D E DERRIDA R ANDLACAN R I D Another Writing Michael Lewis A A Derrida and Lacan: Another Writing is a major comparative study of these two N giants of contemporary thought. It contrasts Derrida’s deconstruction with D Lacan’s psychoanalytic thought and argues that Lacan presents us with a form L of deconstruction different to Derrida’s. This Lacanian approach opens up the A possibility of engaging critically with Derridean deconstruction. C Lacan demonstrates that an attention to the order of the imaginary, along with A the genesis of the human being and his language, should cause us to modify N DERRIDA our understanding of the relation between language and the real, which is deconstruction’s concern. Michael Lewis argues that this is what psychoanalysis A offers to philosophy – a way of relating its own transcendental thought to the n o insights of the empirical sciences, which Lacan draws upon in his theory of the LACAN t AND h genesis of the human being and of language. Lewis argues that Derrida’s thought e represents the most advanced formulation of transcendental philosophy, and as r W a result, if the Lacanian criticism may be applied to his work, then it may be r applied to all transcendental thought. it in Another Writing g This book engages with the entire development of Lacan’s thought in its attempt to demonstrate that Lacan presents an alternative to Derrida’s understanding of the nature of ‘archi-writing’. It represents a systematic development of Slavoj M ˆˆ Zizek’s attempt to present a Lacanian alternative to Derridean deconstruction. i Michael Lewis c It will be of interest to all readers in continental thought, transcendental h philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, and the relations between philosophy and the a natural and human sciences. e l L Michael Lewis teaches philosophy at the University of Sussex. He is the author e of Heidegger and the Place of Ethics and Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction: w On Nature. is Cover design: www.riverdesign.co.uk Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LF E d barcode i www.euppublishing.com n b ISBN 978 0 7486 3603 7 u r g h M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page i Derrida and Lacan M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page ii Properly speaking, the nœud bo [Borromean knot] in question completely changes the meaning of writing. It gives to the aforementioned writing an autonomy, which is all the more remarkable in that there is another writing [une autre écriture], which results from that which one could call a precipitation of the signifier. Derrida has laid emphasis on this, but it is quite clear that I showed him the way. (Jacques Lacan, Seminar XXIII, 144) [T]he motif of divisibility is perhaps the argument of last resort in ‘Le facteur de la vérité’ [...]. It is formally, in the chain of consequences, that on which everything depends. The affirmation of the indivisibility of the letter [...] (Jacques Derrida, The Postcard, 512) M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page iii DERRIDA AND LACAN A NOTHER WRITING 2 Michael Lewis Edinburgh University Press M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page iv For Zöe Sutherland © Michael Lewis, 2008 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn, Norfolk A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 3603 7 (hardback) The right of Michael Lewis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page v Contents Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations viii Preface x Introduction 1 1 Lacan: the name-of-the-father and the phallus 16 II. The real and the symbolic opposed 17 II. The name-of-the-father and the phallus 45 2 Deconstructing Lacan 80 3 The real and the development of the imaginary 148 II. The real and the symbolic 155 II. The imaginary 168 4 The real writing of Lacan: another writing 202 Bibliography 270 Index 277 M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page vi Acknowledgements The necessary conditions: Lorenzo Chiesa and his work, without which hardly any of this book would have been possible; Simon Fuller for his discourse on deconstruction, which he perhaps hoped would have become dialogues; Damian Veal for an unbending critical vigi- lance and the use of a computer; Siobhan McKeown and Darren Ambrose for their support in the Autumn of 2005, the Winter of 2005–6 and the Spring of 2006; Anna Johnson for Luke Thurston’s wonderfully helpful translation of Seminar XXIII; Stephen Barrell and Marjorie Gracieuse (along with the noble Cormac Gallagher) for assistance with translation; Michael Kolkman for the continued use of computers; Mum and Dad for a place to go and for providing emo- tional support in the Summer of 2006, as well as their joy and assis- tance during my move to Sussex in 2007. Darren, Siobhan and Emily, for their support in 2006–7; Stephen Houlgate, who encouraged me to feel at home at Warwick and pro- vided financial and Hegelian support; conversations with Nick Butler and Eleni Karamali (who also lent me her office and library in the Summer of 2007); Grandma for her strength in enduring and infinite patience, in memoriam of Nana; Mogfish, the Summer of 2006 and the sun for which I did what I could to be grateful; Test Match Special; Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington, for their company through the necessarily solitary times of reading and writing in the summer, autumn and winter of 2006, when this book was com- posed (and when it was revised during the spring, summer, and autumn of 2007), although their company had begun the previous winter. Carol Macdonald, copy editor Tim Clark, and two anonymous readers at EUP for granting me an extension and for their help and generosity. Lisa Barnett, Olivia Case, Soomi Do, Caroline Bass, Raphaelle Moor, Ed Greig, Briony Coates-Rees, Verena Kroth, Gal Levin. For those friends who remain: first of all, Nick Butler, Alex Hartland, Kelly Beard, Hilary Chapman, Siân Smith, Bronia Evers, vi M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page vii Acknowledgements Charmaine Coyle, Martin Burley, Barry Phipps, Darren Ambrose, Siobhan McKeown, Eleni Karamali, Tom Greaves, Simon Hill, Havi Carel, Daniel Jones, Emily Harding, Stephen Houlgate, Greg Hunt, Paul Davies, Miguel de Beistegui, Chris Ellis, Jim Graham, Nina Power, Jenny Bunker, Ben Smith, Nick Joll, Alexandra le Bolloch, Christa Percival, Becky Mahay, Chris Branson, Pete Wolfendale, Ioannis Trisokkas, Jo Kuzma, Rafael Winkler, Gerald Moore, Barnaby Hutchins, Stephen Dunne, Marjorie Gracieuse. And to all at Sussex University, for saving me, and for such hospi- tality. In particular, Tanja Staehler, Sarah Sawyer, Michael Morris, Murali Ramachandran, Gordon Finlayson, Joe Ward, Dylan Trigg, and all my students, particularly Cara, Andres, Carly, Joe, and Debbie. (Scholars should note with amusement the disparity in length between this list and that from my first book. . .) This book was finished for the first time in November 2007; the last revision was made in March and April of 2008. Everything happened in the intervening time, which allowed me to write its dedication. Michael Lewis Sussex Friday, 18 August 2006 – Friday, 18 April 2008 vii M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page viii Abbreviations Works by Jacques Derrida D (1981) Dissemination [1972] EW (1991) ‘“Eating Well”, or the Calculation of the Subject: An Interview with Jacques Derrida’ [1988] FL (2001) ‘Force of Law: The “Mystical Foundation of Authority”’ [1989–90] MP (1982) Margins: of Philosophy [1972] OG (1974) Of Grammatology [1967] P (2002) Positions [1972] PC (1987) The Postcard: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond [1980] R (1998) Resistances: Of Psychoanalysis [1996] S (1979) Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles [1978] SM (1994) Spectres of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International [1993] SP (1973) Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs [1967] W (1998) ‘I’ll have to wander all alone’ [1995] WD (2001) Writing and Difference [1967] Works by Jacques Lacan AE (2001) Autres Écrits E (2006) Écrits [1966] SI (1988) Seminar Book I: Freud’s Papers on Technique, 1953–1954 SII (1988) Seminar Book II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954–1955 SIII (1993) Seminar Book III: The Psychoses, 1955–1956 SIV (1994) Le Séminaire livre IV: La Relation d’Objet, 1956–1957 viii M1549 - LEWIS PRELIMS.qxp:ANDY Q7 12/9/08 15:30 Page ix Abbreviations SV (1998) Le Séminaire livre V: Les Formations de l’Inconscient, 1957–1958 SVI (1958–9) ‘Le Séminaire livre VI. Désir et son interprétation, 1958–1959’. Unpublished manuscript [References to unpublished seminars are given by the date of the session] SVII (1992) Seminar Book VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959–1960 SVIII (1991) Le Séminaire livre VIII: Le Transfert, 1960–1961 SIX (1961–2) ‘Le Séminaire livre IX. L’Identification, 1961–1962’. Unpublished manuscript SX (2004) Le Séminaire livre X: L’Angoisse, 1962–1963 SXI (1998) [Seminar Book XI:] The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis [1964] SXIII (1965–6), ‘Le Séminaire livre XIII. L’Objet du psychanalyse, 1965–1966’. Unpublished manuscript SXIV (1966–7), ‘Le Séminaire livre XIV. Logique du fantasme, 1966–1967’. Unpublished manuscript SXVII (2007) Seminar Book XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis [1969–1970] SXX (1999) Seminar Book XX: Encore, 1972–1973 SXXIII (2005) Le Séminaire livre XXIII: Le Sinthome, 1975–1976 ix