INTERPRETING JOSEPH H. SMITH, M.D. and WILLIAM KERRIGAN, Editors Psychiatry a nd t he H u m a n i t i es V O L U ME 6 I n t e r p r e t i ng L a c an Editors J o s e ph H. Smith, M.D. William K e r r i g a n, Ph.D New H a v en a nd L o n d on Yale University Press Assistant Editor Gloria H. Parloff Editorial Assistant Carolyn W h e a t on Editorial Aide K a t h e r i ne S. H e n ry P u b l i s h ed u n d er t he auspices of t he F o r um on Psychiatry a nd t he H u m a n i t i es T he W a s h i n g t on School of Psychiatry C o p y r i g ht © 1983 by T he F o r um on Psychiatry a nd the H u m a n i t i es of T he W a s h i n g t on School of Psychiatry. All rights r e s e r v e d. T h is book may n ot be r e p r o d u c e d, in whole or in p a r t, in any form (beyond t h at copying p e r m i t t ed by Sections 107 a nd 108 of t he U.S. C o p y r i g ht Law a nd except by reviewers for t he public press), without written permission from t he p u b l i s h e r s. Set in V IP Baskerville type by T he C o m p o s i ng Room of Michigan, I n c. P r i n t ed in the U n i t ed States of America by Vail-Ballou Press, B i n g h a m t o n, New York. Library of C o n g r e ss Cataloging in Publication Data Main e n t ry u n d er title: I n t e r p r e t i ng Lacan. (Psychiatry a nd t he h u m a n i t i e s; v. 6) I n c l u d es i n d e x. C o n t e n t s: I n t r o d u c t i o n / by William K e r r i g a n— Analysis. T he i m a ge a nd t he w o r d / by Stanley A. Leavy—Language, psychosis, a nd t he subject in Lacan/ by J o hn P. Muller—[etc.] 1. Psychoanalysis—Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Lacan, J a c q u e s, 1901 —1981.—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Smith, J o s e ph H., 1 9 2 7- . I I. K e r r i g a n, William, 1 9 4 3- . I I I. Series. R C 3 2 1 . P 9 43 vol. 6 616.89s 83-7022 [RC509] [ 6 1 6 . 8 9' 17] ISBN 0—300-03039—8 (cloth) ISBN 0—300-03935—2 (pbk.) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 32 C o n t r i b u t o rs E d w a rd S. Casey, P h . D. Professor of Philosophy a nd C h a i r m a n, D e p a r t m e nt of P h i l o s o p h y, State University of New York at Stony B r o ok A n d re G r e e n, M.D. T r a i n i ng Analyst, Paris Psychoanalytic In­ s t i t u t e; f o r m e r ly Chief, Clinic of Mental Diseases, Paris University J u l ia Kristeva. Professor of Linguistics, University of Paris V I I; Visiting Professor, D e p a r t m e nt of F r e n c h, C o l u m b ia Uni­ versity; Psychoanalyst, I n s t i t u te of Psychoanalysis, Paris Stanley A. Leavy, M.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale Uni­ versity School of Medicine; T r a i n i ng a nd S u p e r v i s i ng Ana­ lyst, W e s t e rn New E n g l a nd I n s t i t u te for Psychoanalysis J o hn P. Muller, P h . D. S e n i or R e s e a r c h er a nd m e m b er of t he t h e r a py staff, A u s t en Riggs C e n t e r, Stockbridge, Massa­ c h u s e t ts William J. R i c h a r d s o n, P h . D. Professor of Philosophy, Boston College, a nd p r a c t i c i ng psychoanalyst; formerly D i r e c t or of R e s e a r c h, A u s t en Riggs C e n t e r, S t o c k b r i d g e, Massachusetts C h r i s t i ne van Boheemen-Saaf, P h . D. L e c t u r er in English a nd A m e r i c an l i t e r a t u re a nd literary t h e o r y, English D e p a r t­ m e n t, University of L e i d e n, T he N e t h e r l a n ds Wilfried V er Eecke, P h . D. Professor in Philosophy, a nd Chair­ m a n, D e p a r t m e nt of Philosophy, G e o r g e t o wn University, W a s h i n g t o n, D.C. A n t o i ne V e r g o t e, Phil. D. Professor of Psychology a nd Philoso­ p h y, Katholieke Universiteit L e u v e n - B e l g i u m; P r e s i d e nt of t he Ecole Beige de Psychanalyse J. Melvin W o o d y, P h . D. Professor of Philosophy, C o n n e c t i c ut College, New L o n d on C o n t e n ts I n t r o d u c t i on ix by William Kerrigan Analysis i 1 T he I m a ge a nd t he W o r d: F u r t h er Reflections on J a c q u es Lacan 3 by Stanley A. heavy 2 L a n g u a g e, Psychosis, a nd t he Subject in Lacan 21 by John P. Muller 3 Within t he Microcosm of " T he T a l k i ng C u r e" 33 by Julia Kristeva Philosophy and Psychoanalytic Theory 49 4 Lacan a nd t he Subject of Psychoanalysis 51 by William J. Richardson 5 H e g e l, H e i d e g g e r, Lacan: T he Dialectic of Desire 75 by Edward S. Casey andj. Melvin Woody 6 Hegel as Lacan's Source for Necessity in Psychoanalytic T h e o ry H3 by Wilfried Ver Eecke 7 Psychoanalysis a nd t he Being-question 139 by William J. Richardson 8 T he Logic of Lacan's objet (a) and Freudian T h e o r y: Convergences and Questions 161 by Andre Green 9 F r om F r e u d 's " O t h er Scene" to Lacan's " O t h e r" x 93 by Antoine Vergote + • V ll C O N T E N TS V l ll Lacan in Use 2 25 10 " T he Universe Makes an Indifferent P a r e n t ": Bleak House a nd t he Victorian Family Romance 225 by Christine van B oheemen-Saaf Epilogue: Lacan a nd t he Subject of American Psychoanalysis 259 by Joseph H. Smith I n d ex 277 I n t r o d u c t i on W I L L I AM K E R R I G AN Jacques Lacan was b o rn in 1901—seven years after Heinz Hart- m a n n, t h r ee years after R u d o l ph Loewenstein, o ne year after Ernst Kris, o ne year before Erik Erikson, and a decade before David R a p a p o r t. He belonged, in o t h er words, to t he generation of psychoanalytic theorists who were able to imagine that F r e u d, a living presence for about half their lives, might really have been their father—and t he F r e n ch son was intensely aware of his posi­ tion with respect to his imaginative siblings. To his m i nd t h e re was scant difference a m o ng t he o t h e rs b ut a substantial g ap be­ tween t h em a nd himself. As he n e e d ed to r e m i nd us over and over again in his shameless a nd o b s t r e p e r o us way, he was in his own view t he h a r d e st o ne to like—a self-image that did not, how­ ever, p r o m pt him to d e ny himself t he pleasures of sniping at the fame a nd institutional security of t he o t h e r s. No chocolates, flowers, a nd smiles in his c o u r t s h ip of r e n o w n, b ut r a t h er un­ welcome t r u t hs set down in a knowingly obscure style. W h e re the o t h e rs (in his view) s o u g ht to complete a psychology of t he indi­ vidual with a sociology of functional adaptation, Lacan looked toward an a n t h r o p o l o gy g r o u n d ed on b a re schemata; where they would sweeten t he vulgar t o n g ue of t he id with t he humanist wisdom of l i t e r a t u r e, Lacan t u r n ed to t he h a r r o w i ng abstractions of linguistics a nd mathematics; where they explored t he cognitive autonomy a nd intrasystemic h a r m o n i es of t he ego, Lacan indict­ ed its every p r e t e n se to majesty. Lacan to Lacan was t he difficult o ne whose h a rd lessons would preserve for o ur c o n t i n u ed medi­ tation what t he tranquilizing t h o u g h ts of his peers would cover over: F r e u d. His was n ot a F r e ud you could go beyond, because his m e a n i ng h ad no distinct b o u n d a r y. Lacan was a t t u n ed to those m o m e n ts in t he writings of F r e ud that lie between t he fix­ ities of evidence a nd t h e o r y, m o m e n ts of puzzlement or intellec- ix X I N T R O D U C T I ON tual t r a u ma w h e n, in t he face of disbelief, psychoanalysis is arising. He wanted to recover n o t h i ng m o re a nd n o t h i ng less t h an the roots of it: t he living F r e u d, not t he answerer exhibited in h a n d­ books a nd p a r a p h r a s e s. Lacan's r e p e a t ed claim to inhabit the living m e a n i ng of S i g m u nd F r e ud c a n n ot be dismissed as readily as some s u p p o s e. Whatever else we may wish to say about his work, it should be g r a n t ed at t he outset that Lacan was i n d e ed an e x t r a o r d i n a ry exegete. T o d a y, in the b u r g e o n i ng field of her- meneutics, philosopher-critics debate w h e t h er m e a n i ng is stable a nd selfsame or r a t h er changes along with i n t e r p r e t e rs a nd their circumstances. T he c o m m on objection to the second position is that it offers no w a r r a nt for correcting someone who has read carelessly or come away from a text with an obviously im­ poverished or w r o n g h e a d ed account of its p u r p o r t. But as H a r o ld Bloom implies in his emphasis on t he " s t r o n g" misread­ ing, t h e re are no consequential philosophical problems in main­ taining that, once again a nd in familiar ways, Doctor A, Professor B, or media p e r s on C has "misread" F r e u d. Something altogether different h a p p e ns when Lacan, who if a m i s r e a d er is surely a s t r o ng o n e, discovers t he mind of F r e ud g r o p i ng intuitively in instance u p on instance for a scientific linguistics that it does not possess. Only t he u n o r t h o d ox and impressive r e a d i ng mean­ ingfully agitates t he d o c t r i ne of stable sense. As with Plotinus on Plato a nd Ficino on Plotinus, so with Lacan on F r e u d: in o r d er to address t he question of w h e t h er an a u t h or has been distorted, we must first r e t h i n k, in t e r ms t he exegete has provided us with, the essential problems posed in t he texts of this a u t h o r. T he many psychoanalytic essays that begin by reviewing t he literature, in­ cluding F r e u d, t h en proceed to s u p p l e m e nt a nd correct this body of past discourse, teach us little or n o t h i ng about what F r e ud m e a n t. T h o se who claim to go beyond F r e ud teach us little or n o t h i ng about what F r e ud meant. Like no one else in his genera­ tion, Lacan has t he power to throw us back with new urgency to t he texts—the power to d i s t u rb a nd reinitiate o ur sense of F r e u d. Lacan died as we were p r e p a r i ng this book in 1981, at t he age of eighty. T he age revealed in t he obituaries surprised a lot of peo­ ple. Could someone of such recent fame be so old? T he tardy