in the famous conference on the unconscious in Bonneval, a few months before he passed.

  27. 27.

    EM2: “Être et Monde”, unpublished. B.N.F., volume VI, various pieces of work from 1959.

  28. 28.

    This question is explored by Merleau-Ponty from the most sensorimotor of its components, while still assuming the amplitude of the symbolic and the imaginary that are associated with it, up to “this research of depth that lasts an entire lifetime” (OntoCart, p. 167) – research which becomes in last writings an emblem of human desire, at the same time the most archaic, the most constant and the most achieved. (OntoCart: preparatory notes for the 1961 course at the Collège de France on “L’ontologie cartésienne et l’ontologie d’aujourd’hui”. B.N.F., volume XIX. 1996. Notes de cours 1959–1961. Paris: Gallimard.)

  29. 29.

    For further discussion on these points, see Saint Aubert (2015, 2016).

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  1. Archives Husserl, CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, Paris, France

    Emmanuel de Saint Aubert

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Correspondence to Emmanuel de Saint Aubert .

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  1. Archives Husserl, CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, Paris, France

    Dorothée Legrand

  2. School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Dylan Trigg

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de Saint Aubert, E. (2017). Merleau-Ponty’s Conception of the Unconscious in the Late Manuscripts. In: Legrand, D., Trigg, D. (eds) Unconsciousness Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 88. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55518-8_3

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