Seminar X -- Lecture 6

0:08all right y'all we're wrapping up

0:09seminar 10 tonight

0:11and i want to start with some basic

0:13review

0:14kind of like where we've been what we've

0:16got under our belt at this point and at

0:18any point in what's happening tonight i

0:20want you to feel completely free

0:23to just chime in and say pause can you

0:25please

0:26review that concept or or whatever

0:29we've already been over a lot of this

0:30stuff multiple times so i'm not going to

0:32spend a lot of time rehearsing it i'm

0:34just going to trot it out

0:35and as always

0:37with

0:38diagrams as we go

0:41so here's the basic riff where this

0:43seminar starts

0:44the question of anxiety is a question of

0:47desire

0:49that's why we've spent just as much if

0:51not more time addressing

0:54lacan's notion of desire as we have

0:56anxiety

0:58and the study of desire is not a

1:01psychology

1:03you'll recall it's an erotology

1:08where the key theme here is not the

1:10psyche but the body

1:13eros of course being the origin of the

1:15word erotic

1:18the study of anxiety is a study of

1:20desire

1:22and the study of desire is not a

1:24psychology but an eratology instead

1:27because it deals with eros with bodies

1:30and that is the central theme when it

1:32comes to anxiety

1:35it's about desirous bodies encountering

1:38each other

1:40and demanding some sort of a bodily

1:43response or activation

1:46now when we first got into desire

1:49we talked about need demand and desire

1:52and about how desire is demand minus

1:55need

1:56what's left of demand after need has

1:59been met

2:01we talked about how this results in a

2:03split subject

2:05using some early graphs of desire

2:09we also came up with some fuzzy math to

2:12help us remember this

2:15one plus one equals three

2:18and the reason why we say one plus one

2:20equals three

2:22is because the split subject is not just

2:26compromised

2:28of an embodied

2:30animalistic biomaterial itself it's also

2:33comprised of a disembodied abstract

2:36socio-linguistified self

2:39there's the you in your skin

2:41and then there's the you

2:43on the screen underneath your image

2:45right now

2:46at the level of your name

2:49now one plus one equals three because

2:51there's always a third element

2:54the split subject always has a third

2:57element and that third element is the

2:59bar

3:00that you see racing across the s

3:04that third element is the minimum

3:07irreducible distance

3:09that has to be maintained between your

3:12bio-animalistic self and your

3:14sociolinguistified self in order for

3:17these two to remain distinct

3:20that gap that bar

3:23is signaled in lacanian algebra with

3:26little italicized a

3:30one plus one equals three because the

3:32split subject always has a cut or a gap

3:36that has been introduced into them

3:39and we symbolize that gap with this

3:41little a

3:44we've come at this a couple other ways

3:46as well

3:47we had for instance a very simple

3:53math problem a division problem

3:56where

3:56the mythical subject of pure need is

3:59divided

4:00by capital a

4:02and what is produced if you just draw a

4:04simple mathematical equation you've seen

4:06this before it's also posted on our

4:07instagram

4:09is a split subject remainder a

4:12split subject dot a is how we signaled

4:14it

4:15in our time together

4:17a is a remainder

4:20a corporal leftover of the process

4:23known as castration

4:25and we'll review that again here in a

4:26minute

4:29we also talked about desire in terms of

4:32its for of and as structure

4:36first and foremost desire is always

4:39desire for

4:41another

4:42body

4:44somebody else their care their affection

4:47their attention

4:48in order to have our desire for another

4:51met though we learn very early on to

4:54approximate the desire

4:56of

4:57the person we hope

5:00to provide us with care

5:02we guess what they want and then

5:04identify with that in hopes of better

5:07securing their

5:08affection this is desire of in order to

5:12satisfy desire for

5:16and the process that we talked about

5:17here

5:18is one in which in the final analysis

5:22we wind up learning how to desire as

5:26another

5:28we have to desire as another in order to

5:31get our desire for another met

5:35and the example of this that you're not

5:38going to be surprised to hear me repeat

5:40again is getting dressed in front of a

5:42mirror

5:45looking in the mirror is one of the

5:46things that everybody on this call

5:49has done today there are a lot of other

5:51things that some of us have done and

5:52others haven't looking in a mirror

5:54though i guarantee everybody on this

5:56call has done it at least once probably

5:58multiple times today

5:59when you look at yourself in the mirror

6:01what you are doing is you are examining

6:04yourself from another person's point of

6:05view as you imagine it

6:08you're imagining how the little other

6:12here and imaginary encapsulation of the

6:15big other sees you

6:17and the basic question in front of the

6:19mirror is

6:20am i attractive

6:23which is to say

6:25will i attract the affections and the

6:28care and the attention

6:30the recognition that i seek from this

6:33other person

6:35do i look

6:37agreeable enough to have my desire for

6:40them met

6:42now you'll know in order to answer that

6:44question you have to look at yourself

6:47from their point of view

6:48and that's what the mirror performs

6:51that is desire as

6:55and then you look at the wardrobe that

6:56you're choosing

6:58you're choosing clothes

7:06you want to attract

7:07that is desire of because you're

7:09approximating what you think they're

7:10into when you choose your outfit

7:14and in this unique combination of

7:16dressing in a way that you think will

7:18make yourself appealing and then viewing

7:21yourself in this clothing to test

7:22whether you've achieved your goal

7:25desire of and desire as

7:29you eventually ideally for better and

7:32for worse

7:33get your desire for another person met

7:36this is another way that we came at

7:37desire

7:39and i spent a few minutes with it

7:40because it was also how we transitioned

7:43to this imaginary triangle

7:46that was all premised on the desire of

7:48the maternal

7:50figure or function remember it doesn't

7:52have to be your bio mom doesn't even

7:54have to be a female

7:56what we're looking for here is somebody

7:58who performs a certain

8:00function

8:01for the child

8:03usually that of a primary caregiver

8:06here what we see is the child

8:08desiring

8:10attention from the primary caregiver but

8:13having to approximate and imagine

8:15what else the primary caregiver likes to

8:18guarantee

8:20that desire getting met

8:22what they imagined the primary caregiver

8:25liking we have symbolized by the

8:27lowercase fee

8:30the imaginary phallus or the imaginary

8:33object

8:35then we introduced this fourth

8:37element

8:38not the child not the maternal figure

8:41and not the imaginary phallus but this

8:43fourth element that transforms the

8:45imaginary triangle into a symbolic

8:48square this the paternal function

8:51the name of the father

8:53the know of the father the prohibitive

8:56gesture that cuts in

8:59to that relationship

9:01between the child

9:03and the maternal figure

9:05to say that

9:07the maternal figure does not have the

9:10phallus

9:11and that the child cannot be it

9:14for her

9:17what that does

9:19is it negates the phallus it places it

9:22under erasure

9:24it introduces a cut

9:28it is the act of cutting in

9:32that then

9:33produces the opening

9:36that we designate with little a

9:39so

9:40if we're going to put this on

9:45our board here

9:48it's going to look something like this

9:52all right

9:53holler back because i can't see you now

9:56can you see the board here in front of

9:57you

10:04i need a voice

10:06are you drawing i don't see any i see

10:07just a white screen space i don't know

10:09it just loaded i can see your skype

10:12screen

10:15now can you see the

10:16blackboard it's still thinking

10:20oh lord

10:24all right let me stop this and then

10:25we'll try it again

10:26because i do think it's helpful to have

10:28some of the symbols

10:32popping for us

10:35and in front of us to be seen

10:42alright how about now yeah now we got it

10:45okay great so the imaginary triangle

10:48that we're talking about here was this

10:49thing

10:58and then we introduced

11:00this

11:01symbolic element

11:04represented by the paternal function

11:09and what i'm trying to get at now is to

11:10remind you how this works how this looks

11:13mathematically

11:14imaginary phallus

11:16is then placed under erasure

11:21and this yields is an opening that we

11:23designate with little a

11:26and in order to help us remember this

11:29we've come up with another simple math

11:31problem

11:321

11:33minus 1

11:35equals

11:370.

11:38and i'm not just messing with this to

11:40remind you that the one here is

11:42symbolized by the phallus which of

11:44course refers to that biological one

11:47that sometimes dangles between two legs

11:50and then having this very one subtracted

11:53to give us

11:55a symbol for nothing

11:58which is exactly what little a is

12:00a symbol for a place where nothing

12:02appears

12:04this is why lacan in this seminar has

12:07made so much

12:10of zero there is a lot of zero talk in

12:14here

12:15it's tempting to think that this is

12:16fundamentally a seminar about the big

12:18other

12:19capital o

12:21but what lacan is also careful to point

12:23out a couple times in here

12:25is that don't confuse that big o

12:31with its relative

12:32zero

12:34oftentimes he's talking about the zero

12:37here

12:40now what i want to emphasize here while

12:42we've got the board in front of us

12:46is something else

12:48this is something we haven't discussed

12:49but something i want to suggest here in

12:51our final session together

12:55the cause of desire we have talked about

12:58as

12:59object a

13:01this element right here this opening

13:09what i would like to suggest here is

13:11that

13:12the cause of desire is in fact a

13:14contracted moment

13:17that includes

13:26the cutting in

13:28of the paternal function

13:30and the resulting

13:32opening

13:33that's produced as

13:35along the way

13:37so here's one way to think about it

13:39there's the incision

13:44and then there is the wound

13:48there's the cutting as an act and then

13:51there's the opening of the human form

13:54that is resulting from this

13:56these two elements together these two

13:59moments

14:00mark a contracted event

14:03a structure if you will

14:05that i would like to suggest is the

14:07cause of desire

14:12and in fact one of the things that we

14:14have discussed

14:16in symbolizing desire

14:20is that it looks something like

14:24this

14:30when the imaginary structure

14:34of castration

14:36gives way

14:37to the highly symbolized

14:42designator for something that resists

14:45symbolization itself

14:47this cause of desire when the cut

14:49meets the opening you now have a cause

14:52of desire but it's a contracted

14:53multi-part moment i'd like to suggest

14:57which brings us to another point that i

14:59want to make with you all

15:01what we're talking about here

15:05is not objectivity

15:08but instead what lacan calls objectility

15:12that's another great move that's

15:14happening in ten that we've talked about

15:16here

15:17objectivity has to do with objects with

15:20the field of stuff

15:22the couch

15:23in the room the painting on the wall

15:28object fatality has to do not with stuff

15:31but with causes

15:34it's about

15:36causality

15:37and if you want some ways to sum this up

15:40objectivity is about objects

15:42and objectivity is about openings

15:46and lacan's point here is that

15:49modern science

15:52is fascinated

15:56by objectivity

15:58obsessively almost even psychotically

16:04intrigued

16:06in a delusional way

16:08by stuff by objects

16:11lacan's point is psychoanalysis

16:14does it one better

16:16because it focuses on the conditions of

16:20possibility for something like an object

16:23to appear

16:25so if the object is a coffee mug

16:30what lacan is going to talk about

16:32are the divisions and the differences

16:35the differential relationship between

16:37the coffee mug and the wall behind it

16:40that allow the coffee mug to be singled

16:43out as an object to be studied

16:46now that differential relationship

16:49also comports with our fuzzy math

16:53one plus one equals three

16:56the cup

16:58plus the wall

16:59and then the gap

17:01between

17:03that allows them to exist and to be

17:06studied by modern science

17:08as two distinct objects

17:11if there were not a gap between them and

17:14opening between them

17:16cup and wall would

17:19merge with each other the field of

17:22objects

17:24would slip back into

17:26something that looks a little bit more

17:28like the here and now of the all in the

17:30process of becoming that lacan talks

17:32about in the 50s

17:35so what we get when we focus on the

17:37cause of desire

17:39the cut of the paternal function

17:43and the resulting opening in which a

17:45child can pursue their own interests and

17:48enjoy a little bit of breathing room

17:50is not objectivity

17:52what you choose to focus your desire on

17:55the objects you choose to consume to

17:58purchase to fill your closet with

18:02is not of interest to look on

18:05he is interested

18:07in the object cause

18:10of your desire for that stuff

18:13what is the experience of lack

18:16that led you into that consumer moment

18:20what did you feel like you were missing

18:23that led you

18:25to that

18:26purchase you see there are many things

18:29remember that we lack

18:32but that we don't experience

18:34as loss

18:37right you don't have a tail

18:40but you don't wake up every morning and

18:41experience that lack

18:45lack is an experience

18:48it's something that has to be undergone

18:49which is why you have

18:52industries like advertising

18:54departments of marketing in big

18:56corporations and small

18:59they are charged with the task of

19:02producing

19:03and manufacturing

19:05distributing the experience of lack

19:09you didn't know you needed a new iphone

19:12until you saw that billboard you didn't

19:14know what you were missing

19:16until it was thrown up and displayed to

19:18you there in traffic as you passed

19:21through the dead zone

19:23where your current phone seems to putter

19:25out

19:28the cause of desire is always an opening

19:31that we experience as

19:34fillable

19:35in need of filling the study of this is

19:39called objectality lacan says it's the

19:41study of causes

19:44not the study of

19:46objects

19:49which brings us to anxiety

19:54when anxiety happens

19:57something is made to appear

20:00in that opening that is the cause of

20:03desire

20:05something is made to appear

20:08in the place

20:10of nothing

20:12where nothing was something is now made

20:14to appear

20:16where there was an opening and a gap

20:18some breathing room some distance

20:20between

20:22the emergent desires of the child and

20:26the devouring desires of the maternal

20:28figure

20:29now something is called in

20:32and that gap and that opening closes

20:35and it's filled not with an object of

20:38your desire

20:40and here's the tricky part

20:42but with someone else's desire

20:46someone shows up with a bigger desire

20:48than yours and says and you know what i

20:50want

20:52i want that gap

20:54that one that you cherish

20:58this is the parent that shows up on a

21:00pissed off day

21:02and takes your [ __ ] bedroom door off

21:04the hinges

21:07there will be no gap

21:10and you're like stunned not just because

21:12the door is not on its hinges but

21:14because it's [ __ ] gone

21:18dad what did you do with the door like

21:21it's not just missing and out of place

21:24it's gone

21:25it's completely gone

21:27and as a result the gap can't be

21:30returned the barrier can't be

21:32reestablished

21:35anxiety is what happens when something

21:37is made to appear where otherwise

21:40nothing would be allowed

21:42to exist

21:45now what is it that is made to appear

21:47here

21:48in what i still believe to be some of

21:50the most important pages of this seminar

21:52pages 45 and 46.

21:55what lacan tells us here

21:58is that

21:59the desirous

22:01other

22:03wants me

22:05to display

22:07to signal to signify for them that i

22:10lack

22:14and not just

22:17in order to close

22:19my object a not just in order to to

22:22fill that gap

22:24it's something else they actually want

22:27me to show up as castrated

22:30that's what they want they don't just

22:32want my opening

22:35they want me to reenact the cut that

22:39produced it

22:41they don't just want to see the scar

22:44they want to hear one more time

22:46how you sustained the wound

22:50that signal

22:53that is made to appear

22:57in the opening that is the cause of your

23:00desire

23:01is a signal of your castration

23:04and we represent that by the parens

23:08minus v

23:09that's the sign

23:11that they want to see again

23:13so when we symbolize anxiety

23:19i'm going to share again this screen

23:22what we see is something different

23:24here

23:25is the cause of desire

23:29where the cut of the paternal function

23:32results in the opening of object a

23:36when anxiety strikes

23:38we see something different

23:46anxiety is what

23:48happens when the a

23:51is marched back

23:55to the act that produced it

23:58it's a reversal of the process of desire

24:02this is how anxiety assaults desire

24:06it takes the object cause of your desire

24:09and says i'm not just gonna i'm not only

24:11going to operate on this

24:13i want you to show me this part of it

24:15too

24:17tell me and show me again

24:20how this

24:22occurred for you

24:24show me your castration

24:26signal

24:27for me that you are castrated

24:30now this was the example

24:33that also got us into

24:36sadism and masochism

24:38you'll recall here

24:41when god in ecclesiastes

24:44commands

24:48enjoyment

24:50of life job of work of life

24:55it's in order for us to fail

24:57we cannot enjoy

25:00all of these things

25:01because we are castrated and yet we are

25:04commanded to enjoy

25:07and when we try

25:09to enjoy

25:11unheated

25:12unbiased

25:15sometimes

25:16in search of this

25:18drug-addled experience

25:21of limitlessness that we all somehow

25:24seek whether it's

25:25in music in spirituality

25:29in sex

25:30in drugs

25:32rock and roll you just keep going down

25:34the list of things that are supposed to

25:35put us outside ourselves ecstatic

25:37experiences

25:42in each of these cases

25:46you have to ask yourself what we're

25:48actually seeing

25:52and why so often these experiences

25:59crash against the rocks of castration

26:02we cannot enjoy

26:04as ecclesiastes commands

26:07which is why god is a sadist

26:10because what god is getting off on in

26:12that moment

26:13is seeing just how poorly

26:16we are able to follow that command

26:20and when you stumble

26:24when your hope for ecstatic experience

26:28smashes against the rocks of castration

26:32the resulting shipwreck

26:34is that signal

26:38that's the signal of your castration

26:40that the sadist seeks

26:42it's not enough for you to want to enjoy

26:46you have to want

26:47to enjoy

26:49try to enjoy and fail to enjoy

26:54it's because you can't love your partner

26:57and enjoy them every single day

27:01that god commands you to

27:03do you see

27:05the commandment is issued

27:07in a sadistic fashion

27:11because what god wants to see

27:14according to lacan

27:16is that we are unable to enjoy the way

27:19that we are commanded to do

27:23and that visuality of it

27:26showing up as castrated as a shipwrecked

27:29[ __ ]

27:30is exactly why god is sadistic

27:33because that is a highly anxious

27:36position to be

27:37in

27:43what the big other

27:45as desirous other lacks

27:48is a signal of my castration

27:51that's the bottom line here

27:55this is why lacan talks about a lack of

27:58lack

28:00something is made to appear where lack

28:02used to be and as a result lack is now

28:05out of the picture there is no more

28:07breathing room

28:08because now you're caught up with the

28:10struggle and the failure predominantly

28:13to enjoy

28:15this is in part

28:17why we've symbolized anxiety

28:20as we have in here with the following

28:22formula

28:32the desire of the subject

28:34as caused

28:37by this opening known as object a

28:40is gobbled up

28:43and displaced by the desire of something

28:46bigger larger

28:49and again

28:50recall the praying mantis

28:54let's pause there for some questions

28:58tell me where you're at

29:00and let me know

29:01what i can clarify if anything

29:42i'm gonna try and keep an eye on the

29:43chat here

29:45so you can post stuff there as well and

29:46i think i'll be able to keep track of it

29:57all right if you're good i'm good

29:59i have a question real quick yeah go

30:02ahead i was talking to myself for like a

30:04good minute there um but now i'm muted

30:07so

30:08um

30:09so i'm curious about we're talking about

30:11openings right i'm curious if you would

30:14say there's sort of a dialectic between

30:15openings and closings

30:18um

30:19in in such a way where perhaps not

30:22necessarily that we're filling these

30:24openings but

30:25they close on occasions or something

30:28like that

30:30yeah and if you think about this in

30:32terms of balloons

30:34it would have to be a closure that

30:36leaves a trace

30:39so it's not just a closure of an opening

30:41that would produce a seamless

30:44result but a closure that would look

30:46like an opening that's been plugged

30:49where you can see

30:50the lines around it

30:52and in that case lacon would say yeah

30:53that's that's that's what we're talking

30:55about

30:56so closures leave traces

30:59just like cuts result in openings that's

31:02partly why he's messing around with

31:03cause and effect

31:05in the readings for tonight

31:07he's really trying to get after cause

31:10and effect

31:11because he wants to have this really

31:12robust theory of objectility the study

31:15of causes and openings

31:17but yeah what

31:18what would be happening

31:20in this dialectic of desire and anxiety

31:24if we could call it that and i think

31:25that we can

31:28in fact i think one of the most profound

31:30things we can say at this point is that

31:33anxiety must be passed through

31:36for desire to realize

31:40itself at the level of the drive

31:45that's why we have this table

31:47where

31:48desire is here anxiety is the median

31:51element and just is up here

31:56so if you think about

32:00this

32:01let me throw the screen up again

32:08if you think about desire in this way so

32:10we have this table right

32:13classic table from this seminar

32:19this is also the table

32:21that gave us

32:27the like vortex spiral thing that we

32:30were messing with

32:32in our fifth

32:36lecture

32:40you have desire anxiety and results

32:43initially i thought this table was kind

32:45of bogus

32:46but after working with it for a while i

32:48think it's actually pretty productive if

32:52you read its flow

32:54like this

32:56now i'm not going to rehearse all of the

32:58things that we attribute here the need

33:01demand desire

33:02and i'm not going to rehearse the whole

33:05swirl again

33:06unless you want me to but i think that's

33:08pretty clearly expressed

33:10what's important here is that at the

33:12level of desire

33:14we see this movement

33:22at the level of anxiety i've told you

33:24that the movement is reversed

33:27from having a cause of our desire that

33:29is an opening

33:31anxiety says

33:33tell me how you got that cut again

33:35let's talk about how you're castrated

33:37show me that

33:38i want to see that

33:42when

33:43lacan says that jesus

33:48must be refused in order to be

33:51attained on the inverse scale of the law

33:55of desire

33:57this is at the end of his essay on the

33:59subversion of the subject

34:01this is in part what he means this green

34:03arrow here is the law of desire

34:07in order

34:08to arrive at j-1

34:11at jewish sons there's this kind of i

34:13put quotation marks around here because

34:15this isn't actually jewish songs

34:17jewish sons is an effect structure

34:20an opportunity structure produced by the

34:23subject's integration into the symbolic

34:26what was before that integration up here

34:29the subject of pure need and a whole big

34:31other

34:32was not joison's

34:34it was the here and now of the all in

34:37the process of becoming that again lacan

34:39talks about in the 1950s

34:42but in order for this

34:44desire anxiety dialectic to play out

34:48if we're working this

34:50here's a here's b

34:53and here's the sublation in jewish sons

34:55what we see is a reclamation

34:57of the very process

35:03at desire

35:05do you see how this looks dialectical

35:08but with a hitch

35:13except

35:21at the level

35:28of the drive

35:30so what's happening down here at the

35:32level of desire

35:35is renewed

35:37by this process of passing through

35:39anxiety

35:41at the level of the drive

35:42so we're going to spend some time

35:44talking about this

35:46this is in part also

35:49why as we were discussing this matter

35:51last time

35:53i asked you to pay close attention to

35:55lacan's use of the word well head

35:59when he says that anxiety is the

36:01well-head

36:04for joisons

36:06and you'll recall the use of well had

36:08made sense there because

36:10desire was illustrated by nursing

36:15anxiety was illustrated by vampirism

36:19and vampirism

36:21is here the well-head for a certain type

36:24of enjoyment

36:25so remember

36:27the nurseling

36:29desires milk you could say to the extent

36:32that you could assign desire to a

36:34nurseling

36:37at the level of vampirism

36:39and the anxieties cultural and otherwise

36:41that surround it what you see is a

36:43passing over

36:44not

36:47into more milk but this is after milk

36:49has run out

36:51now if it's a desire for anything it's a

36:53desire to drain the lifeblood

36:57the very source

36:59that would be able to produce more milk

37:01to satisfy future nursing desires

37:05the vampire isn't satisfied to take a

37:09bit

37:10from mama

37:12the vampire wants to take it all from

37:14mama

37:17what lacan is trying to signal here is

37:19that the passage from desire to anxiety

37:22at the level of the oral drive in the

37:24case of nursing

37:28desire is happening where for a breast

37:30that is full of milk and always renews

37:33its supply

37:34anxiety is anxiety around the fear that

37:37the breast will eventually dry up

37:40and there won't be any milk left

37:43and vampirism comes in

37:45as an opportunity to take something else

37:48another

37:50life force

37:51in this case blood

37:53all of this metaphorically gives lacan

37:56this idea to say that anxiety is a well

37:59head for zhui sans for something more

38:01extreme

38:05nurseling milk vampire blood and then we

38:08get this wellhead

38:10this is what we're after tonight this is

38:11what he's after at the end of this

38:13seminar what comes next

38:16what is outside anxiety what is beyond

38:20anxiety

38:22it is a resurgence

38:24of the formula of desire here

38:26represented for you

38:30except at the level of the drive

38:38and i think yes you could read this as a

38:40dialectical

38:42movement

38:46that clear

38:50yeah yeah yeah

38:52oh i'm so sorry that's awful um i guess

38:57i understand so for the for the the

38:59table that you sort of charted out

39:01you have the same two terms they sort of

39:03contradict each other in the next

39:06um

39:07in the next

39:08uh articulation open within anxiety and

39:11then you have the same two terms in the

39:13same place as desire and jubissans i'm

39:16still curious how

39:18that plays out is jivison sort of the

39:20intractable

39:23contradiction of desire in that sense

39:27no

39:30operating at the level of the drive

39:33is a partial satisfaction

39:35of desire

39:38you see the thing with desire

39:40is that it can't get no satisfaction

39:44it's ever moving restless it cannot be

39:48stated

39:51at the level of the drive it can

39:55but only in moments

39:56and only partially

39:58which is why in part the drive has a

40:01repetitive cycle

40:03you don't just smoke one cigarette

40:05and throw the pack away

40:10you don't just have one drink

40:12and then

40:14leave the beer on the counter

40:16you see where i'm going with this right

40:18you don't just

40:20masturbate once

40:23and then be like cool

40:25did that what's next for life

40:29and similarly in the event of

40:31masturbation you don't just touch it

40:34once

40:36it's the repetitive movement

40:41that allows for the drive to operate

40:44and it's repetitive in part because the

40:46satisfaction of desire that it provides

40:49is partial

40:50incomplete

40:53we'll come to that

40:54it's absolutely on our horizon

40:59one more step in between

41:02but before we take it

41:04questions comments things i can clarify

41:08so far

41:11you're good i'm good

41:16just that may be

41:18self-evident based on what you're saying

41:19but so if anxiety is

41:21is

41:23if anxiety suggests a beyond anxiety

41:27then is anxiety a universal at that

41:30point is it like the depressive position

41:32is that like a

41:33is it being posed as

41:36unnecessary universal that we all must

41:38go through

41:40oh man that's a great question because

41:44i hear different things from lacanians

41:45on this point

41:47so and you you can hear this too through

41:49some different forms of analytic

41:51technique where they talk about the

41:53patient needing to go through an anxious

41:56moment

41:57with the analyst that anxiety is kind of

41:59like this moment that has to happen

42:03and i read lacan several times in this

42:07seminar as kind of saying that

42:11as suggesting that this is a passage

42:14a rite of passage on the way

42:17to

42:18the end of analysis

42:20that in order to get beyond

42:24desire you have to confront anxiety

42:28which means you have to have this

42:29encounter

42:30with a [ __ ] praying mantis

42:34and the key thing here is

42:36remember

42:38the praying mantis example

42:41the sadistic god example

42:44the key variable here for anxiety is

42:48you feel that you are caught up or

42:51implicated

42:52in the desire

42:54of the big other

42:56but you don't know what you are for that

42:58desire

43:01so the praying mantis example

43:03you know

43:05what she does when she wants to [ __ ]

43:09but you don't know

43:10whether you're about to get [ __ ] and

43:13thus killed

43:14or just passed on by because if you're

43:16wearing the mail mask

43:18and this desirous praying mantis shows

43:20up you're about to be [ __ ] you

43:24if however you're wearing the female

43:26mask she's just going to pass right by

43:29anxiety is the not knowing which mask

43:32you're wearing

43:36and lacan's point is that it's

43:37oftentimes so excruciating that the

43:39beyond of anxiety

43:41becomes an acceptance

43:44of destruction

43:46he says people would almost

43:48rather assume that they're wearing the

43:51male mask and about to be [ __ ] killed

43:54then deal with the not knowing even

43:56though it's the not knowing that

43:58preserves the possibility that you might

43:59just get a pass

44:01from that praying mantis

44:04anxiety is that painful

44:06and you may also recall

44:09other places and other techniques that

44:12suggest in hell

44:14you know what i bet half the people on

44:16this call

44:17see this all the time in the first

44:19couple of sessions when they meet with a

44:21new patient

44:23they show up

44:25and they're trying to figure you out

44:28what do you want from me

44:31and they may even put it like that what

44:33do you want from me i've come here i i'm

44:35telling you what's on my mind and you're

44:37ignoring me

44:38you're not aren't you going to write any

44:40of this down like isn't this the [ __ ]

44:41you want me to say don't you want to

44:43hear from me that x y and z

44:46that what do you want from me moment

44:48in the early stages of an analysis

44:51is kind of like anxiety

44:54i know you want something

44:56and i know that you want it from me

45:00because we're the only two people in

45:01this room

45:02but i have no idea what i am for that

45:04desire

45:06so why don't you just [ __ ] tell me

45:09you know what's wrong with me and you

45:11know what you want so why don't you just

45:13come out and tell me

45:15and if we want to universalize it

45:17further

45:18we might also

45:20read this into interpersonal

45:22relationships intimate relationships

45:25where the conversation

45:27argument however you want to call it

45:30devolves into what do you [ __ ] want

45:32from me

45:34you told me to do this i did that what

45:37the [ __ ] do you want from me you're

45:38still unhappy i did what you said this

45:40is what you told me to do what the [ __ ]

45:42do you want from me

45:45the true answer to that question

45:48as we learn the subversion of the

45:50subject essay

45:52is i don't know

45:54i don't know what i want from you

45:56my desire is as opaque to me

46:00as yours is to you

46:03and that's almost a scarier place to be

46:05because remember the neurotic is going

46:07to be somebody who says oh come on big

46:09other

46:10i know you know deep down what it is you

46:13want

46:15so let's just come out with it

46:18here

46:19the

46:20enigma of desire

46:22the obscurity

46:24of one's relationship to the object

46:27cause

46:29of their longing

46:34is completely

46:36avoided

46:38and

46:39displaced at the level of the demand

46:43enough of your desire tell me what you

46:46want issue a demand

46:50the neurotic rather than deal with the

46:52enigmas of the other's desire

46:55will do everything they can to press

46:58the other to deliver a demand instead

47:03and you'll recall this is also something

47:05that comes up early in the seminar

47:09lacan says though

47:10the subject can push the big other

47:14from desire to demand issue with demand

47:16tell me what you want tell me what you

47:17want

47:18only so many times before they reach the

47:21bottom of the barrel of demand the d

47:24zero

47:25as le khan refers to it

47:27at which point the big other can only

47:30say

47:31what the neurotic hoped

47:33the big other wouldn't say which is

47:36show me

47:38you're castrated

47:40you want to know what i want from you

47:42you want to know what i want you to do

47:44for me

47:46i want you to tell me the story of your

47:48castration one more time

47:53so the great horror

47:56that

47:57the pervert embraces

48:00in the graph of desire when they turn

48:02from fantasy up to a signal of the lack

48:05of the big other

48:09is also what the neurotic tries to avoid

48:11when they turn left out of fantasy if

48:13you're looking at the graph of desire

48:15and back down into a world where the big

48:18other has all the answers

48:21here at the level of the demand so if

48:23you look at the graph of desire this is

48:25exactly what you see

48:29it's in part

48:31how we can read this here's desire over

48:33here

48:36here's fantasy

48:39when the cookie of fantasy starts to

48:41crumble the subject has two options

48:45the pervert fully embraces

48:50any signal that the other lacks

48:53and is like let me plug that hole for

48:56you i'm the plug for your whole

48:59the pervert is very quickly going to

49:01make this move

49:02this is the move however that horrifies

49:08the neurotic

49:09they would much rather pass

49:11from here

49:13back down into a world

49:18where the other has all the answers

49:24you know this world you've been there

49:28this is the recursive

49:30cycle of demand that lacon talks about

49:33the neurotic

49:35endeavors to try and stave off

49:38what

49:39deep down we all know the big desirous

49:43other actually wants

49:47show me

49:49show me that you're castrated i don't

49:51just want the cause of your desire

49:55i want you to signal to me

49:58the cut

50:00that

50:01opened that cause

50:04show me

50:05the stumble

50:06show me your fall

50:09and

50:10there's a simple answer

50:13to the question of why this is so

50:14difficult for the neurotic

50:17the neurotic is somebody

50:20who

50:20has a strong ego

50:24unfortunately there are techniques out

50:26there that want to make that ego even

50:28stronger

50:29which is why lacan is so down on ego

50:31psychology in his day

50:33the ego for lacan is something to be

50:35hacked back

50:37cut through

50:38ignored [ __ ] with

50:41that's not what the ego wants

50:43but the ego wants is to be a subject

50:47whole complete self-sufficient in

50:50control i'm the ego

50:55what the ego papers over

50:58with this gesture is the fact that they

51:00are not a subject but in fact an object

51:04that they are not autonomous but in fact

51:07heteronomous

51:09that in other words

51:11they are not these

51:14self-sufficient independent

51:17coherent beings but instead split

51:20subjects what the ego papers over is

51:24split subjectivity

51:27and the cause of split

51:30subjectivity is castration

51:34that's why lacan says that in fits of

51:37anxiety

51:38what is made to appear where the object

51:42causes of our desire used to be

51:45is a signal of our castration

51:47and it's difficult for the ego to show

51:49up like that

51:50because that is precisely what the ego

51:53works so hard

51:55to ignore about itself

52:00now

52:01this is not

52:02a lecture on

52:05early to mid 50s lacan where he's really

52:08working up

52:09a theory of the ego

52:11the best riff on this for my money

52:14you can delve into the first two

52:16seminars

52:17they're great there's a lot of good

52:18stuff in there

52:19but

52:20his

52:21manifesto on psychoanalysis

52:24the function in the field of speech and

52:26language and psychoanalysis from the mid

52:2850s

52:29that's the essay to read

52:31if you're looking for that summer read

52:33and you really just want to know at root

52:35what lacan is doing with psychoanalysis

52:39it's all right there

52:40in what we now know as the manifesto for

52:43lacanian psychoanalysis

52:45if field in the function of speech and

52:47language in psychoanalysis from the mid

52:4950s

52:50in there you get terrific rifts on how

52:53the ego operates

52:56why it's so fragile

52:58all the traps that occur in analysis

53:02when the analyzand shows up

53:06and asks you to validate their ego

53:11in more than one way

53:13that's a topic for another day and if we

53:15wanted to do a whole series where we're

53:16just reading key essays in a cree

53:20we can do it

53:21now bruce fink has done a great job of

53:23this you can read great

53:26essayistic commentaries on what lacan is

53:29doing in some of these key moments in

53:31his writings in decree

53:34one of the things that i've been doing

53:35as some of you know

53:36is delivering a series of lectures

53:39around

53:40on minor essays

53:42in decree

53:44the major ones have been covered but a

53:46lot of the minor essays there's still

53:47some weird [ __ ] happening in there

53:50people don't talk about it people don't

53:52read them people read the biggies and

53:53then they dip

53:56one of the biggies that's definitely

53:57worth the read

53:58is this essay from the 50s this

54:00manifesto where he works out the ego so

54:02i'll leave that there

54:04as summer reading for you

54:07but just to know that this regressive

54:09cycle of demand

54:11is pursued

54:13by the ego function

54:16which the neurotic subject has in spades

54:24that was another great question

54:27i see in the comments here david says

54:28not universal cause

54:30the psychotic doesn't experience

54:35one the

54:36psychotic what the other wants

54:38delusionally

54:40kind that one's directed at you if

54:41you're looking at the comments

54:45i saw that i just didn't have the

54:49dual mental capacity to track with you

54:51and figure out what the [ __ ] to make

54:52that make of that

54:55i'm not sure

54:59when you say not universal cause is

55:01cause here short for because

55:04or are you talking about causality

55:09short for because i'm reading it but i

55:11want to be clear

55:13yeah

55:14okay

55:16so anxiety being not universal to the

55:19psychotic because they don't

55:22have to grapple with desires everything

55:26yeah

55:27that would make sense

55:31but here's the thing

55:36i saw a guy on the corner the other day

55:39so i live in downtown san francisco the

55:41mission district there's all kinds of

55:42crazy [ __ ] going on here and the

55:44homelessness stuff is off the charts

55:46mental health issues are off the charts

55:48the substance abuse is off the charts

55:51i saw a guy the other day standing on

55:53the corner in a bathrobe clearly

55:54struggling shoeless

55:57but what he was struggling with

55:58fundamentally was a

56:00newspaper it's been extremely windy in

56:03the bay area

56:04and as i'm writing by this guy i get

56:06caught up the light so i'm like you know

56:08giving him an eye let's see what's going

56:09on he's got this newspaper and he's

56:11trying to read it ostensibly and the

56:13wind keeps whipping it and so he uses

56:16the wind to fold the newspaper and then

56:18he holds it up like a flag and lets the

56:20wind kind of flap it along and then he

56:22chops it with his hand to produce

56:24another fold in the newspaper

56:26and it was almost like he was

56:29struggling

56:30to fold this newspaper against the wind

56:34and moving in a kind of slow-motion

56:36fashion the likes of which i've only

56:38ever experienced in a nightmare

56:41that we often refer to as an anxiety

56:44dream

56:45where i'm trying to get somewhere and i

56:47can't get there i'm trying to walk down

56:50the stairs and i'm stumbling

56:52now what lacan's going to say is

56:54all dreams especially nightmares are

56:57going to have these elements of bodily

56:59fragmentation

57:01because that's where we all started deep

57:03down we know we are still fragmented

57:06bodies looking in the mirror

57:09discombobulated as we were at the age of

57:11six months

57:14deep down we are not only split subjects

57:17but fragmented bodies just a pile of

57:19parts that are relatively incoherent

57:22and lacan says the truth of this appears

57:25all the time at the level of the

57:26nightmare

57:27the nightmare is one usually in which

57:29your body is falling apart

57:32your world is falling apart

57:34your motor skills are dissolving

57:38what i saw in the case of this person

57:40who struck me on surface as psychotic

57:45was that they were living an anxiety

57:48dream

57:49it wasn't just like it happened last

57:51night and now we're back to reality it's

57:53like every [ __ ] day of this guy's

57:55life i imagine

57:57is that anxiety dream he lives

58:00that anxiety dream now can we call it

58:03technically anxiety

58:05i don't know

58:06but that experience

58:09of bodily discombobulation

58:12that we usually refer to as an anxiety

58:14dream not being able to get somewhere

58:17impedements of every sort

58:21is one that it would seem accessible to

58:24the psychotic

58:26but

58:26let's pause on that

58:28we still got ground to cover tonight and

58:30i want to also let you know

58:33that i have a whole series of lectures

58:35that are being transcribed right now

58:37on seminar three on the psychosis

58:41they're going to be posted on youtube

58:42soon

58:43so you can read lacan's seminal work on

58:46psychosis

58:49and if you need help along the way it's

58:51all tagged by chapter so if you read a

58:54difficult chapter

58:55you can go to youtube click on ideally

58:58click on the lecture and have some

59:00guidance through that chapter

59:02i'm not saying it's going to be good

59:04guidance

59:06but i'm saying it's going to be there

59:08so hold off on the psychosis stuff i

59:11know you all are interested in that

59:13um

59:14i promise i'll deliver some lectures and

59:16i'll post them for you so you can watch

59:18them and eventually we'll have some

59:19transcripts out as well to circulate

59:22i haven't looked at the transcripts yet

59:25i need to still determine how

59:27significantly a pile of [ __ ] they are

59:30before i i put them on the interweb

59:34you're right though um oliver that

59:36castration is a precondition for anxiety

59:39and the psychotic utterly rejects

59:42castration yeah the name of the father

59:44is

59:46almost perfectly

59:48foreclosed

59:49by the psychotic

59:53i see dave it's got one more typing up

59:55here

59:57i see you know you're coming back to

59:59this point

1:00:00um

1:00:02yeah that's the thing

1:00:06trevor does know what god wants from him

1:00:09he knows he's god's wife

1:00:11he knows that god wants to [ __ ] left

1:00:14right and sideways

1:00:16he knows this now i don't know if we

1:00:18could say that it's knowledge

1:00:23this is operating in the field

1:00:27he has knowledge of what the other wants

1:00:30what i know about psychosis from lacan

1:00:34and knowledge

1:00:35is that it really turns more on

1:00:39on the

1:00:40privacy of that knowledge

1:00:44the truth

1:00:46of the psychotics knowledge

1:00:52the vitality and viability of what they

1:00:54quote know

1:00:57is propped up by the fact that only they

1:01:01get to know it

1:01:03so

1:01:04example

1:01:05the psychotic hears a voice in their

1:01:07head

1:01:08they know that you don't hear that voice

1:01:12but they do

1:01:14and you can see this all the time

1:01:15walking down the street [ __ ] be

1:01:17having a moment on the corner and you

1:01:19walk by looking half civilized

1:01:22and they quiet you know maybe even

1:01:23button up a shirt and be like hello

1:01:26and then as soon as you round the corner

1:01:27you hear them right back

1:01:29getting after their dead mom or god or

1:01:31colonel sanders or whoever the [ __ ]

1:01:32they're talking with

1:01:35now they know that you can hear them

1:01:38what they also know is that you can't

1:01:40hear the voices that they hear

1:01:43what that proves to them though

1:01:48is not necessarily or let's just say not

1:01:52just that they know what god wants

1:01:55the aliens the nsa

1:01:58but they know that god

1:02:00the aliens the nsa

1:02:02only wants it from them

1:02:05the fact that they can hear the voice

1:02:07but you can't is proof that they're the

1:02:09chosen one

1:02:12not you

1:02:14there's no doubt that the voice is real

1:02:18and that certainty

1:02:20is propped up

1:02:24by the psychotic knowledge that they can

1:02:26hear what you can't

1:02:28so knowledge for the psychotic is a

1:02:30weird [ __ ] place to be

1:02:32and it hinges on a kind of like

1:02:34solipsistic privacy

1:02:37and a relationship to certainty that's

1:02:39very different from the neurotic this is

1:02:41all stuff that i cover in my

1:02:43commentaries on seminar 3.

1:02:45put a pin in this hold off i promise

1:02:47i'll hook it up soon

1:02:50are we good to take next steps where do

1:02:52we find ourselves

1:02:57we have time for another question or two

1:02:58if somebody's got one

1:03:00oliver's got something cracking

1:03:02i have one um

1:03:05how does lacon interpret anxiety when

1:03:07there isn't another present so like i'm

1:03:09thinking about i have friends who can't

1:03:11smoke weed because they get anxiety

1:03:13attacks just chilling in their room by

1:03:15themselves like what does the khan make

1:03:17of anxiety without another present

1:03:21man that is so interesting right because

1:03:24it does hinge on this question of

1:03:26psychosis

1:03:27and because we know that one of the

1:03:29sub-clinical structures of psychosis

1:03:32would be like paranoia

1:03:34but we also know that there's this

1:03:36debate among lacanians about whether you

1:03:38can have bleed over between clinical

1:03:40structures

1:03:42you can have the underlying clinical

1:03:43structure of a psychotic but show up as

1:03:45an erotic for lots of your life

1:03:49but the challenge here

1:03:51is

1:03:52what do we do

1:03:54in a case like the one described

1:03:56where it's a regular person smoking weed

1:03:59presumably

1:04:00neurotic but then having a [ __ ]

1:04:02paranoid moment

1:04:06what lacana is going to say about the

1:04:08big other here is also what he's going

1:04:10to say about mirrors you don't need to

1:04:12actually have one in their room

1:04:16to have the experience

1:04:18of being before one

1:04:21so part of what we know for instance

1:04:24about

1:04:25the ego ideal

1:04:27symbolized capital i

1:04:29next to capital a and parens it's in the

1:04:32bottom left-hand quadrant of the graph

1:04:34of desire

1:04:36note i'm not talking about the ideal ego

1:04:38which is the specular i'm talking about

1:04:39the ego ideal which is an introjected

1:04:43understanding of the law and order of

1:04:46the symbolic it's already inside you

1:04:49we might refer to this as conscience

1:04:52it's certainly what props up or provides

1:04:55material

1:04:56to the superego

1:04:59because

1:05:00the

1:05:01ego ideal is full of all the

1:05:03expectations and rules

1:05:06and regulations and standards for i

1:05:08don't know being a woman being a man

1:05:11all the things you have to live up to in

1:05:13order to meet those

1:05:16gendered categories in order to satisfy

1:05:18the requirements but here's the deal

1:05:21nobody is ever man enough

1:05:25nobody is ever feminine enough

1:05:29and as a result the ego always feels

1:05:31like they fail to live up

1:05:33to the ideals

1:05:36of society

1:05:38the ego never lives up

1:05:42to the ego ideal

1:05:44the super ego rushes in as a punisher

1:05:48to say look at you you [ __ ] failure

1:05:53as a sensor why don't you get your [ __ ]

1:05:55together

1:05:56it's that voice inside your head that

1:05:58says

1:05:59be better be faster be stronger

1:06:03you suck this is proof that you suck

1:06:06look at you you [ __ ] mess

1:06:08we all have these voices in our heads

1:06:11lacan's point is that that is a voice of

1:06:14the big other

1:06:16of the symbolic of society that has been

1:06:18introjected brought inside and now does

1:06:21the work

1:06:22of censorship and constraint that the

1:06:25symbolic on its worst days

1:06:29does for those it's supposed to

1:06:30otherwise contain and help give identity

1:06:32to

1:06:34so even though this person's getting

1:06:36high by themselves and having a [ __ ]

1:06:38paranoic moment

1:06:41the big other is always there

1:06:44it's always already there by the time

1:06:46you can roll a joint

1:06:48the big other is there

1:06:50inside you it doesn't need to show up as

1:06:52a praying mantis as a desirous

1:06:55little other in other words an

1:06:56embodiment of the big other

1:06:58the big other as such is never going to

1:07:01walk up your driveway and knock on your

1:07:02door

1:07:03it doesn't work like that it's society

1:07:07it's principle

1:07:08it's law it's order law and order aren't

1:07:11going to come

1:07:13and hit you over the head with a stick

1:07:15but a cop will

1:07:17a cop is a little o other

1:07:20that has embodied or at least been

1:07:22allowed to embody the authority of the

1:07:26big other and that voice inside your

1:07:28head is also a little other

1:07:31that has come to embody the big o others

1:07:34standards

1:07:36so

1:07:37even if you're by yourself getting high

1:07:38and there is no praying mantis like

1:07:41body in the room

1:07:43you can still have that paranoiaic

1:07:44moment

1:07:45and i would just add this as well and

1:07:47answer to the question of whether there

1:07:49can be crossover between the clinical

1:07:51structures

1:07:52the ego has a fundamentally paranoiic

1:07:55structure

1:07:57what else is narcissism but an

1:07:58attenuated form of paranoia

1:08:02and here's the deal

1:08:04i'm not making this [ __ ] up

1:08:06this is what lachan says the ego is

1:08:10fundamentally paranoid

1:08:12and you see this pronounced when the ego

1:08:15gives way to the narcissistic capture

1:08:18that it usually operates on whether or

1:08:20not it has a mirror in front of

1:08:22it so what i want to suggest here is

1:08:25that there's a continuum between

1:08:28neurosis and psychosis

1:08:31that can allow for extreme fits of

1:08:34anxiety

1:08:36for those friends who can't smoke

1:08:40to the point

1:08:41of even seeming like this is anxiety on

1:08:43the verge of paranoia

1:08:45so i say this as

1:08:48in the spirit of dialectical response

1:08:52to what we heard

1:08:54about the psychotic

1:08:56and their experience of anxiety

1:08:59as a living nightmare

1:09:01now here what we're talking about is the

1:09:02neurotic and their experience of

1:09:04paranoia

1:09:07a neurotic structure anxiety

1:09:09finding expression

1:09:11at the level of psychosis and a

1:09:13psychotic structure paranoia finding

1:09:16expression at the level of neurosis

1:09:19that

1:09:20strikes me

1:09:22as truer to lacan's

1:09:25system

1:09:26i cannot speak to this clinically

1:09:29i can speak to it conceptually and

1:09:32that's my job here is to show up and

1:09:35help with the conceptual stuff

1:09:38in hopes

1:09:39and this is my great hope that you all

1:09:41will then take some of this

1:09:44and help other

1:09:46people all i would want is for one

1:09:49person on these calls

1:09:52to take one element of lecon

1:09:55and use it

1:09:57to help a patient

1:09:59whatever it is to help a friend

1:10:01i don't even care

1:10:02but i know that the people that are here

1:10:05are clinicians practicing and aspiring

1:10:08for the most part

1:10:10and and and my goal is to just

1:10:16some of this as much as i can to an

1:10:18additional resource available to you

1:10:21and i think the great contribution here

1:10:23is to know that a lot of the forms and

1:10:26functions that we see happening at the

1:10:27level of psychosis

1:10:29have attenuated variance in the field of

1:10:31neurosis

1:10:33and some of the forms and functions that

1:10:36we see in neurotic personalities

1:10:38according to lacan

1:10:40find extreme form

1:10:42in case of psychosis

1:10:45i think that's it that's a fairly um

1:10:48uh

1:10:49true statement

1:10:52i see one more question here does

1:10:53anxiety unveil the omnipresent other

1:10:56of the symbolic for the neurotic who has

1:10:58sublimated

1:11:01the other into themselves

1:11:03what the hell kind of question is this

1:11:05does anxiety unveil

1:11:08already this thing is [ __ ] up already

1:11:11this thing is like mind warping does

1:11:13anxiety unveil and it's in quotation

1:11:15marks too

1:11:16david you're an amazing [ __ ] [ __ ]

1:11:20this is great i love it does anxiety

1:11:22unveil the or whoever typed that that's

1:11:25the thing too is like it's cody and

1:11:26david on the call we don't even [ __ ]

1:11:28know it's cody cody got the book over

1:11:30his face but it's under david's name

1:11:33you guys are

1:11:34coming

1:11:36amazing

1:11:37okay society unveil the omnipresent

1:11:40other

1:11:41of the symbolic for the neurotic who has

1:11:43sublimated the other into themselves do

1:11:46you mean

1:11:47reveal the omnipresent other as

1:11:50a neurotic or

1:11:52does anxiety allow a neurotic subject

1:11:55to see

1:11:57the omnipresent other

1:11:59in a different way

1:12:02more than seeing i was thinking

1:12:05that even if the

1:12:07neurotic has forgotten the other anxiety

1:12:09somehow allows it to show up

1:12:13that's great and what i like about it

1:12:15too and and i see now in some sense why

1:12:17you've put unveil in question marks

1:12:19because it's a very high dagarian way to

1:12:21spin this

1:12:22around the question of concealment and

1:12:24unconcealment veiling and unveiling

1:12:27closure and disclosure covering and

1:12:30discovering all these heidigarian moves

1:12:34where he suggests that anxiety is going

1:12:37to give the ordinary person

1:12:40a brief fleeting glimpse

1:12:44of the truth

1:12:45of the nothing that they are

1:12:47and of the [ __ ] that is society

1:12:49the problem though is it's so brief and

1:12:51so fleeting in heidegger that we we then

1:12:54get this term return back to oh it was

1:12:55nothing

1:12:56you recall that passage famously

1:12:59from being in time when anxiety strikes

1:13:01the neurotic is going to respond oh that

1:13:03was just nothing and hiatage's point

1:13:05again is

1:13:06you're exactly right that's precisely

1:13:08what just showed up in your life you

1:13:10just got a glimpse of it and here you

1:13:12are shrugging it off

1:13:15if we're going to read lacan in this way

1:13:16it does bring him into line with this

1:13:18tradition from kirkagor to heidegger

1:13:22a very existential phenomenological

1:13:24tradition in which anxiety provides

1:13:26access to a kind of authentic existence

1:13:29as they used to put it

1:13:31and and produces things like um

1:13:34authentic speech

1:13:36but

1:13:37um

1:13:38i don't know how much of that we can get

1:13:40out of le con here what we do know at

1:13:43this point

1:13:44is that anxiety is going to put us on

1:13:47the path to something more

1:13:51enjoyable

1:13:53something that does have a little more

1:13:55truth to it

1:13:57for the subject

1:13:59and the field of experience analytic and

1:14:01otherwise

1:14:02so i think there is something to be had

1:14:04here

1:14:05um my goal in the second half of our

1:14:07time tonight it's gonna is gonna be to

1:14:09see how close i can come

1:14:11to un to unveiling that for us i don't

1:14:14know that i'll be able to

1:14:16but i think there are some key passages

1:14:18that we can see

1:14:19um

1:14:22is there a revealing that is a revealing

1:14:26you know they answer that question the

1:14:27answer is yes and i'm just going to

1:14:29treat it as a yes or no question so the

1:14:30answer is yes

1:14:32amazing yes

1:14:35in fact run the etymology on veil

1:14:39veal

1:14:40and by veal of course i mean the meat

1:14:43okay

1:14:44uh

1:14:45what time is it y'all i've got 7 25 do

1:14:47you want to take 10 now and then come

1:14:49back

1:14:52okay

1:14:53take 10

1:14:54and then come on back and um and we'll

1:14:56spend the second half working on the

1:14:58drive

1:14:59this field of juice

1:15:01that is beyond anxiety that's the goal

1:15:05more in a minute

1:24:37all right y'all welcome back

1:24:39it's 7

1:24:4135.

1:24:45and i want to start by jumping back into

1:24:48the formulas that we were just messing

1:24:50with

1:24:51here on

1:24:53our black erase

1:24:56board so as you can see here we've got

1:24:59desire

1:25:01mapped as such

1:25:02anxiety marches this backwards just

1:25:07reverses the cycle again except at the

1:25:09level of the drive

1:25:11so let's see if we can put ourselves on

1:25:14some forward movement here

1:25:19at the level of desire

1:25:22that we were just

1:25:23showing here

1:25:25castration is experienced as something

1:25:27negative

1:25:28as a subtraction of sorts

1:25:31and it's negative in the sense that it

1:25:33leaves us lacking

1:25:36castration leaves us lacking and as a

1:25:39result it leaves something to be desired

1:25:42in other words it leaves us desirous

1:25:46castration at the level of desire here

1:25:49formulated on our

1:25:52blackboard

1:25:53is experienced as

1:25:55a negation

1:25:57castration is a subtractive

1:26:00process

1:26:02when anxiety comes along castration

1:26:05becomes something positive

1:26:07a positive signal

1:26:09and it's not for us any longer

1:26:12now it's a positive

1:26:14element for

1:26:16someone else's desire

1:26:20and because this negation has been

1:26:22positivized if you will

1:26:26it does not leave

1:26:29us lacking

1:26:30it does not leave something to be

1:26:32desired we are not left desirous were

1:26:35instead left without lack

1:26:37where lack was now something has

1:26:40appeared

1:26:41a sign of our castration

1:26:44and this feeling is not desire

1:26:47but anxiety

1:26:49and then here at the top what we have is

1:26:51a reclamation of this negativity

1:26:55where this negative this positivity has

1:26:57been negativized and marched back

1:27:01to this zero if you will which might be

1:27:04more helpful here even than a positive

1:27:07or a negative that is object a

1:27:10you might say that here's the negation

1:27:13here's the positivation and then here

1:27:15what you have is this mediating function

1:27:18of a redeemed as zero

1:27:22this remainder element if you will

1:27:25now what i want to do is talk a little

1:27:27bit about

1:27:28this a

1:27:32it is one of the central themes

1:27:35of this seminar

1:27:38and it's at this point in lacan's

1:27:41seminar

1:27:42that

1:27:44object a takes on properties of the real

1:27:47and here's how i want us to understand

1:27:49that once more is that when the subject

1:27:53of pure need the baby

1:27:56is developmentally brought into the

1:27:58field of the symbolic with all its norms

1:28:00rules languages and codes

1:28:04there's always

1:28:05part of them

1:28:06that cannot find expression

1:28:09in the symbolic there's something in

1:28:11there that resists symbolization

1:28:14and this is the brute materiality

1:28:17of the subject of pure need

1:28:21this is that bodily scrap or that

1:28:23corporal morsel

1:28:26that is ejected from the symbolic

1:28:29not to say that it lands on the outside

1:28:31but that it's buried under [ __ ]

1:28:34on the inside it's an excellent element

1:28:38x meaning out

1:28:40to mit part is referring to intimacy

1:28:42there's something excellent about this

1:28:44experience

1:28:46and again because object a is always

1:28:50first and foremost something bodily a

1:28:52corporal morsel a remainder of the

1:28:54process a bodily remainder of the

1:28:57process

1:28:58known as castration

1:29:00it's no surprise that desire

1:29:04which is caused by this entity

1:29:08is bodily it's

1:29:11the desire of a body for another body

1:29:16lacan uses the expression for instance

1:29:18um i want your heart

1:29:21which can be an expression of love i

1:29:23want you to love me

1:29:26but of course in traditional lacanian

1:29:29terms we read it to the letter

1:29:32i don't just want you to love me i want

1:29:34to reach inside your [ __ ] chest

1:29:37and pull out the organ

1:29:40that sustains your body

1:29:42i actually want your body part

1:29:46literally

1:29:47and not just to enjoy it like to the

1:29:49point of enjoying it as you die so think

1:29:52about this with the vampirism example

1:29:54too

1:29:56i've told you earlier

1:29:58that the drive is somehow caught up in

1:30:00this

1:30:01now what we want to do is focus on how

1:30:04because i've told you that the jewish

1:30:06thoughts that is reached outside of

1:30:08anxiety

1:30:10is desire

1:30:12satisfied partially at the level of the

1:30:14drive

1:30:15so what is the drive

1:30:18the drive is a partial satisfaction of

1:30:21desire

1:30:23each drive is

1:30:25anchored in an erogenous zone

1:30:28that is effectively an opening in the

1:30:30human body

1:30:31and it always the drive moves out

1:30:35and around in a circuitous way a partial

1:30:38object that is always at some level a

1:30:40body part

1:30:44it's a it runs a repetitive circuit of

1:30:47enjoyment around a partial object

1:30:51which is always a body part this is how

1:30:53the drive operates

1:30:55and here's what i want to suggest to you

1:30:58in one of our final moves of this

1:31:00lecture series

1:31:02if desire defends against anxiety

1:31:06the drive outstrips it

1:31:10delivering us over to shui songs

1:31:15if desire defends against anxiety

1:31:19the drive outstrips anxiety

1:31:23it outlives anxiety

1:31:25if you read to lose

1:31:28and this is why

1:31:30lacan

1:31:31is putting all of the drives

1:31:34the four basic ones

1:31:36on display at the end of this seminar

1:31:40in each case

1:31:42oral anal scopic invocatory the four

1:31:46basic drives

1:31:48we see a way to seed

1:31:51partial objects

1:31:53to produce little a's

1:31:56that the drive can then circulate around

1:31:59whether your drive is oral anal scopic

1:32:02invocatory or hell even phallic

1:32:06lacan at the end of this seminar is

1:32:09turning towards all of these other ways

1:32:12that little a's

1:32:13as bodily scraps are produced

1:32:16in order to cue up the drive and you'll

1:32:19remember seminar 11 where we're going

1:32:22from here

1:32:23one of the four fundamental concepts of

1:32:25psychoanalysis discussed in seminar 11

1:32:28is the drive

1:32:29he's got it on his mind at the end of

1:32:31seminar 10 and it becomes a central

1:32:33theme in seminar 11 which is partly why

1:32:36we're going to read 11.

1:32:38okay so let's talk about this one more

1:32:40time how it happens

1:32:42the subject of pure need

1:32:44this presuppositional

1:32:46wholly embodied being that we know we

1:32:48all were at one point is asked to

1:32:51find their place in the symbolic in the

1:32:54big other a world of law and order and

1:32:56language

1:32:58what happens in this moment is that the

1:33:00highly embodied experience

1:33:03of the subject

1:33:05is brought into a signifying dialectic

1:33:08in which something is separated off

1:33:11sacrificed lacan refers to this as a

1:33:13pound of flesh what's cut out

1:33:16of the body is in many cases the body

1:33:18itself

1:33:19usually though as a pile of parts

1:33:23little a

1:33:24object a

1:33:26designates this pound of flesh for us

1:33:29it's what's been cut off

1:33:31in the process of integration into the

1:33:33symbolic known as castration or

1:33:35alienation

1:33:37it's an irreducible remainder of the

1:33:39ordeal of castration

1:33:42the division of the subject resulting in

1:33:44what we refer to as the split subject

1:33:46and and by the symbolic

1:33:49whatever else object a is here's what we

1:33:51need to know about it

1:33:53it is some body part

1:33:56even if it's another part that refers to

1:33:59your body part that resists

1:34:01signification

1:34:03it's tough to talk about

1:34:08little a symbolizes what is lost in

1:34:13by

1:34:14and i would say most importantly on

1:34:16the symbolic

1:34:18object a is what is lost on the symbolic

1:34:24and all

1:34:25who operate at that level

1:34:29again

1:34:30what we see in this seminar is lacon

1:34:32associating

1:34:33objective

1:34:35a with the real

1:34:37it's what remains of the subject

1:34:40after the advent of split subjectivity

1:34:43in the field of the symbolic

1:34:46an irreducible real element

1:34:49that's new that's new in seminar 10.

1:34:51i'll say it again

1:34:52object a

1:34:55it's what remains of the subject of pure

1:34:58need

1:34:59after the advent of split subjectivity

1:35:04that's where you're going to find object

1:35:06a and there are lots of them

1:35:13the drive

1:35:14i've told you is a partial manifestation

1:35:18and realization of desire

1:35:22every drive circulates around a partial

1:35:24object

1:35:25and all partial objects are stand-ins

1:35:28for object a that's why we're talking

1:35:31about this so what i want to do instead

1:35:33of yammering i want to do a little bit

1:35:35of drawing here

1:35:38you know how we like to do it

1:35:41so what i'm going to do is

1:35:42per usual i'm going to save what we've

1:35:44got

1:35:46and start again

1:35:51don't forget the theme in psychoanalysis

1:35:54is say it again say it better

1:36:04so here's a quick riff on the drives

1:36:08let's see if we can just chart some of

1:36:10this stuff out

1:36:15there's a drive

1:36:18four in particular get a lot of

1:36:20attention

1:36:22and they all are popping at the end of

1:36:24the seminar which is why i'm dealing

1:36:25with this

1:36:27here

1:36:35oral anal scopic and invocatory

1:36:38the drive is an operation

1:36:40and they each

1:36:42emerge

1:36:44from a specific erogenous zone

1:36:47and again all these erogenous zones have

1:36:49similar structures their openings in the

1:36:51human body that usually no i'd say

1:36:54always have a rim-like structure

1:36:56in the case of the oral drive it's the

1:36:58mouth in particular the lips

1:37:02anal drive it's the ass

1:37:04particularly the anus scopic drive it's

1:37:08the eyes in particular i'd say the

1:37:10eyelids but we can just write eyes here

1:37:13an invocatory it's the ears

1:37:16invocatory here has to do with speaking

1:37:19and hearing speech and hearing

1:37:23each drive is also going to have a

1:37:25partial object

1:37:30some

1:37:31physical element

1:37:33that stands in

1:37:35as a representative of a

1:37:38the object cause of desire at the level

1:37:40of the drive gets attached

1:37:43to a specific object

1:37:46in the case of the oral drive the

1:37:49stereotypical object you know

1:37:52is the breast

1:37:56so

1:37:58if there's an oral drive here

1:38:00you will find stand-ins for the

1:38:02experience of lips seeking out a breast

1:38:10the anal drive the anus the partial

1:38:13object is [ __ ]

1:38:17feces

1:38:18that's the partial object if you have an

1:38:20anal drive what you will see

1:38:22are [ __ ] like functions

1:38:25where the product

1:38:26is treated as some sort of a strange

1:38:28gift all the more so the more obsessive

1:38:30you are

1:38:32the scopic drive the partial object that

1:38:35exists as a manifestation of object a as

1:38:38the cause of desire

1:38:42is the gaze

1:38:43now remember the gaze here is not

1:38:47a position where somebody's watching you

1:38:49from it's a position of being seen

1:38:51potentially being seen

1:38:54whether or not you're being seen or not

1:38:56the partial object of the invocatory

1:38:58drive

1:38:59as you heard me just say

1:39:01is the voice

1:39:03now each drive is also going to have a

1:39:05series of verb tenses that go with it

1:39:09and the verb tenses are going to be

1:39:12active

1:39:14passive

1:39:18and reflexive

1:39:21here's what that means

1:39:23the verb that goes with the oral drive

1:39:26is sucking

1:39:30and the way that works is

1:39:32if you have an oral drive

1:39:34what you get off on

1:39:36is the active

1:39:38process of sucking

1:39:41it can be like smoking cigarettes

1:39:45for instance drinking

1:39:48the passive experience of being sucked

1:39:52i'll let you figure that one out for

1:39:54yourself

1:39:55and then the reflexive experience of

1:39:58wait for it

1:39:59sucking on oneself

1:40:02now i'm not saying that you're going

1:40:04around giving your arms hickeys and [ __ ]

1:40:06the oral drive here could be manifested

1:40:08at the level of nail biting

1:40:13any sort of auto cannibalism that we

1:40:16engage in on a regular basis that time

1:40:18when you tasted your own blood just to

1:40:20see what it tastes like

1:40:25this reflexive voice is to suck oneself

1:40:29you will get off in some way on eating

1:40:31parts of yourself ingesting them through

1:40:34the lips kissing yourself licking your

1:40:36fingers after you're eating those are

1:40:38all reflexive verbalizations of an oral

1:40:42drive

1:40:43you know people that lick their fingers

1:40:46that's the oral drive at work

1:40:48now i'm not saying that they're licking

1:40:50their fingers because they've had them

1:40:51on breasts

1:40:53the breast is just like an original

1:40:55partial object around which the original

1:40:58manifestation of the drive at the level

1:41:01of the lips typically circulated

1:41:04there are lots of stand-ins for the

1:41:05breast

1:41:07the drink

1:41:08the cigarette and before it look at the

1:41:11trajectory from nipple

1:41:13to bottle to pacifier to thumb notice

1:41:18this the thumb sucker is somebody who

1:41:21gets off on sucking themselves

1:41:23and the thumb sucker can oftentimes

1:41:25become the nail biter this is the drive

1:41:27at work

1:41:29now we can go on the anal drive with the

1:41:32anus and the obsession with feces you

1:41:34know the verb here it's to [ __ ]

1:41:40lacan spends a lot of time in these last

1:41:43few lectures here talking about the anal

1:41:45drive and the commandment the demand

1:41:48that the big other issues

1:41:50to the potty training child which is

1:41:52[ __ ]

1:41:53on the one hand hold it and then [ __ ]

1:41:57as a commandment

1:42:04is to see

1:42:05if you have a scopic drive you get off

1:42:08on viewing things you may be a

1:42:11photographer you may enjoy going to art

1:42:13museums you may enjoy a good sunset

1:42:16instagram could be your medium

1:42:19you also are going to enjoy being seen

1:42:22you don't just go to instagram to look

1:42:24at others posting beautiful things you

1:42:27oftentimes like to see who has liked

1:42:30your posts

1:42:31who is actually enjoying watching you

1:42:34do what you do

1:42:36online

1:42:37and then reflexive too is not just

1:42:41looking at others pictures of themselves

1:42:43and enjoying the way that they like

1:42:45yours but yourself liking your own

1:42:48images

1:42:50this is for instance somebody who may

1:42:52have an instagram

1:42:54profile that is dedicated to a series of

1:42:57lectures on a slightly obscure

1:42:59psychoanalyst who then goes to their

1:43:01personal instagram account after posting

1:43:03at the lecture site and then immediately

1:43:05likes what's just been posted

1:43:08that would be a reflexive verbalization

1:43:11if you will

1:43:13of the scopic drive the drive to see

1:43:17and then of course down here with the

1:43:19invocatory

1:43:22to here

1:43:23so this is somebody who enjoys listening

1:43:26to music always has their headphones in

1:43:29actively listening all the time

1:43:31this is somebody who also

1:43:34loves to yammer

1:43:37here is the lecturer

1:43:39for example

1:43:42it's also somebody who enjoys being

1:43:44hammered at in the passive voice

1:43:47who likes being talked to

1:43:50but also somebody in the reflexive voice

1:43:52who enjoys hearing themselves speak

1:43:56now some of the things that have come up

1:43:58in our seminar here

1:44:01have to do

1:44:03the scopic drive

1:44:05in fact it's probably the drive that

1:44:07gets the most attention in this seminar

1:44:10here is the chapter on buddha's eyelids

1:44:13the bodhisattva statue that has eyes

1:44:16that

1:44:18deliver a kind of gaze

1:44:20um

1:44:21here's also talk of the smudged mirror

1:44:24for instance

1:44:27the thing to note

1:44:28is that all of these are going to be

1:44:30openings

1:44:33in the human body

1:44:35all of these

1:44:38in other words places where cuts emerge

1:44:40and all of these

1:44:42are going to be partial objects standing

1:44:45in for that little a

1:44:50and to pursue these drives

1:44:52the wager here

1:44:54is not just to defend against anxiety

1:44:57it's to outstrip it it's to overcome it

1:45:00to reclaim

1:45:02in the field of partial objects exactly

1:45:05what anxiety tries to take from us

1:45:10now before we bring this

1:45:13into focus for lacan's final works here

1:45:17where he has this very strange archway

1:45:20that looks like the saint louis arch

1:45:24where he puts the drives i want to just

1:45:26pause for a second

1:45:28and take some questions here

1:45:32what you've got here is just a crash

1:45:34course on how the drives operate

1:45:38their partial manifestations and

1:45:40satisfactions of desire

1:45:43achieved by circulating around these

1:45:45weird partial objects

1:45:48that are always stand-ins for body parts

1:45:51that have been cast off

1:45:54set aside

1:45:55subtracted from the subject you see

1:45:59the breast is the original partial

1:46:01object for the oral drive because it is

1:46:03what is

1:46:04cut out and subtracted from the

1:46:06subject's experience in the process of

1:46:08weaning

1:46:10[ __ ] feces

1:46:12is the partial object of the anal drive

1:46:15because what else

1:46:16is [ __ ] but taking a part of your

1:46:18body

1:46:19and cutting it out snipping it loose

1:46:23and setting it aside

1:46:25getting rid of it

1:46:27the gaze remember you don't have the

1:46:30gaze

1:46:31at most you are its object it's a place

1:46:35remote from you from which you can be

1:46:37seen

1:46:42we can go on and on but the point here

1:46:44is that all of the partial objects

1:46:46around which a drive

1:46:48repetitively runs its circuit

1:46:52are bodily elements that are

1:46:55cut out

1:46:56subtracted from

1:46:58the human experience

1:47:00of the split subject

1:47:02now that's why they line up with object

1:47:04a as that irreducible bodily scrap

1:47:08that pound of flesh that is removed from

1:47:11the subject of pure need

1:47:14when they pass them through the symbolic

1:47:16that's how these two phenomena link up

1:47:20with each other it's why lacan is

1:47:23featuring the anal the scopic the oral

1:47:25and the like at the end of this seminar

1:47:28because he's trying to get us back in

1:47:30touch with all the ways

1:47:33that the split subject is constituted in

1:47:36the locus of the big other

1:47:38and in that process

1:47:40has some bodily

1:47:42scrap of theirs

1:47:46shut down

1:47:48ejected removed cut out

1:47:53and now we start talking about all the

1:47:55ways that you can then refined

1:47:57relocate those partial objects

1:48:00at the level of a

1:48:02hand to be sucked

1:48:05at the level of a cigarette to be smoked

1:48:09at the level of nails to be bitten

1:48:11you see i'm going with this this is the

1:48:13oral drive being played out

1:48:18so let's see where you're at with this

1:48:19before we start plugging it into the end

1:48:22of seminar 10 with this new graph

1:48:35all right

1:48:38i don't want to slow down

1:48:41so let's keep going here

1:48:44we're going to save this one

1:48:48even though you can find this a very

1:48:50similar map of this

1:48:52elsewhere

1:48:54in order to draw the one that lacan

1:48:57trots out for us

1:49:01and the page number in question here

1:49:05it's at the start of one of the final

1:49:07chapters

1:49:12get a couple glimpses of this thing

1:49:14yeah check out page 294.

1:49:18that's i think the clearest place where

1:49:20we see this thing coming about

1:49:25page 294.

1:49:44he gives us five

1:49:46five of these elements

1:49:52and now let's see if we can chart them

1:49:53out here

1:49:54and complexify what it is that he's

1:49:57given us because i think that's an

1:49:58important move for us to make at this

1:50:00point

1:50:07so we've got

1:50:08this

1:50:10archway that looks something like this

1:50:17down here you've got the oral

1:50:22which is laterally connected

1:50:25to the superego or the invocatory

1:50:32and i'm writing invocatory here in place

1:50:34of superego because remember what we

1:50:36talked about just a few minutes ago

1:50:39about the ego ideal as the voice inside

1:50:44the voice of conscience that links up

1:50:46with your super ego

1:50:48as that great punisher

1:50:52here we've got the anal

1:50:55which is in turn laterally connected

1:50:59to the scopic

1:51:01and then at the peak at the top of it

1:51:07we've got this really important

1:51:11drive of the phallic

1:51:13now what i'd like to suggest so far is

1:51:15that

1:51:16these lateral

1:51:20here

1:51:24illustrate a certain type of plane

1:51:27what you see down here is a vocal plane

1:51:34where the invocatory drive

1:51:36is always

1:51:38linked backwards in a regressive way

1:51:41when it does regress

1:51:43to the oral drive

1:51:45here's where you see speech here's where

1:51:48you see hearing

1:51:51here are the lips that talk and here's

1:51:53the ear that receives

1:51:55you see where i'm going with this

1:51:57up here what you have is what i would

1:51:59call a visual plane

1:52:05you might even say that this is temporal

1:52:07down here that this is spatial up here

1:52:10the scopic drive is always connected

1:52:13regressively when it does regress to the

1:52:15angle

1:52:18the desire to see is always somehow

1:52:20linked up with the desire to [ __ ]

1:52:23there's a reason why every [ __ ] you've

1:52:26ever taken

1:52:27has been witnessed by yourself

1:52:31but we're not going to get too far into

1:52:33that what we want to do is just start

1:52:35fleshing out these categories

1:52:38so here we have

1:52:40our

1:52:41four basic drives

1:52:44and this fifth one that lacan introduces

1:52:47up here is the phallic drive

1:52:49is what's going to correspond for us

1:52:51to this trajectory that gives birth to

1:52:53desire

1:52:57from castration

1:52:59to the emergence of object a

1:53:02what happens up here is the emergence of

1:53:04lack

1:53:09this is our one minus one equals zero

1:53:13here at the phallic and it is the

1:53:15turning point in this graph

1:53:19but we can also add are some elements

1:53:22down here that describe what was

1:53:23happening before

1:53:25and what was happening after

1:53:29the oral and the anal drive

1:53:32are all con are both connected

1:53:36to the field of demand

1:53:39and the scopic

1:53:40and the invocatory drive

1:53:42are typically characterized instead

1:53:46by desire

1:53:48now you can see why desire would be on

1:53:50the right hand side of this

1:53:52graph because you can't have desire

1:53:55until black has been experienced and

1:53:58lack has been emerged it's only at the

1:54:00phallic stage and you can read these

1:54:02developmentally if you like the oral

1:54:04stage the anal stage the phallic stage

1:54:06whatever

1:54:07it's only with the emergence of lack

1:54:09that something like desire can come into

1:54:11focus so that's why we have desire on

1:54:13this side of demand on the other

1:54:15demand though is here in a simple way we

1:54:18don't need to make this complicated

1:54:20the oral drive

1:54:23at the level of the nursing is very much

1:54:25a demand

1:54:30for

1:54:31the other

1:54:33bring me that breast bring me that food

1:54:36here the subject demands food from the

1:54:40other

1:54:42lacan talks about it as need in the

1:54:44other

1:54:45but it's more accurate i think to think

1:54:47of it as demand

1:54:48the oral drive is fundamentally

1:54:51a demand

1:54:53for something to put in your mouth

1:54:56from

1:54:56another

1:54:58and it's something that you need to

1:54:59nourish yourself it is a demand for food

1:55:07i'll put food in quotation marks

1:55:11because obviously food isn't the only

1:55:13thing that you demand from others

1:55:16in order to put into your own mouth

1:55:21here we see demand for something to

1:55:24ingest from another

1:55:27the demand is issued from the subject

1:55:33demand for food from the other

1:55:35at the level of the anal we see

1:55:37something different

1:55:38lacan talks about this as demand in the

1:55:41other

1:55:41what we see at the level of the anal

1:55:43stage especially when we get to potty

1:55:45training

1:55:47is the others

1:55:52demand

1:55:57for

1:56:01not something to be nourished

1:56:04not something nourishing to put in your

1:56:05mouth but something poisonous hazardous

1:56:09to be ejected some ejecta

1:56:18so here's how this works

1:56:19the oral

1:56:21drive

1:56:22has a demand built into it

1:56:25it's the subject's demand for something

1:56:27nourishing for food from the other the

1:56:29anal drive also has a demand built into

1:56:32it but it's a demand issued by the other

1:56:36to the subject and it's the others

1:56:38demand for [ __ ] from the subject i put

1:56:41[ __ ] in quotation marks because we're

1:56:43not just talking about poop

1:56:45we're talking about all the things that

1:56:47[ __ ]

1:56:49can morph into

1:56:51symbolic and otherwise

1:56:54here we see the other demanding at the

1:56:56stage of potty training

1:56:59for you to [ __ ]

1:57:01exclamation point and now is the time to

1:57:03poop

1:57:05so i don't need to go into details here

1:57:06for us to see the experience

1:57:09where the child is told in the car to

1:57:11hold it hold it hold it and then as soon

1:57:13as they get in the door the child starts

1:57:14to pee a little bit and the parent

1:57:15freaks out says no no wait wait and then

1:57:17finally gets in the toilet and says okay

1:57:19now go now [ __ ]

1:57:21it's a demand that the subject produced

1:57:24something

1:57:26and if it goes well you know what

1:57:27happens

1:57:29the primary caregiver jumps up and down

1:57:31cheering giving the kid treats

1:57:33positive praise positive praise for the

1:57:36production of [ __ ] this is why all gifts

1:57:39are fundamentally [ __ ]

1:57:42because the original gift was the gift

1:57:44of [ __ ]

1:57:45it was the first gift that each of us

1:57:47gave to the other

1:57:49and they thanked us for it and it was

1:57:52utterly and truly worthless

1:57:55to the point of being poisonous and

1:57:57nevertheless

1:57:59they thanked us for it

1:58:03that's why we have phrases like it's the

1:58:05thought that counts

1:58:06because in the end you know that the

1:58:08product

1:58:09not the thought but the thing that you

1:58:11were given

1:58:12is always just a pile of [ __ ]

1:58:15it's the thought that counts

1:58:16not the [ __ ] you were given

1:58:20so with this we start getting a little

1:58:22bit

1:58:23of the framing here

1:58:25what lacan also adds here at the level

1:58:27of the scopic

1:58:29he says this is

1:58:32might

1:58:36in the other

1:58:38at the level of the invocatory

1:58:41he's going to say this is desire

1:58:46of

1:58:50the other

1:58:52and the reason why this absolutely

1:58:54matters is because we know what the

1:58:56desire of the other looks like here

1:59:00other in question

1:59:02is another we've seen

1:59:05the superego does go down here

1:59:12as lacan puts it

1:59:14up here at the level of the scopic you

1:59:15would see fantasy

1:59:23this is the rudimentary chart

1:59:27that starts popping out

1:59:29in each of these four or five positions

1:59:33remember this is where you see a split

1:59:36subject

1:59:37being constituted in the locus of the

1:59:40big other

1:59:42each of these suggests a way to do that

1:59:47now we're about to add to it but let's

1:59:49hold up for a second

1:59:51i want to return back

1:59:52to the group for questions i'm going to

1:59:54keep the chart up

1:59:58talk this through before we add anything

2:00:10more you have to know we're getting into

2:00:13it now

2:00:30okay then i want to keep going

2:00:33what i'm about to add

2:00:37is probably going to strike you as

2:00:38[ __ ] odd

2:00:42but i wouldn't

2:00:44be giving you your money's worth

2:00:46if i didn't

2:00:54here

2:00:57at the start of this thing

2:00:59and i do want this to be

2:01:03the start of this

2:01:06is another experience

2:01:09here we see

2:01:11the uterine experience

2:01:13the origin

2:01:15where you have a mother and an

2:01:16individual to be

2:01:18wrapped up

2:01:20in themselves connected in this very

2:01:23unique way

2:01:25that mammals are known to be connected

2:01:28then you have this radical moment

2:01:33of birth

2:01:35here we might call this

2:01:40pre-birth

2:01:42in this radical thing known as birth

2:01:45we see a certain experience that occurs

2:01:48that we traced out last time

2:01:50where the placenta the child and the

2:01:53mother gradually come apart

2:01:55what i want to focus on here though

2:01:58is something a little bit different

2:02:00what we see

2:02:02happening at birth is the beginning

2:02:05of a dialectic that will characterize

2:02:07each of these

2:02:09four or five phases

2:02:12there is an in

2:02:15action

2:02:18in and out

2:02:20the inn

2:02:22that happens at the moment of birth

2:02:24was revealed to me by a midwife buddy

2:02:28who i think has delivered like half the

2:02:31children in norway

2:02:32and i asked her what's the most amazing

2:02:34thing after you've delivered thousands

2:02:36and thousands and thousands of babies

2:02:39for real legit thousands

2:02:41what still amazes you

2:02:43and she said the most amazing thing for

2:02:45her is that these children

2:02:47can be born and go from a world

2:02:52without air

2:02:55in the sense of

2:02:57spirit

2:02:58if you will

2:02:59and then emerge and immediately take in

2:03:02this breath

2:03:03inhalation the first breath