Abstract
What follows next in this chapter is an exploration of Lacan’s work as a potential partner for a linguistically focused form of Juanist spiritual direction. I do this precisely because Lacan has his roots within the linguistic turn. However, as I will come to show, he was also influenced by pre-modern strands of mystical theology and spiritual direction. Because of this, I will argue that between a linguistic psychoanalytic conception of desire and a linguistic adoption of Juanist mysticism and spiritual direction, we find the possibility of a fruitful partnership that takes language, desire, and the problems of experientialism seriously. This chapter will first give a brief biographical sketch of Lacan’s academic development. After this, the chapter will give an overview of Lacan’s main ideas before illustrating the practice of managing desire in a psychoanalytic setting.
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Notes
- 1.
Baruzi was part of a French intellectual tradition in Paris that included Étienne Gilson, Alexandre Koyre and Henry Corbin. This was an intellectual movement priding itself on approaching religious phenomena in a manner which was interdisciplinary and scientific. The above thinkers had a lasting effect on Lacan’s thought (see Roudinesco, 1997).
- 2.
Baruch Spinoza was an enlightenment thinker who produced a radical perspective on God which resulted in a type of radical determinism of the subject which was the result of his monistic perspectives on the nature of being. His famous dictum ‘that desire is the essence of man’ can be seen repeating itself throughout the work of Lacan, along with its structural determinacy (see Nadler, 2006).
- 3.
The IPA is an association that exists to advance the practices of psychoanalysis at an international level. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud.
- 4.
The Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR) is an organization in London, UK that offers training and supervision in psychoanalysis based on the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. CFAR is known for its emphasis on the importance of clinical work and its commitment to maintaining the integrity of psychoanalysis as a practice, while also acknowledging the contributions of other theoretical models. CFAR offers a four-year training program for psychoanalytic psychotherapy, as well as a shorter, foundation-level course for those who are interested in learning about psychoanalysis but do not wish to pursue training as a practitioner. Another organization in the UK that promotes Lacanian psychoanalysis is the New Lacanian School (NLS). The NLS is an international organization that provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and the discussion of Lacanian theory and practice. It aims to bring together practitioners and scholars who are interested in the Lacanian approach to psychoanalysis, with a focus on the clinical implications of Lacanian theory. The NLS holds annual congresses, which bring together members from around the world to discuss the latest developments in Lacanian psychoanalysis. The NLS also offers a training program for those who wish to become practitioners in the field. Both CFAR and the NLS represent important institutions for the study and practice of psychoanalysis in the UK, offering a range of resources and support for those who are interested in this field.
- 5.
‘Ce corps morcelé trouve son unité dans cette image de l’autre qui est sa propre image anticipée. C’est une situation duelle dans laquelle nous voyons s’ébaucher une relation polaire, non-symétrique, certes, et dont la dissymétrie nous indique déjà en quel sens la théorie du Moi, telle que la psychanalyse nous la donne, ne permet d’aucune façon de rejoindre la conception dite scientifique ou philosophique du Moi telle qu’elle rejoint une certaine appréhension naïve dont je vous ai dit qu’elle était le propre de la psychologie, d’une certaine psychologie qui est datable historiquement, qui est ce que nous appellerons la psychologie de l’homme moderne. Je vous ai arrêté en somme, au moment où vous montrant ce sujet, que j’ai aussi bien appelé la dernière fois, et non pas simplement hier soir, au moment où nous nous sommes arrêtés sur cette question du sujet de Leclaire, que je n’ai pas appelé Seulement hier soir, mais aussi à la fin de ma dernière conférence : personne. Je ne l’ai peut-être pas très bien accentué ni souligné, mais c’était bien la personne dont nous parlions hier soir. Que ce sujet, qui est personne, et qui est décomposé, morcelé, ce bloc, trouve son unité, est en quelque sorte aspiré, d’une façon anticipant, par cette image à la fois trompeuse et réalisée, qui est cette certaine unité du sujet qui lui est donnée dans l’image de l’autre, qui lui est aussi bien donnée dans son image spéculaire, la possibilité de la fonction, à cette occasion de l’image spéculaire, aussi bien à la place de l’image de l’autre, montrant bien le caractère fondamentalement imaginaire de cette relation; et, m’emparant d’une référence prise au plus moderne de nos exercices machinistes, qui ont tellement d’importance dans le développement, non Seulement de la science, mais de la pensée humaine, je vous représentai, en somme, cette étape du développement du sujet comme quelque chose qui pouvait s’incarner dans un modèle, je vous ai fait un modèle. Je vous ai fait un modèle qui a le propre de ne nulle part idolifier ce sujet’ (SE, II : 70–71).
- 6.
‘Qui, sinon nous, remettra en question le statut objectif de ce « je », qu’une évolution historique propre à notre culture tend à confondre avec le sujet ?’ (E :118) (Seuil Edition)
- 7.
According to Lacan, the child is initially caught in a dyadic relationship, which is first mediated with through the valences of the imaginary, along with a shallow grasp of language, to the mother. There is nothing outside of this dyadic relationship. The child wants the mother but also realises that the mother wants her. It is only by way of the proper introduction into language, which allows the child to understand this desire of the mother by way of the paternal metaphor (the first signifier The Name-of-the-Father) which triangulates this enigmatic traumatic encounter and creates the conditions of a properly speaking, thinking, desiring subject (SE, VIII: 240).
- 8.
‘Nous sommes sur le chemin de voir comment et à quel moment ceci est pris par l’enfant, comment aussi ceci entre en jeu dans l’entrée de l’enfant lui-même dans cette relation à l’objet symbolique, en tant que c’est le phallus qui en est la monnaie majeure.’ (SE, IV: 159). (Unedited l’Association Freudienne Internationale version) (in the above quote I have replaced the term phallus with signifier for ease of translation. Phallus, in this context means the paternal metaphor, the first signifier.)
- 9.
The creation of the unconscious starts with the Name-of-the-Father which represents nothing other than its own authority, however, through this authority, it transforms into the function of absolute authority (the symbolic phallus) which is defined by its function in the signifying chain that names, prohibits and replaces the Desire-of-the-Mother which allows signification as the creation and operation of secondary signifiers. This is represented by the matheme S1 and S2.
- 10.
Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory employs the French word “Point de Capiton.” This phrase alludes to the “quilting point” or anchoring point that gives language and discourse meaning. In other words, it serves as a metaphorical anchor or point of focus that connects many signifiers and avoids “slippage” or meaning loss inside language. Lacan thought maintaining social order and producing symbolic structures like language depended on the Point de Capiton. Despite the intrinsic instability and fluidity of language and discourse, it aids in creating a sense of stability and coherence in the symbolic order. Language and meaning would be in perpetual flux without the Point de Capiton.
- 11.
In Seminar VII he first identified this with the Freudian Thing (das Ding) and later to what he called object a: the small object. In both conceptions it is the indivisible remainder, the hard antagonistic point which causes perpetual disruption in the field of the imaginary and the symbolic: ‘the a that we’ve defined as the remainder left over from the constitution of the subject in the locus of the Other in so far as the subject has to be constituted as a barred subject’ (SE, X: 284).
- 12.
Language warps the real, but the real also warps language. Lacan states this when he says the following in Seminar VII: ‘The real, the primordial real, I will say, suffers from the signifier—and you should understand that it is a real that we do not yet have to limit, the real in its totality, both the real of the subject and the real he has to deal with as exterior to him ‘(SE, VII: 118). The real Lacan is referring to is the primordial state of our existence before the genesis of the signifier, the suffering is a reference to the original trauma of symbolic castration by the signifier, the loss of the imaginary phallus. Since the signifier’s existence is always tenuous, stretched out over the body, figuratively speaking, this real, which Lacan refers to as being internal and external to the subject, is always seen as a perpetual existential threat to the subject. The signifier always risks being pushed out in the face of the real, hence the suggestive and paradoxical language that it is the real that suffers in the signifier and not the other way around since the real is just as much a part of the subject as is the signifier.
- 13.
To clarify in chess, a perpetual check is a situation in which one player can continually place the opponent’s king in check, in such a way that it is impossible for the game to progress. Essentially, it is a sequence of moves that repeatedly threatens the opponent’s king, forcing the player to move or defend against the check on each turn.
- 14.
Lacan called this prevailing model of psychoanalysis Ego psychology. Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis that emerged in the mid-twentieth century, building on the work of Sigmund Freud and his followers. The theory was first formulated by Anna Freud and other analysts associated with the Anna Freud Centre in London, Heinz Hartmann, Erik Erikson, and other New York Psychoanalytic Society members. In this school, the ego is seen as a self-contained, autonomous entity capable of manipulating reality through defence mechanisms. Lacan rejected the ego as a self-contained entity. Instead, he claimed that the ego is essentially organised by the symbolic order and intimately related to language (see Pound, 2012).
- 15.
It is important to note that for Lacan, anxiety is the only affect that cannot be manipulated. It emerges when the subject confronts the Real non-negotiable limit of human experience as such. As anxiety arises from a confrontation with the Real, it cannot be falsified or influenced by cultural norms or language. For Lacan, anxiety is the only authentic emotion that arises from the subject’s most fundamental encounter with the limits of their existence (see Harari, 2013).
- 16.
It is extremely important to note that this method of analysis must not be used with those who have a psychotic subjective structure. In the latter case, an analyst must help those with a psychotic disposition to bolster the imaginary register since the symbolic aspect of their existence has not properly been formulated and recourse to the imaginary is the only defence they have against the terrifying presence of the real of the body.
- 17.
‘La question est ceci. Il faut d’abord partir du texte, et en partir comme Freud le conseille lui-même, montre qu’il le fait, comme d’un texte sacré. L’auteur, le scribe n’était qu’un scribouillard, et il vient en second. Les commentaires des écritures ont été irrémédiablement perdus le jour où on a voulu nous faire la psychologie de Jérémie, Isaïe, voire Jésus-Christ. C’est du même ordre que ce que je suis en train de vous raconter. Quand il s’agit de nos patients, je vous demande de porter plus d’attention au texte qu’à la psychologie de l’auteur. C’est tout le sens et l’orientation de mon enseignement’ (SE, II: 250). (Unedited l’Association Freudienne Internationale version).
- 18.
To explore other subjective positions beyond neurotic would require another volume of work and beyond the scope of this book. I hope to be able to continue this after this work is complete.
- 19.
‘Je n’ai pas besoin de faire plus que de vous rappeler le caractère confus de ces références, de ces recours à l’affectivité, c’est-à-dire au registre, à la catégorie la plus confuse, au point que, même quand c’est à l’intérieur de l’analyse que cette référence est faite, c’est toujours à quelque chose de l’ordre de l’impasse qu’elle nous mène, à quelque chose dont nous sentons que ce n’est pas la ligne dans laquelle effectivement notre recherche peut vraiment progresser. En fait, bien sûr, il ne s’agit point ici de nier l’importance des affects. Il s’agit de ne pas les confondre avec le point, la substance de ce que nous cherchons dans le Real-Ich, au-delà de cette articulation signifiante, tel que nous pouvons, nous, artistes de la parole analytique, le manipuler’ (SE, VII : 154-155). (Unedited l’Association Freudienne Internationale version).
- 20.
‘Et je crois que, du même coup ceci nous permet de critiquer au premier plan cette sorte d’ambiguïté toujours entretenue autour de la fameuse opposition intellectuelle—affective, comme si en quelque sorte l’affectivité était une sorte de coloration, de qualité ineffable, si on peut dire, qui serait ce qui doit être cherché en lui-même, et en quelque sorte d’une façon indépendante de cette sorte de « peau vidée » que serait la réalisation purement intellectuelle d’une relation du sujet. Je crois que cette notion qui pousse l’analyse dans des voies paradoxales, singulières, est à proprement parler puérile… Sorte de connotation de succès sensationnel le moindre sentiment accusé par le sujet avec un caractère de singularité, voire d’étrangeté, dans le texte de la séance à proprement parler, est ce qui découle de ce malentendu fondamental. L’affectif n’est pas quelque chose comme une densité spéciale qui manquerait à l’élaboration intellectuelle, et un autre niveau de la production du symbole, l’ouverture, si on peut dire, du sujet à la création symbolique est quelque chose qui est dans le registre où nous le disions au début cet… qui est mythique, dans ce registre, et antérieur à la formulation discursive. Vous entendez bien ? Et ceci Seuil peut nous permettre, je ne dis pas d’emblée de situer, mais de discuter, d’appréhender ce en quoi consiste ce que j’appelle cette réalisation pleine de la parole’ (SE, I :112). (Unedited l’Association Freudienne Internationale version).
- 21.
‘C’est là la raison pour laquelle une exhaustion des mécanismes de défense, aussi sensible que nous la fait un Fenichel dans ses problèmes de technique parce qu’il est un praticien (alors que toute sa réduction théorique des névroses ou des psychoses à des anomalies génétiques du développement libidinal est la platitude même), se manifeste, sans qu’il en rende compte ni même qu’il s’en rende compte, comme l’envers dont les mécanismes de l’inconscient serait l’endroit. La périphrase, l’hyperbate, l’ellipse, la suspension, l’anticipation, la rétractation, la dénégation, la digression, l’ironie, ce sont les figures de style (figurae sententiarum de Quintilien), comme la catachrèse, la litote, l’antonomase, l’hypotypose sont les tropes, dont les termes s’imposent à la plume comme les plus propres à étiqueter ces mécanismes. Peut-on n’y voir qu’une simple manière de dire, quand ce sont les figures mêmes qui sont en acte dans la rhétorique du discours effectivement prononcé par l’analysé ?’ (E : 521). (Seuil Edition).
- 22.
This is my own interpretation, not my analysts. Important to note that the space of reflection after and during is a proper part of the analytic process by which one comes to and makes interpretation. The analyst intervenes, and usually with their own unconscious at times. This is the imperative of the third point in the analytic situation or setting; the symbolic.
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Murphy, M.G. (2023). Lacan’s Conception of Psychoanalysis. In: The Direction of Desire. The Palgrave Lacan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33107-7_4
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