Seminar X -- Lecture 3

0:00not enough

0:01and yet not enough i know it'll always

0:03be that way

0:04um i've got some

0:06great stuff i want to share with you all

0:08today so um

0:12some of you follow me on instagram at

0:14least the handle for this series it's

0:15called lectures on lacan and so maybe

0:18you've seen some of the little things

0:20that i've been developing there

0:22but

0:23what i've got for us tonight is what i

0:25think is the clearest

0:28formula for anxiety

0:31it vamps on and in my view corrects

0:35the formulas that lacan is developing on

0:37pages 24 to 25 of this seminar

0:40i want this to be a formula that

0:42functions very much

0:44like the math theme

0:46that lacan develops for so many of his

0:49concepts

0:50like a shorthand way

0:52of holding something in mind so that you

0:55always can just throw the code up and

0:57say okay does what i'm experiencing or

1:00what i'm seeing with this client or with

1:02my friend

1:03fit this matthem

1:06so that's one thing on our horizon today

1:09it's a simplified version of one of the

1:11formulas we were cooking up last time

1:15we also want to talk about

1:18why god is a sadist and jesus is a

1:21masochist

1:24why god gets off

1:27not on punishing us

1:31and not on putting us in states of

1:33jewish sons

1:34but instead

1:35by putting us into fits of anxiety

1:40and so here the key phrase is going to

1:42be from the book of ecclesiastes enjoy

1:46enjoy your wife it says enjoy your food

1:50enjoy your life enjoy your work

1:52and yet we just can't

1:55this is one way to read the sadistic

1:56position

1:58and by extension we also want to talk

2:00about why jesus is the paradigmatic

2:03masochist

2:04who does not get off by bringing

2:07jouessance to god the father

2:10but instead like every pervert gets off

2:14on producing anxiety

2:16in the big other here the classic big

2:19other

2:21mainly

2:22at the light turn right onto irvine

2:24center drive

2:26now you have to ask yourself at this

2:28point

2:28is that the big other

2:30is that the real

2:32because you could have the real as like

2:34an encounter something that kind of

2:36bursts forth unexpectedly

2:38that was a very symbolic moment right

2:41it's actually giving the left two lanes

2:44still giving you the layup telling you

2:46to stay in the top two lanes it's

2:48guiding you through the roads and so

2:50forth

2:51here's what i would say is that

2:53don't forget that for lacan

2:56one of the things that we see all the

2:58time is this

2:59it's not really a beromian knot

3:02it's more of a baromian um

3:07link

3:08so right now you all should see a black

3:09screen will you holler at me if that's

3:11indeed what you see

3:13yep yeah okay

3:15so the

3:16baromian link which you've seen a

3:19hundred times i'm sure

3:21looks something like this

3:23it's more of a linkage as you can see

3:24it's not so much a knot

3:26but what you can have is a technological

3:29reel

3:30like that which just popped up

3:33in our call

3:35interfacing with a symbolic

3:38so these two registers can have

3:41these meeting points

3:43in between where there's some kind of

3:44wild overlap here would be the register

3:47of the imaginary and lacan develops

3:49different types of things that could fit

3:51in each of these areas

3:53i would suggest that what we just

3:55experienced

3:57was something occurring in this little

4:01orb where the symbolic and the real

4:03overlap you get the encounter

4:06and the startling unexpectedness that

4:08comes from the real but this very clear

4:11indication of

4:13law

4:14order

4:15the lay of the land

4:17that is uniquely suited for the symbolic

4:20so when you hear talk of the symbolic

4:23it means the law

4:25of the land in this case how to drive

4:27your car which lanes to stay in all the

4:30directions that come with turning right

4:32or turning left

4:34it's um

4:35it's not just traffic laws but it would

4:38also be

4:39rules of the road that are normatively

4:41passed down

4:43like you might be the kind of person who

4:44only ever drives with the top of your

4:46knee

4:47or only uses one hand on the steering

4:49wheel because you saw your old man do it

4:51or something like this

4:53so the symbolic would include all of

4:55those things and the reason why i'm

4:57cueing that up for us right now

5:01is because

5:03for lacan

5:05the big other

5:07is the symbolic

5:10it's the easiest way to understand what

5:12he's doing with the big other the big

5:14other is the symbolic

5:16this capital o other is the symbolic so

5:18when he's talking through the symbolic

5:21bear in mind

5:23that we're talking about law

5:25order normativity

5:28all the rules and regs that come with

5:30being

5:31you

5:32all the normative codes that go into i

5:35mean pick your normativity

5:37look at heteronormativity

5:39it's a big one these days and has been

5:41for quite a long time look at all the

5:44rules and regulations some official

5:47others unofficial all pretty goddamn

5:50oppressive but it categorizes the world

5:54and separates folks out

5:56that is the job of the symbolic

5:59and it's

6:00it's kind of a sketch job

6:02because

6:04on the one hand

6:06um

6:08it's no fun to be constrained

6:10but for those of you that work with kids

6:12i'm sure one of the things that you have

6:14seen

6:15are um

6:16clients or analyzands depending on your

6:19method that come through and really lack

6:21a sense of containment

6:23they're kind of all over the place and

6:25the only type of containment they get

6:27from a parent may be somebody who comes

6:29in very vociferously screaming at the

6:31kid don't do this don't do that and what

6:34they really want is a kind of more of a

6:35holding environment

6:37the symbolic is a holding environment

6:41that each of us

6:44were

6:45i would guess pretty successfully

6:47integrated into

6:49so on the one hand yes it's a very

6:50constraining environment but on the

6:53other hand it provides you with a sense

6:54of identity

6:56coherence

6:59even if you revolt

7:02against the gender category

7:05that your parents neighbors family etc

7:07put you in

7:09you are still taking your orientation

7:11from the symbolic

7:14in order to move away from something you

7:16have to hold it in mind

7:18which is partly why if you go through

7:20life hating

7:22a parent you're probably going to wind

7:24up to be just like them because you have

7:26to spend so much time focusing on not

7:28being them that they wind up being your

7:31inadvertent role model

7:33so i want this to be in mind when we

7:36talk about anxiety

7:37because

7:38anxiety is when someone

7:42who is occupying this position of the

7:44big other the keeper of the law the

7:47holder of the rule books

7:49shows up

7:50in a desirous state

7:53in other words they don't look like

7:56the judge who impassively and

7:59consistently and coolly

8:02passes judgment on situations

8:04they show up looking unhinged

8:07in the case of the female praying mantis

8:09horny as hell you get the idea this is a

8:13big other that is no longer doing the

8:16job of providing a containing

8:18environment

8:19and is now doing the opposite if you

8:21read some of the british object

8:23relations stuff now they're impinging

8:27anxiety comports with a big other or a

8:30primary caregiver who has passed from

8:32being a container

8:34function to an impingement function

8:38they're no longer the holding

8:39environment for the child but an

8:41encroaching figure for them

8:45the reason why lacan and us by extension

8:48are talking about perversion

8:51sadism masochism and the like last time

8:54and tonight as well

8:56is because

8:58one way that you can produce a pervert

9:01according to lacan

9:04is to show up as an unhinged big other

9:08in a child's life

9:10because what you show them when you

9:12scream at them don't do this how dare

9:16you

9:16you take your belt off and you couple

9:18the law with violence

9:21when you couple the law with violence

9:23what you are implicitly doing and pretty

9:25explicitly to

9:26is you are saying that the status and

9:29the authority of the law

9:32is only held in place in so far as it's

9:34backed up

9:36by a monopolization on the use of force

9:39in other words

9:40the law of the land is only in place as

9:43long as the

9:45judge jury and executioner are there

9:49so if we need a little bumper sticker

9:50for this it's simple

9:53and you know exactly where i'm going

9:55with this

9:56when the

9:57cats are away

9:59the mice will play

10:01the law is only binding insofar as the

10:04law giver is there

10:07in perversion what happens is the law

10:10giver as an authority as an executor as

10:14a punisher not so much a disciplinarian

10:17but a punisher

10:19has the law has been so wrapped up

10:22in the

10:26hyper emotional

10:30ethos of the law giver

10:34that the law on its own can't stand

10:36without the law giver

10:39and i want to give you a good example of

10:40this so that we just we're just talking

10:42as clearly as possible that's the goal

10:45with these lectures

10:46is to take a really complex thinker and

10:49boil it down to some really clear

10:51instances

10:52so if you ever watch like western movies

10:54for instance

10:56clint eastwood some other burly white

10:59man whatever however you want to figure

11:00it they always emerge from the desert

11:04and they show up at this lawless town

11:07where everybody's unhinged the villains

11:09are in charge it's a dangerous

11:11environment

11:13it's a lawless land the bringer of the

11:16law enters this field from the outside

11:21and they quote clean house they bring

11:24the law

11:25they get rid of the bad guys they

11:27appoint a non-corrupt sheriff

11:30they usually impregnate several women

11:33along the way you know this whole

11:34[ __ ] rigmarole of procedures but the

11:37most important one

11:38is that the law is brought

11:41and administered the bad guys go away

11:45the good guys look like they're going to

11:46be able to make a go of it

11:49and then here's the stereotype

11:51the reason why the genre works

11:54the hero rides off into the sunset

11:57at the end

11:58the law giver doesn't stay

12:02the ultimate test of the authority of

12:04the law is its ability to withstand

12:09and endure

12:10the departure of the law giver

12:14that is crucial here

12:16most neurotics according to lacan

12:20had the symbolic administered to them

12:23the law was given to them

12:25in a way that they could introject

12:28bring inside themselves

12:30and perceive as kind of a rational way

12:32to do things like you know i don't

12:33really like having to brush my teeth

12:35before i go to bed that's annoying but i

12:38get what mommy or daddy says about

12:40wanting to brush all the food out before

12:42i go to bed that kind of makes sense so

12:44i'm going to go ahead and do that

12:46eventually you start feeling weird if

12:48you go to bed without brushing your

12:49teeth

12:50and you jump up and you're like [ __ ] man

12:51i forgot to brush my teeth i'll be back

12:54you might even turn the car around in

12:56the morning if you forget to brush your

12:57teeth

12:58and you ever had that moment where

13:00you're like halfway two thirds of the

13:01way maybe toward the end of your day and

13:03you're like man something's been off

13:04with me all day and you're like

13:06i know what it is i forgot to brush my

13:08teeth this morning

13:09and then you realize it and you run your

13:11tongue over your teeth and you're like

13:12i'm a beast

13:14i'm a disgusting beast right because you

13:16dropped the law

13:17you didn't adhere to the law now your

13:20mom or dad isn't calling you every night

13:23at 9 30 and p.m being like brush your

13:25[ __ ] t-shirt

13:27brush your teeth it's me you know who it

13:29is and pick up the phone brush your tape

13:32you see that administration of the law

13:34that would be i would brush my teeth

13:35xinghua if your mom called me and

13:37screamed at me about brushing my teeth i

13:39would do it right now i would be like

13:41[ __ ] we got to do this and it would be

13:43in like it'd be in mandarin too right so

13:45i'd be like oh [ __ ]

13:46yeah i would get the message though and

13:49that i think is a really important point

13:50here

13:51xinhua this is brilliant what you've

13:53just brought up what's your mother's

13:55primary language

13:56chinese

13:58okay

13:59so she's shanghaiese and so what would

14:01come through the line is this scream i

14:04don't speak shanghai's my mandarin is

14:07even worse i mean i'm just like don't

14:09even ask i got korean

14:11but that's ridiculous to lots of chinese

14:13people so

14:15well okay now i feel a little bigger

14:18but here's the thing if your mom called

14:20and she was screaming at me in

14:22shanghaiese

14:25the

14:26authority of what she is saying is not

14:29based on the letter of the law because i

14:31have no idea the meaning of what she's

14:33saying it's based only on the fact that

14:35i have this incredibly powerful person

14:38screaming at me

14:41and that's what we get at that's one of

14:42the ways that perversion is made is you

14:45have a parent

14:46whose

14:47sole administration of the law

14:50is

14:51with a screaming voice

14:53for the belt or the hand the law gets

14:56bound up with punitive

14:59measures and the power of the law giver

15:02so you can see this oftentimes in the

15:04animal kingdom where

15:06you'll have um

15:09someone who is in charge of a pride or a

15:11pack but as soon as they start getting

15:13weak somebody else kind of stumbles in

15:16that's very much the circumstance that

15:19could produce a pervert in the human

15:21kingdom

15:23because the only law and order is

15:25maintained by the tooth claw or the

15:28barrel of a gun

15:29and as soon as those teeth fall out or

15:32the claws are no longer sharp or the

15:34cops aren't there

15:36well like i said when the cat is away

15:38the mice will play

15:41what happens though is is that that is

15:44only a partial administration of the

15:47symbolic

15:49and so a person goes through their life

15:51when the parent is gone

15:53and they feel like they have an

15:54attenuated or a weak relationship to the

15:56law

15:58and so they feel like they need to in

16:00order to receive the containing function

16:02of the symbolic they need to prop up

16:05their relationship to law language

16:09legislation normativity and the like

16:12enter the sadist and the masochist

16:15the sadist as a pervert

16:18they do not get off on administering

16:20pain

16:21what they get off on

16:23is trotting out the law

16:26it's not the whip

16:28being administered that gets them off

16:31it's the presentation of the whip to

16:33somebody with a phrase like you've been

16:36a very bad boy

16:38that is where the jewish sons of the

16:41sadist is it's not in the administration

16:43of pain it's in the amplification of the

16:47law

16:49you've been a bad boy and you know it

16:52you came here today and signed the

16:54consent forms you also signed page seven

16:57which includes a plastic bag over your

16:59head and you know that's coming too so i

17:01say this because

17:03not just to scandalize you but to remind

17:05you that the bdsm community

17:08is oftentimes shored up with elaborate

17:11consent agreements

17:13pages and pages and pages of consent

17:15agreements what's the magic word that's

17:17going to make the pain stop what's the

17:19magic word that's going to make the pain

17:21go

17:22do you know what those

17:24consent agreements are

17:26the symbolic

17:28that is the back door

17:30approach to getting the law administered

17:34most people

17:35enter into

17:37sexual relationships and they may have a

17:39talk or two along the way

17:42and they may have some conversations

17:44about what to expect and what they're

17:45into and what gets you off i look it's

17:47you often you have these conversations

17:49the closer you go

17:51to an elaborate consent agreement

17:54the more amplified the role of the

17:57symbolic in your sexual relationship

18:00to the extent that that exists

18:02becomes

18:04this is a tell-tale sign of perversion

18:07the reason why it's propping up in this

18:09seminar on anxiety

18:12is because

18:13the sadist doesn't just get off on

18:16pronouncing the law to you

18:19they like watching you squirm

18:24when they pronounce it

18:26what they get off on is the production

18:28of anxiety in the subject

18:32that's the proof that the law has been

18:34sufficiently amplified when you squirm

18:37in the chair or when they squirm in the

18:39chair just as you did when daddy took

18:41his belt off

18:46this is why we're getting to sadism in

18:48masochism and i know it's kind of an

18:50abrupt turn

18:52it's like wait we're supposed to be

18:52talking about anxiety and then god and

18:55jesus are sado masochistic fuck-ups like

18:57what where'd that come from

18:59lacan is turning in this direction

19:01because he thinks it's a very

19:03crystalline way

19:04to show how the big other produces and

19:08gets off on the production of anxiety in

19:11another person

19:13that's that's how we get to perversion

19:15here so i kind of want that to be up

19:18front

19:19and acknowledged because we're going to

19:21start by talking about like desire and

19:23split subjectivity and how we arrive at

19:26this little a

19:28this notorious little a

19:30we're going to spend some time with that

19:31but we're going to end with perversion

19:34and so i kind of want to prime

19:36wheels something

19:37can the

19:38in fact i want to turn it over right now

19:40for questions and review so yes xinhua

19:43you may say something please do

19:45thank you um

19:47when you were describing

19:49creation of a pervert

19:50i very guilty thinking about chinese

19:53politics about how law functions in

19:56china

19:58that

20:00you know when i was in china the teacher

20:02in the class like told us that um

20:04western countries run on the law when

20:07chinese society runs on human will

20:11the person so the law versus the person

20:15and as a

20:17high school student had no idea what he

20:19was talking about but later on i started

20:21to realize that

20:23china's laws are all written very

20:25elaborately

20:27and um

20:28very

20:29you know thoughtful in every condition

20:31i'm especially thinking about uh

20:34environmental law so

20:36uh we have one of the world's best laws

20:39thought of by the most thoughtful people

20:42but then

20:43none of them like very very little of

20:45them were well executed and in for

20:48enforced so people completely um

20:52ditch the law completely ignore the law

20:54until when it was time for the

20:56government crackdown to come comes in

20:59waves and uh when people say the

21:01political wind when that blows everyone

21:05will

21:06start to conform and do utmost

21:09um

21:10loyal like adherence to the to the law

21:13and the moment the campaign is gone

21:16everyone goes back to normal and this

21:19was um

21:20it was it was related to an analysis of

21:22china's environmental politics

21:25um currently

21:26about

21:28how possibly you know china tried really

21:30hard to rectify the environmental

21:33problem but as a result the system

21:35itself would prevent it from

21:39achieving

21:40a true sort of solution to this so yes

21:44so the whole time when i was listening i

21:46was

21:47thinking

21:48oh you know that's so realistic

21:52and um

21:54and of course china is not the only

21:56example there's lots of examples but i

21:58just you know realized what you're

22:00saying

22:01has so much like political

22:03um

22:04practical value

22:07yeah it does when you start tying up the

22:10law to enforcement and to infraction to

22:14so it's very interesting how this works

22:16but

22:17remember for lacan in our readings for

22:19tonight he once again returns to the

22:21topic of the law being equivalent to

22:23desire

22:26one of the reasons why he says that is

22:27that they are both structured atop lack

22:30a kind of emptiness

22:32they're behind them there's a kind of

22:34emptiness and in the case of

22:37legislation this is the reason why you

22:39have

22:40a judicial branch

22:43this is the reason why you have

22:45the cop

22:46the judge the jail all of these

22:49elaborate

22:51legislative infrastructures that are

22:53there

22:54and legitimated i want this to be very

22:57clear

22:58not by the existence of the law

23:01but by the infraction

23:04of the law

23:08it's criminality

23:10that would have to be invented

23:14in order to sustain the cops

23:17the cops need the infraction their whole

23:19apparatus is based on infraction it's

23:22not based on the law it's based on the

23:24violation of the transgression of the

23:25law

23:26and notice how this works too because in

23:28the field of desire in the field of

23:30symbolic

23:32the field of human relations

23:34one of the easiest ways to experience

23:37jewish songs

23:39and let me tell you if you've ever seen

23:41a cop

23:42going to town on some poor person in the

23:45street

23:46hitting them with a baton that is jewish

23:49at work

23:52it's hard work beating the hell out of

23:55another human

23:57sometimes you even got to take a break

23:58and get a drink of water and then get

24:00back in there and keep beating them it's

24:02awful right my point though

24:05is that it's one of the easiest ways to

24:07experience juices namely around the

24:10infraction

24:12it's when you rail against prohibition

24:15that you sometimes experience the most

24:16elaborate forms of enjoyment

24:19so sexual orgasm in your bedroom is

24:22pretty good

24:23but then you like to take that [ __ ] up a

24:25notch by doing it where you're not

24:26supposed to

24:27like on an airplane

24:29or in your parents bed

24:32or i don't know wherever the hell you

24:33get your freak on but the idea is that

24:36by doing it where you're not supposed to

24:39you can kind of like pump up your juices

24:43not unlike the way that the pervert is

24:45trying to pump up the law

24:48the neurotic will oftentimes try to pump

24:49up their juices by doing it a little

24:52different

24:54and it can be pretty vanilla different

24:56too right

24:57but the very fact that you're doing

24:59something a little different a little

25:00tie down here

25:02a little neck grab there a little this a

25:04little that you know what you do you

25:06know what you do when you're going to

25:07take it up a notch

25:08that is an access of zhuissance at the

25:11level of transgression

25:13because you're doing something a little

25:15extra

25:16that causes yourself or your partner to

25:19be like oh damn

25:22that's a little bit extra

25:24so the neurotic is oftentimes trying to

25:27amplify their relationship to justin's

25:30at the level of breaking the law

25:33and the pervert is oftentimes trying to

25:35amplify their relationship to the law

25:38at the level of its fastidious

25:40administration

25:44do you see how those are kind of like

25:47yeah

25:49so that's two ways to to look at this

25:51and don't forget to all of these

25:52lectures are recorded

25:55and as you know i then post the link the

25:57very next day so if there's ever a

25:59moment in here where you're like what

26:01the [ __ ] was that just mark it you can

26:03even just be like okay we're about uh

26:0630 minutes in that was about where it

26:08was said and then go back and re-listen

26:10and then holler at me if you want more

26:12clarification

26:13here is also a good time to do it but

26:15don't worry if

26:17if some of this stuff goes by a little

26:18weird and sounds wonky you can always

26:20return to it and i can help you

26:22what other questions comments this can

26:24be for review this can be stuff from

26:26last time

26:27what can i do to help with this material

26:32or with how you're going to implement it

26:34in your practice or in your daily life

26:54you can call out page numbers we can

26:56rake through a passage or two if that

26:58concerns you

27:03or i'm happy to just blast forward i

27:05really want this to be as much as

27:07possible like responsive to where you

27:08all are at

27:16can i ask a quick question for

27:17clarification

27:19yes

27:21when

27:22last lecture we discussed a lot of

27:26leukemian concepts that are also common

27:29in other branches psychology

27:31for example anxiety

27:33and anxiety could mean very different

27:36can it mean very different things in the

27:38clinical definition

27:40uh you know

27:41standard psychological clinical

27:43definition is anxiety how how

27:47does lacon's use of that word like

27:51translate into the common language in

27:53psychology

27:55yeah so um in typical fashion lacan is

27:59i think that they're let me back up a

28:01little bit

28:02i think that there are two types of

28:03genius in the world

28:06a genius is somebody who comes along and

28:09can see connections between things

28:12that other people haven't been able to

28:13see yet

28:15so to connect the cell phone

28:18to the taxicab

28:20that's a genius move

28:22because you took two things that were

28:24existing and you showed how they were

28:26not divergent but in fact

28:28worked very well together you can guess

28:30where i'm going to go next

28:32the other genius is somebody who notices

28:35difference

28:37where other people only see similarity

28:42hana arent is a very good example of a

28:44thinker of the latter sort

28:46so she'll come along and write this book

28:49series called the life of the mind where

28:51she trots out very clear distinctions

28:53between

28:54willing

28:55thinking and judging

28:58now we might think well those sound kind

29:00of the same for a rent they are

29:02completely different each 350 page book

29:05is designed to show you how each of

29:06these functions is wildly distinct from

29:08the other

29:10lacan likes to do both of those things

29:13on the one hand he wants to tell you all

29:15he's doing is pointing out

29:17connections in freud that we've

29:18misunderstood

29:21but when you actually go back and read

29:22the freud text that lacan is commenting

29:24on

29:25his [ __ ] is so extra so beyond a lot of

29:28what freud was doing

29:30lacan will take like some strangely

29:32conjugated german verb that freud used

29:35twice

29:36and make it an entire pillar of lacon's

29:39conceptual apparatus and then be like

29:40i'm just telling you what freud said

29:44more often than not what lacan does with

29:45freud though is he gets in there and he

29:47says

29:48notice these key distinctions

29:50even freud for example fudges a little

29:53bit on the difference between instinct

29:56and drive

29:57even freud for instance

30:00mistakes at times the difference between

30:02the ego ideal and the ideal ego

30:05and we could go on listing examples

30:08of this

30:09um now with that said

30:12for people who just showed up xinhua

30:14will you ask your question one more time

30:16say it again say it better

30:18anxiety right

30:20oh i was just asking the word anxiety

30:25the way lacan means it

30:26how

30:27how similar or different it is to the

30:29standard psychology definition of um

30:33anxiety on a clinical practical level

30:35okay so i'm glad you put it that way

30:38because there are clinicians among us

30:40who deal with this day in and day out i

30:43am not one of those doctors i just play

30:45one on tv

30:46what i can tell you though is that the

30:49primary target for lacan

30:52with anxiety

30:54is heidegger

30:56sartre

30:57and freud

30:58these are the folks that he opens up

31:01seminar 10 with in fact if you look at

31:03the opening pages of our seminar you see

31:06this weird little thing

31:08on page four

31:09the diagram in the upper left

31:13that says care

31:15seriousness

31:16and expectation

31:19you see this thing

31:21like what the hell is this all about

31:23care seriousness and expectation those

31:26correspond to what lacan perceives to be

31:28the dominant pillars in western thought

31:30around anxiety

31:32heidegger is care

31:35sart is seriousness

31:37freud is expectation

31:42so what lacan wants to say is a very

31:45simple riff

31:47that distinguishes his theory of anxiety

31:49from most of what's happening in the

31:51western tradition

31:53and i'm making this broad because i know

31:54there are clinicians among us who could

31:56weigh in and say well here's another way

31:58to think about anxiety lacan is

32:00responding to these pillars of western

32:02thought

32:03all of whom but especially heidegger

32:06have this understanding of anxiety

32:10and object loss

32:12that anxiety is what happens when you

32:15don't have an object

32:17and so in heidegger for instance in the

32:1920s you can see heidegger reel in it

32:21being in time you can see him very

32:23clearly distinguishing fear from anxiety

32:27has an object

32:29everybody on this call can weigh in and

32:31tell you exactly what they are afraid of

32:35and if you are to encounter that entity

32:37in the world if you're afraid of bears

32:39and you meet one in the world you are

32:41going to turn around and move in the

32:43opposite direction

32:45lacan

32:46deriving from heidegger a little bit is

32:49heidegger's idea that fear has an object

32:52and when you move away from it

32:55you still remain

32:57linked to that object because in order

32:59to flee from something

33:01you have to flee in the face of it

33:03you have to always hold it in mind

33:06which of course hooks back in to the

33:08comment i made earlier about if you

33:10spend your whole life hating somebody

33:13you're probably going to grow up to be

33:14just like them

33:16because you're taking your entire

33:17orientation as heidegger would put it

33:20from a specific object in the world

33:24and that's also why object relations is

33:26kind of a weird title for a school of

33:28post forty and thought

33:30objects for freud could be people

33:33primary caregiver is an object in the

33:34life of a child something thrown out

33:37object caring

33:39anxiety though doesn't have an object

33:43the object of anxiety according to

33:45heidegger is nothing

33:48which is why

33:50according to heidegger if you read being

33:52in time

33:53he'll have sections in there where he

33:54talks about one in particular

33:57about a really common

33:59al taglio reddy like everyday speech way

34:02of responding to anxiety

34:04in a moment of anxiety somebody turns to

34:06you and says whoa are you okay

34:09and your response is oh no for real it

34:12was it's nothing

34:13and heidegger's point is

34:15exactly that is exactly what you just

34:18encountered

34:20nothing

34:21the no thing the non-object object loss

34:25is

34:26what is happening with anxiety

34:28lacan is turning that entire tradition

34:31on his head

34:32he's saying

34:33that

34:35anxiety is not

34:38the removal or departure or loss of an

34:41object

34:43it is on the contrary

34:45the inescapable

34:47enveloping imminence of the object

34:52anxiety is not what happens when you

34:54lose somebody it's when somebody won't

34:57leave you the [ __ ] alone

35:00anxiety is when the desire of another

35:04is so encompassing

35:06and enveloping that you can't get away

35:09from it

35:10and so lacan's very careful about this

35:13the big difference in his theory of

35:14anxiety from his predecessors

35:17and here remember i'm just thinking in

35:19terms of intellectual history there

35:21could be a lot of clinical predecessors

35:22that he's responding to as well not just

35:25freud

35:26but the major predecessors on which he

35:29founds this seminar

35:31particularly heidegger

35:34the khan says actually anxiety does have

35:37an object

35:38but it is not your ordinary kind of

35:41object which is why his language is so

35:43key

35:44on page 89 i believe in the seminar

35:48lacan says

35:50anxiety is not without an object

35:57notice how he puts that

35:58he doesn't say anxiety has an object he

36:01says it is not without one

36:04now this is one of those moments

36:06where you read lacan and you're like

36:09what a complete douche why is this guy

36:12saying it's not without an object why is

36:15he being so squirrely

36:17about the object relation in anxiety

36:20well turn to page 89

36:24and you'll see at the top of page 89

36:28you hear him working this out

36:31very top line

36:32anxiety is not without an object

36:36the reason why he says it this way

36:38is because he wants to flag for you

36:42that the object of anxiety is a

36:44different kind of object

36:47in fact if we want to be really

36:50clever about it

36:51the object of anxiety

36:55is actually an object cause

36:59of your desire

37:01it is lack

37:04which is why he defines anxiety as a

37:06lack of lack is when somebody comes in

37:07and takes yours

37:09deprives you of it by making their

37:12desire so overwhelming

37:15so enveloping and so encompassing that

37:17you have no more room for your own

37:20so notice how he figures this out page

37:2289

37:23it is not without an object

37:26this is the exact formula in which

37:28anxiety's relation to an object must be

37:31suspended

37:33this object is not properly speaking the

37:35object of anxiety i've already made use

37:38of this not without

37:40in the formula i gave you concerning the

37:42subject's relation to the phallus so

37:45lacan's telling you like yo i've done

37:46this i've ran this argument with you

37:48before

37:50he is not without having it

37:53in the case of the phallus it's a very

37:54brilliant way to configure it as well

37:56because it's very true

37:59the male subject doesn't exist unless

38:02they have the values they quite

38:04literally are not

38:07unless they have the phallus

38:10and if you want to push this through

38:12um masculine joisons

38:15and seminar 20 you might say that the

38:18female

38:20subject position

38:23in masculine juices

38:25can only be occupied by someone who is

38:28willing to be

38:30the phallus

38:32the masculine position is about having

38:34the phallus and the feminine position in

38:37[ __ ] heteronormative society is

38:40about being the phallus for somebody

38:42else

38:43it's one way to run this but he's just

38:45want to let you know he's just letting

38:46you know that this is another line of

38:47thought another weird lacanian way of

38:49thinking you've heard before now let's

38:51get to this object

38:53this relation of being not without

38:55having

38:56man that hurts my brain

38:58this relation of being not without

39:00having

39:01doesn't mean that one knows which object

39:04is involved

39:05this is the deal with anxiety

39:07the reason why it's object is a little

39:09weird

39:10is because you don't ever really know

39:12what it is when i say he's not without

39:15resources he's not without cunning it

39:18means at least for me that his resources

39:20are obscure

39:23that his cunning isn't run of the mill

39:26likewise at the linguistic level the

39:29term sans

39:30in latin cna is deeply correlative to

39:34the opposition howard when one says not

39:37how sin and non-passance

39:40it's a certain type of conditional

39:42liaison which links being to having in a

39:46kind of alternation

39:47now that's wonky

39:50ever with lecon you get a wonky sentence

39:52read a couple more

39:54and then go back and read it again

39:56there he is not without having it but

39:58elsewhere right where he is it's not to

40:01be seen

40:04this is the first introduction that

40:06lacan gives us

40:08to the object relation of anxiety in his

40:11theory

40:12so previous traditions

40:14anxiety is when you encounter an

40:16experience without an object

40:18so some people are afraid of swimming in

40:20the ocean for instance

40:22and if you ask them why one of the

40:23answers is because when i look down i

40:25can't see the bottom

40:28there's nothing underneath me and that's

40:31why it produces a feeling of anxiety

40:34lacan's point is

40:36anxiety operates differently

40:39it has a special kind of object

40:42it's not that it doesn't have an object

40:44it's that its object is very obscure

40:47it's not run-of-the-mill and it often

40:49times

40:50very precisely this is a technical great

40:52way to put it it's not to be seen

40:56the object

40:58of anxiety

41:03is the cause of your desire

41:07and this is going to be part of the

41:08formula that we work out tonight

41:10but it's really important that we that

41:12we scare out this difference that lacan

41:14is introducing because the reason why

41:16this seminar is a breakthrough in the

41:17history of western thought

41:19because what he's showing

41:21is that

41:22it's not that anxiety doesn't have an

41:23object and it's not that it has a

41:25regular run-of-the-mill object it's that

41:27the object of anxiety where anxiety

41:31originates

41:32if you will

41:34is enigmatic

41:36it's obscure

41:38it's not run-of-the-mill which is why he

41:40has to use a not run-of-the-mill

41:42expression to capture this

41:44it is not without an object this is the

41:47exact formula in which anxiety's

41:50relation to an object must be suspended

41:54top of page 89.

41:56now this object

42:01this is important

42:02in order for anxiety to exist it has to

42:04have an object

42:06but it's object

42:07obj ah

42:09little a which we're going to define

42:11very clearly tonight building on our

42:12work last time

42:14is obscure

42:16elusive

42:18unusual

42:19and the reason why is because the object

42:22in question here

42:23is lack

42:28not

42:28having the experience of not having is

42:31the object of anxiety

42:34so

42:36when the desirous big other this praying

42:38mantis approaches us

42:42the feeling is anxiety

42:45because what the big other wants from

42:47you

42:48is your lack

42:50they want the cause of your desire which

42:52is why lacan says again and again

42:55mid-40s up through

42:5653. that

42:58the big other is always demanding that

43:01you show your castration

43:05in moments of anxiety they want to see

43:07that you're castrated

43:09and by that of course it means alienated

43:12in language

43:14split subjectivity

43:17because that proves that you have a lack

43:20or a little a

43:22that the desirous other can prey upon

43:24can target so i want to be clear about

43:26this and then we're going to go to the

43:28screen and i'm going to show you some

43:29formulas to help

43:31let's be precise

43:33the object of the others desire

43:36is the cause of my own

43:40or if you want to reverse it you can say

43:44the cause of my desire

43:47is the object of theirs

43:52the object of the other's desire is the

43:54cause of my own

43:58and the word for this is lack

44:01the cause of my desire is lack and that

44:03is precisely what the big other targets

44:05in me

44:08producing the state of anxiety

44:13so in anxiety something is taken from

44:15you

44:17what's taken from you is your

44:18relationship to the cause of your desire

44:21and by extension desire and fantasy also

44:24fail

44:25what's taken from you is lack

44:27and don't get too caught up in this

44:30when lacan says you're experiencing

44:32anxiety

44:34it means that somebody in your life

44:37is being too big of a presence they're

44:40taking up too much space

44:42they're not giving you any breathing

44:44room you feel smothered by them

44:47that feeling of being smothered

44:50hot

44:51in need of space kind of you find

44:53yourself when you're talking with

44:54somebody like this kind of stepping away

44:56from them a little bit

44:57you kind of like impose distance just

45:00non-verbally with people like this

45:03that taking of space is a retrieval of

45:06what is taken from you in the experience

45:08of anxiety which is space

45:11this person's not giving you any

45:14and the result is anxiety

45:18the big other in a desirous fit

45:21targets

45:23the space and the distance

45:27required to feel safe

45:30secure

45:31stitched into the symbolic

45:33even if desirous which is why lakhan

45:36says again and again that desire

45:39is a defense against anxiety

45:41because in order to desire you have to

45:43experience

45:44lack you have to have a little bit left

45:48you can't desire what you already have

45:50you can only desire what you don't have

45:52so if you experience desire that means

45:55there's a little bit of lack left the

45:56big other didn't take it all

45:58and as a result desire can stave off

46:01anxiety

46:03which brings us to the concept we ended

46:05with last time

46:07love

46:08if desire is a defense against anxiety

46:12love is the antidote

46:15the reason why i put it that way is

46:16because

46:17love for lacan means giving what you

46:20don't have to somebody else

46:23and what you don't have you lack

46:25we read this last time as a kind of

46:27radical acceptance

46:30of split subjectivity in another person

46:33you're allowing them space

46:36to [ __ ] up sometimes

46:38to not be perfect

46:41you see you can produce anxiety in a

46:43partner if you expect them to always be

46:45on

46:46to always have the perfect meal prepared

46:49to always have be having the perfect

46:51hair day to always be on and to never

46:53say the wrong thing

46:59foibles

47:00are handsome conditions

47:04being in love with folks who can be

47:06mistaken

47:07is

47:08marvelous which is why communication

47:11breakdown for all those communication

47:13theorists out there

47:15is one of the best things that can

47:16happen to us

47:18pure communication would be a nightmare

47:21i love the gaps of which communication

47:24is made as my friend john peters put it

47:27in a terrific essay called i believe the

47:30gaps of which communication is made

47:34it's the gaps the lacks the cuts the

47:38openings

47:40that allow for the cultivation of desire

47:43and that stave off

47:45anxiety

47:46and so love lacan keeps returning to

47:49this theme of love even especially in

47:51today's readings

47:53and part of the reason why he's doing

47:54that is because his understanding of

47:56love

47:57means

47:58sharing lack with another person where

48:00they accept that you're imperfect and

48:03you accept that they're imperfect

48:06that's why it's the antidote

48:08for

48:09anxiety anxiety preys on lack

48:13it's constantly taking yours from you

48:16in love

48:18somebody gives it back

48:20to you

48:23this is a very important distinction for

48:25us and as promised david i also heard

48:28your question even though you typed it i

48:30got it we're coming to the masochist in

48:31a minute

48:32but first i do want to show you how this

48:34could look

48:36in an actual

48:37formula so

48:39i'm going to go to screen share and once

48:42more

48:43i will go to

48:46our blackboard

48:48so the formula

48:50that those of you that follow lectures

48:52on lacon on instagram i'm sure you've

48:54seen

48:55look something like this

48:58what you have here is the

49:00desire

49:02of a bard other this is the big other in

49:05a split

49:06position

49:07this is the big other that's missing

49:09something that is experiencing lack and

49:12as a result

49:13has desire

49:17now this

49:20is oriented towards

49:23the cause of yours which we're going to

49:25symbolize here with little a

49:27and here's you over here or me

49:30you can figure this however you want

49:33here's the desire of a split subject

49:37living their life in relationship to the

49:39lack that allows them to desire and

49:42again you don't have to be

49:44some weird lacanian to make sense of

49:46this the reason why lack

49:49is the cause of desire

49:51is because you can't desire something

49:54that you already have

49:57it doesn't work that way

49:59in order to experience desire you must

50:02experience yourself as missing something

50:04as lacking it

50:06that's why lack is the cause of desire

50:10so

50:12if we just look

50:16at the subject here

50:18and we can just bracket this really

50:20quickly

50:21this is a really common way to

50:24understand how desire works

50:27so

50:28here is the desiring subject

50:38here is what they want i say x because

50:42it can really be anything

50:45and what we know about desire is that

50:48the object of desire is constantly

50:51shifting

50:52so once you get something you don't want

50:55it anymore in fact again technically

50:57speaking you can't because you already

50:59have it now

51:02i've used this example before but i

51:03wanted to call it to your mind again

51:06you can ask my brother what he wants for

51:08his birthday and he has a list in his

51:11wallet

51:12and he gets out his list and he looks

51:14down the list and then assesses your

51:16buying potential

51:18i'm exaggerating a little bit my

51:19brother's a very sweet guy and doesn't

51:20do this part but you can imagine

51:23somebody who can run down the list and

51:25tell you all the stuff they want these

51:27are all the things i want

51:30why do i want them

51:33basically because i don't yet have them

51:36so here

51:37in the case of this desiring subject

51:40this is the cause

51:43of their desire

51:46and it's always the same for each of us

51:49black

51:51this is what we lack

51:56now let's talk about what happens when a

51:59desirous big other shows up and i'll

52:01change the color so we can see this as

52:03clearly as possible

52:05here

52:07is

52:08their formula

52:12and in fact

52:13i'm almost inclined to extend our second

52:16bracket out to here

52:19i would suggest that in the case of the

52:22pervert

52:23you would extend it out

52:25to here

52:27so i'm going to use a different one blue

52:29is going to be here for

52:30perversion and i'll label it so we know

52:40could you remind me what does the

52:42more a less than sign

52:46here i'm just messing with those this is

52:49not lacan this is me so i can't vouch

52:51for any of this in lacan

52:54but

52:55in lacanian algebra you see this diamond

52:57or this lozenge

52:59down here in perversion this is the math

53:01theme by the way for perversion you'll

53:04see that it's a complete reversal of

53:05fantasy

53:08and you can see that operating here

53:10which is why i want to put this up as

53:12blue brackets as perversion here's the

53:15pervert

53:17operating on a fantasy structure that

53:19looks something like this

53:21little a little a

53:23split subject split subject this is some

53:25nosebleed stuff and i don't think we

53:27need to get into it but i want to flag

53:28it for you because it is coming up in

53:30today's readings

53:32briefly though that lozenge can mean all

53:35kinds of things it can mean everything

53:38that is meant

53:40by these four symbols

53:43so here's less than

53:45greater than

53:48up down it's supposed to have all four

53:50of them combined

53:52i find that the easiest way to

53:54understand this diamond

53:56is

53:57with the phrase

53:58in relation to

54:01it marks the kind of relationship

54:05and the nature of that relationship can

54:07be very

54:08particular the reason why i've only used

54:12these greater than signs

54:15is because what we're working on

54:18is not exactly perversion here but

54:20anxiety

54:26and what i want to suggest here is that

54:28when anxiety strikes

54:31here represented

54:34uh by what we could call

54:36i don't put another bracket but what you

54:38see is

54:39the desire of a big other

54:42is huge

54:44it's greater than overwhelming and

54:47encompassing the cause of yours

54:50which by the way however small and

54:53petite this little cause of desire is

54:57we experience it as completely

54:58overwhelming

55:00which is why i have a greater than sign

55:02here as well

55:04but also the reason why i'm using this

55:07partial lozenge here is to show you a

55:10flow

55:11i want to show you that there's a flow

55:13going in this direction

55:15because what happens is

55:18the cause of my desire

55:22becomes the object

55:25of the big others desire and so i'll put

55:29this other bracket up here

55:32so what we have here is my cause

55:36becomes

55:38the what

55:50an answer to the question of what the

55:52desire of the bard other is aiming at

55:56so you see how i'm working this here

56:00in the case of the split subject

56:02as you saw me put last time the question

56:04here is not what

56:07but why

56:09why do i desire this

56:13why is this what i want

56:17but what happens in the case of anxiety

56:20is the why

56:22that fuels my desire becomes the what

56:26of somebody

56:28else's my

56:31lack

56:33or

56:34guidant

56:35lodestar in life

56:38becomes somebody else's target

56:43so what do they want

56:45they want

56:47your

56:47lack they want your cause they want you

56:54by extension

56:56so the formula here if we strip it down

56:59is again

57:00little d bar a other

57:02greater than little a greater than d of

57:05a split subject you don't even have to

57:07have this x at the end

57:09we have fleshed it out here but what's

57:12important is to note that

57:14the cause of my desire

57:17is the

57:18object of someone else's

57:20that is anxiety

57:23or if you want to put it in the way i

57:25just said it earlier the object of the

57:27other's desire

57:29this a

57:31is the cause of my own

57:35now as always

57:38what i'm going to do is save this

57:41so that we'll have it and i'll post it

57:42in email tomorrow for us all to see

57:47i'm going to come back now

57:49unless you want to do all have that do

57:51you want to see keep seeing that screen

57:53or can i move can i come back

57:55i miss seeing your faces

57:57and instead of my own scribbling

57:59scrabbling

58:01okay

58:02so that's a long answer but also one

58:04that gets us into some good terrain

58:06xinhua to the question of

58:08what differentiates lacan's theory of

58:10anxiety

58:12from predominant theories at the time

58:15and that's it the object

58:18is lack is the cause of your desire now

58:21if we wanted to take the next step

58:23and really make the most of this which

58:25is actually on our agenda for tonight

58:26anyway

58:28it would be to give you some really

58:30really clear examples

58:32of that little a

58:34would that be useful

58:36okay let's start with the cover of this

58:38book

58:41you see the ants

58:43walking around the mobius strip

58:47obj ah this little a that gives

58:50likanians

58:51heart attacks left and right trying to

58:53explain to people

58:55what i told you last time

58:57is that little a

59:01stands for

59:02the minimum distance between two

59:05entities that allows them to remain

59:07distinct

59:10it is

59:12the part of the split subject

59:16that occupies the position of thirdness

59:18it's the bar itself

59:21here though

59:22i want to be even more basic

59:24lacan talks about this image

59:27in fact if you look at page 136 from

59:30today's readings

59:33he talks about this

59:35the middle of the page

59:36if the insect

59:38that wanders along the surface of the

59:41mobius strip forms a representation of

59:44the fact that it is a surface he can

59:46believe from one moment to the next that

59:49there is an other face that he hasn't

59:52explored

59:55other face

59:57is little a

59:59it's the underside

1:00:01of this ant's

1:00:03path

1:00:05it's the part of the path that the ant

1:00:08can't see

1:00:09even though if he just walks long enough

1:00:11he's gonna walk right across it

1:00:14obj ah

1:00:17is the underside

1:00:20of the surface on which this ant is

1:00:22walking

1:00:23and the reason why it's important and

1:00:25interesting here is that what you know

1:00:27about the mobius strip is that it's all

1:00:29one surface

1:00:31it's an illusion

1:00:32to think that there's an underside to

1:00:35your path when you walk a mobius strip

1:00:39because if you actually look at the

1:00:40cover and you trace

1:00:42how these ants are walking you'll see

1:00:45that if they just keep walking the

1:00:47entire both sides of this strip are in

1:00:50fact one

1:00:53the underside becomes the oversight and

1:00:56vice versa as you walk through it

1:00:59but then what does the word side mean

1:01:02we'll come to in a sec

1:01:04the face that is always on the back of

1:01:06the face along which he is walking

1:01:09that is little a

1:01:11here's another example of it

1:01:14it's what's behind that mirror in my

1:01:16background

1:01:19i can look in that mirror all day long

1:01:21and not see what's behind it but i know

1:01:23there's something there i just don't

1:01:25know what it is

1:01:26i lack knowledge of it

1:01:30the the symbol for that in lacanian

1:01:33algebra

1:01:34is little a

1:01:36little a is the symbol for the blind

1:01:39spot

1:01:40in your life

1:01:43so here's another example

1:01:46behind the screen that you are looking

1:01:49at right now

1:01:50there is something that you can't see

1:01:54if we wanted to mathematize that and put

1:01:57it in lacanian algebra

1:01:59the word or term for that thing that you

1:02:02cannot see but that you know is there at

1:02:04some level

1:02:06is little a

1:02:09little a is what i can see by peering

1:02:12over your shoulder

1:02:15for those of you that have your cameras

1:02:16on

1:02:17i can look and see what's behind you

1:02:21you can't

1:02:23but you can for me

1:02:25maybe you can if you study your own

1:02:27image in skype like so many of us do

1:02:30paying as much attention to what's

1:02:32behind you as anything else this is one

1:02:34of the reasons why skype zoom and the

1:02:36like are kind of dangerous

1:02:38is that they remove blind spots and

1:02:40introduce other ones

1:02:45these are some

1:02:46clear examples

1:02:47of objecti you don't need to make a big

1:02:49fuss out of this

1:02:52if you feel good enough with these

1:02:54examples

1:02:55we'll now ramp up to some more complex

1:02:57ones

1:02:59that get us a little bit closer remember

1:03:01what's at stake here is the strange

1:03:04enigmatic object

1:03:06of anxiety

1:03:09namely lack

1:03:12when anxiety happens

1:03:14lack

1:03:15has been taken from you

1:03:18the experience of anxiety is the

1:03:20experience of a lack of lack as lacan

1:03:22puts it he's not being clever

1:03:25he's being very

1:03:26particular about this

1:03:30now

1:03:31let's

1:03:32go to some questions ira because i know

1:03:34that um

1:03:35[Music]

1:03:36david has been waiting to hear about the

1:03:38masochist to get this kind of balanced

1:03:41perspective i talked about the sadist i

1:03:42didn't give you the masochist

1:03:45don't worry david thank you for your

1:03:46patience i know your audio isn't working

1:03:49i promise we'll get there because i want

1:03:51to end again by telling us

1:03:53why lacan sees god as a sadist and jesus

1:03:56as a masochist but ira go ahead because

1:03:58i assume you're asking a question in

1:04:00relation to this material

1:04:01yes in terms of your ocean

1:04:04example and the ocean causing anxiety or

1:04:07not being able to see the bottom uh

1:04:09which would be uh

1:04:15i guess it would be

1:04:18the point at which your vision

1:04:22dissolves

1:04:24beneath your feet

1:04:26so like if you peer under water you

1:04:28might see some particles or things

1:04:30floating around but you know you know

1:04:32this this aspect when you're swimming in

1:04:34the ocean where and you're in deep water

1:04:37you can just tell where your vision can

1:04:39go no further like things just get

1:04:41darker and darker and darker

1:04:43i would say this object would be this

1:04:45nebulous

1:04:47the point at which you can't see further

1:04:49that's what i'm trying to get at with

1:04:51the mirror example

1:04:53with the screen example and with the

1:04:55example that's on the cover of this book

1:04:59it's the underside of things

1:05:03um

1:05:04yeah so that's what i would say to to

1:05:06that

1:05:06one and just remember this is a great

1:05:09example to ira because

1:05:11i'm glad you're returning us but it's

1:05:12because there's really nothing there

1:05:14that you are seeing

1:05:18but it's not the same as saying that

1:05:20there's nothing there there is something

1:05:22there

1:05:24and you're doing work around you're

1:05:26having an emotional response

1:05:28to that

1:05:29that kind of object cause

1:05:32what's there is lack what's there is a

1:05:35breakdown of vision

1:05:37and la colla wants to be very careful

1:05:38and say that is not object loss

1:05:42that's not object loss

1:05:44the object of anxiety

1:05:47is

1:05:48lack and it somehow starts to

1:05:51disappear from you and you suddenly feel

1:05:54this is why the ocean is also a great

1:05:55example completely immersed in this

1:05:58thing

1:06:00some people experience that as a very

1:06:02holding

1:06:03containing

1:06:04uteromorphic space

1:06:06the ocean is where they feel most at

1:06:08peace and it's not an anxious experience

1:06:10at all but actually quite simple because

1:06:12you have the horizon the sky and the

1:06:15depth of the sea beneath you

1:06:17life has never been more simple than

1:06:19that some people really feel the

1:06:20opposite

1:06:21but if you're somebody who has

1:06:24anxiety around openness open spaces

1:06:28scared of the dark is another good

1:06:30example the same phenomenon would occur

1:06:32if someone were afraid of the dark

1:06:34feeling anxious unless all the lights

1:06:36are on

1:06:38you can see this as a paradigmatic

1:06:39example too in in

1:06:41horror movies

1:06:42the protagonist always has to enter a

1:06:44dark room and fumble around in search of

1:06:47lights

1:06:48right there's always a light bulb

1:06:49hanging from the ceiling that they have

1:06:51to reach up for and it's always

1:06:52precarious and the light bulb doesn't

1:06:54work and then it suddenly turns on and

1:06:56they're surrounded by ghouls

1:07:05i believe this relates back and i'm just

1:07:08uh summarizing to

1:07:10what you said regarding the

1:07:13demand of uh lunzla the big other being

1:07:16overwhelming and that's why i think that

1:07:18the ocean is a perfect example is that

1:07:20correct

1:07:22will you say that again one more time i

1:07:24think my internet got a little clunky

1:07:26there

1:07:27i was relating this back to what you

1:07:28said earlier regarding the

1:07:31demand of lots

1:07:33of the big other being overwhelming and

1:07:35that's why for me the ocean um

1:07:38is a perfect example of

1:07:42anxiety

1:07:45yeah i would just correct one thing and

1:07:48that is that we're talking about the

1:07:49desire of the big other

1:07:51not a demand

1:07:53and that's important because i wouldn't

1:07:55usually do this but i think it is

1:07:57important because

1:07:59demand according to lacan is exactly

1:08:01what the neurotic wants from the big

1:08:03other

1:08:05when the big other shows up and is

1:08:06desirous

1:08:08and and the neurotic subject doesn't

1:08:10know what the big other wants from them

1:08:12think of the praying mantis example

1:08:14again what's terrifying

1:08:16and angst-provoking is not knowing how

1:08:19you are caught up in their desire

1:08:22in that moment you would like nothing

1:08:24more than for the praying mantis to just

1:08:26tell you

1:08:27what they want from you

1:08:29demand

1:08:31something from me this is why i think

1:08:33one of the really important things

1:08:35that's happening in the first part of

1:08:37this book

1:08:38is the stuff we were reading last time

1:08:41around demand

1:08:43so

1:08:44you'll recall the chart that i pulled up

1:08:48hold on just one second i'm going to get

1:08:49this

1:08:50this image back

1:08:51that we were working with

1:08:53last time

1:08:55it was need demand desire and then one

1:08:57more thing if i'm not mistaken is that

1:08:59the one bingo that's it

1:09:02i'm pulling it up now and then i'm gonna

1:09:04do a screen share and we'll just look at

1:09:06it again real quick

1:09:11does this look familiar to y'all

1:09:16and remember i can't see you so you got

1:09:18to holler at me yeah

1:09:20okay

1:09:21yeah so

1:09:23i'll get a different color pop in here

1:09:25if i can

1:09:26uh

1:09:28one of the things that we see remember

1:09:29this pink line is neurosis

1:09:32and so the split subject comes up

1:09:35makes this left turn and then has some

1:09:38part of their relationship to fantasy

1:09:41falls apart

1:09:42and the reason why it falls apart in

1:09:44moments of anxiety is because the big

1:09:46other shows up and says give me this

1:09:49this one's mine you don't get to have

1:09:51that and that's terrifying because

1:09:54fantasy for the khan is the prop

1:09:56that shores up desire and allows desire

1:09:59to operate so the big other shows up and

1:10:01says give me your lack

1:10:03give me what it is that you think

1:10:04motivates you and drives you through

1:10:06life

1:10:07now what happens in this moment

1:10:09is the pervert in blue

1:10:11turns right and says i'll be that for

1:10:14you i'll give you my lack and then some

1:10:16anything to get you off big other

1:10:19that's the blue line the neurotic though

1:10:21takes this really

1:10:24i mean lacan refers to this

1:10:26as a kind of like regressive circuit of

1:10:29desire or of demand

1:10:31and the reason why he says regressive is

1:10:33because

1:10:34what the neurotic does is it turns left

1:10:37at this moment and dips back down

1:10:41into meaning according to the big other

1:10:45and you'll recall the sentence that i

1:10:47coupled

1:10:48this trajectory with

1:10:51big a on its own as we've discussed

1:10:54is like a treasure trove it's all

1:10:57possible meanings

1:11:03in this case meanings of the big others

1:11:06desire what do you want

1:11:09these are all the possibilities here

1:11:11this little s

1:11:13signifies that one of those meanings has

1:11:15been chosen

1:11:18so this is a specific

1:11:22meaning

1:11:23and this regressive cycle of demand

1:11:27big d up here is the demand of the big

1:11:29other this is the reason why i draw this

1:11:31like this

1:11:34it sounds like this if we put it in a

1:11:36sentence

1:11:38listen big other

1:11:39you're freaking me out right now

1:11:41you seem kind of horny but also kind of

1:11:43angry maybe a little hangry i'm not sure

1:11:46what's going on mama mantis

1:11:49i don't know all the things that you

1:11:51could be into but you know what i bet

1:11:53you do

1:11:55so how about it big other

1:11:58why don't you just pick a specific thing

1:12:00that you want from me

1:12:02and just tell me

1:12:04tell me what you

1:12:06want what that does in that moment is it

1:12:10asks the big other to forfeit their

1:12:12desire

1:12:13and replace it with a demand

1:12:16tell me something specific that you want

1:12:20and what we saw lacan doing

1:12:23in these early pages where he's working

1:12:26out this demand stuff

1:12:28if you look at page 53 again

1:12:35eventually

1:12:37there's only one thing that the big

1:12:39other can demand

1:12:41so we're on 53 in the first full

1:12:43paragraph toward the bottom

1:12:46it's to the extent that every form of

1:12:48demand is exhausted to its full term

1:12:51to the bottom of the barrel up to and

1:12:54including the d

1:12:56zero note that zero there again that's

1:12:58important the d zero of demand

1:13:01that in the end we see the castration

1:13:04relation appear

1:13:05that's important here

1:13:07castration is found inscribed as the

1:13:10relation at the far limit of demand's

1:13:12regressive cycle that's what i'm tracing

1:13:15for you here again is this demands

1:13:17regressive cycle it appears there as

1:13:19soon as and in so far as the register of

1:13:22demand is exhausted

1:13:24so the neurotic in this case will keep

1:13:26asking

1:13:27the big other to translate their desire

1:13:30into a demand

1:13:32please just tell me what it is you want

1:13:34you're acting strange you're freaking me

1:13:36out what is it exactly that you want

1:13:38from me

1:13:40and they'll keep asking and keep asking

1:13:42until

1:13:43they bump up against the bottom of the

1:13:46barrel

1:13:47the d0 of demand

1:13:49and the only thing that the big other

1:13:51can respond with in truth

1:13:55what the desirous other wants

1:13:58from the neurotic is a testament

1:14:03proof

1:14:04evidence

1:14:06of their castration that's why

1:14:08castration is up here for our purposes

1:14:11i'm building this out of the graph of

1:14:14desire

1:14:15this is not lacan stuff but you can work

1:14:17it through look on

1:14:19the graph of desire is useful because

1:14:21you can run these circuits following the

1:14:24arrows

1:14:25and conceptualize all kinds of wild [ __ ]

1:14:28and what we are now conceptualizing is

1:14:31this regressive cycle of demand where

1:14:34the neurotic says please just tell me

1:14:36what you want

1:14:38in the final analysis though the big

1:14:40other can only say

1:14:43i want proof that you're castrated

1:14:47so give me your lack

1:14:50now that last part that you just heard

1:14:51me say i want proof that you're

1:14:53castrated so give me your lack might

1:14:55strike you as a little bit weird

1:14:57like whoa that was a too big of a jump

1:14:59mccormick how are we going to get there

1:15:02i'm vamping on pages 46 to 47 that we've

1:15:05already read

1:15:07where

1:15:08it talks about the big other

1:15:11asking for a signifier

1:15:15and a subject being summoned to some

1:15:17missing place

1:15:19to tender the exact change in the shape

1:15:21of a sign of his own castration

1:15:28the object of

1:15:30the big other's desire

1:15:32that provokes anxiety in us

1:15:37is the sign that we have been castrated

1:15:41a castrated subject in lacanian algebra

1:15:43looks like this it's this split subject

1:15:46down here

1:15:48and what we know about this split

1:15:50subject

1:15:51is that it has

1:15:53two fundamental elements

1:15:56here's the sociolinguistic

1:15:59we've already been over all this so i'm

1:16:00not going to belabor it

1:16:03component this is what lecon will call

1:16:04the grammatical subject

1:16:07but we are also comprised of these

1:16:09bio-materialistic

1:16:11i don't mean materialistic as in i shop

1:16:13at the mall i mean in terms of

1:16:16matter

1:16:17in terms of atom animality

1:16:22now it's tempting to say you have two

1:16:25two sides of the subject here one that

1:16:27is ensconced in the symbolic

1:16:34and another

1:16:35that is steeped in the reel

1:16:39there is a third element here

1:16:41which i highlighted last time and we'll

1:16:43do so again now and it's this

1:16:48the third element

1:16:50in this split subjectivity is the bar

1:16:53itself

1:16:54which is a line of demarcation

1:16:58we can make this as narrow as we want

1:17:00but that has to be there this is an

1:17:02irreducible

1:17:07line

1:17:08gap or cut

1:17:11it's the irreducible distance between

1:17:14these two entities that allows them to

1:17:16remain distinct

1:17:18and the symbol for this and lacanian

1:17:20algebra is little a that's why you hear

1:17:22me saying it's the minimum distance

1:17:25between

1:17:27two entities that allows them to remain

1:17:29distinct and it's irreducible that's

1:17:32what i mean by minimum it can't go any

1:17:34further

1:17:36now lest you think

1:17:39that this is just me popping off again

1:17:42i can tell you

1:17:43that on page 161 of today's readings

1:17:46this is exactly what lacan

1:17:49uses to define little a

1:17:52it is an irreducible distance

1:17:56or difference between two entities we'll

1:17:59come to that in a little while

1:18:01but that is a way of building on ira's

1:18:04really brilliant comment about the ocean

1:18:07very good for all of us to keep that in

1:18:08mind

1:18:09and i would just add this clarification

1:18:13which i know i know i belabored it and

1:18:15i'm happy that i did because

1:18:18this distinction between demand and

1:18:20desire is

1:18:23a really fundamental one for lacan and

1:18:25ira you're right what we have is this

1:18:28scaled up from need to demand to desire

1:18:32and then ultimately

1:18:34if you all keep at this we get to the

1:18:36drive

1:18:38and in fact if i have my druthers we're

1:18:40going to talk about this later but if i

1:18:42have my druthers the next lecture series

1:18:45that i want to do

1:18:47is on seminar 11 the one that comes just

1:18:50after this one where the topic is not

1:18:53need demand and desire

1:18:55but desire and fundamentally the drive

1:18:58so seminar 11 is the big one i think for

1:19:01lacan it's called the four fundamental

1:19:04concepts of psychoanalysis this is when

1:19:06he sat down and was like okay if i'm

1:19:08really going to introduce people

1:19:10clinicians in particular to what it is

1:19:13to be a lacanian and how to do this work

1:19:16lacan sits down in seminar 11 the one

1:19:18right after this

1:19:20and walks us through it and one of the

1:19:22four fundamental concepts there is drive

1:19:25so right now we've been talking about

1:19:27need demand and desire

1:19:29but bear in mind

1:19:31that if you give me a chance at this

1:19:34i'm to push the drive button next time

1:19:37around

1:19:38and so at that level we would get the

1:19:41full

1:19:43range of the graph of desire

1:19:46it's worth noting

1:19:48worth flagging this for you on page

1:19:51four

1:19:52of this seminar you can see the graph of

1:19:55desire

1:19:57the bottom portion is need

1:20:01the portion just above that big a in a

1:20:04circle is demand

1:20:07around and there's demand

1:20:10the little d

1:20:12register that lateral

1:20:14line that represents desire

1:20:17and then the math theme in the upper

1:20:19right hand circle

1:20:21split subject lozenge big d

1:20:24that is the mapping for drive

1:20:27and that's where we would go next

1:20:29we would actually talk about what it

1:20:32means to live a vibrant

1:20:34meaningful life

1:20:36in the lycanian

1:20:37term

1:20:39and it's a life in which you know how to

1:20:40keep the drive alive

1:20:42it is

1:20:44what bruce fink refers to as a

1:20:47traversing of one's fundamental fantasy

1:20:50a getting beyond

1:20:52of desire

1:20:54where you're able to actually

1:20:56experience the drive and with it juice a

1:21:00little bit of satisfaction of desire if

1:21:02you will but that's something else

1:21:03that's coming up so i'm glad to harp on

1:21:06demand and desire again because it

1:21:08allows us to get to that triple d

1:21:10which is um the third element the drive

1:21:14okay

1:21:16all right you get one more my man you

1:21:18get one more for this round you're

1:21:20killing it this is great thank you

1:21:23go for it between the last two things

1:21:24you said desire and drive i read a

1:21:27commentary today that um this lecture is

1:21:30heavily influenced by phenomenology of

1:21:33spirit by hegel and uh the commentator

1:21:37was saying that the

1:21:39main purpose of that text was for hagel

1:21:41to

1:21:42um

1:21:46i i want to call it awareness of

1:21:47awareness in some capacity or or

1:21:50or being conscious of of

1:21:53of your own consciousness and i just

1:21:55wanted to make a distinction or ask if

1:21:57there's or for you to make a distinction

1:21:59please between desire and drive because

1:22:01for some reason when you have a desire

1:22:03you're conscious of it but for the

1:22:05distinction for me would be a drive

1:22:07you're you're just doing it

1:22:10is that is that is that remotely

1:22:12accurate

1:22:13well there's a lot there and what you

1:22:15just said um let's go let's move

1:22:17backwards through it so um

1:22:20something to know about this graph of

1:22:22desire that i think is really useful for

1:22:24working through lacan stuff

1:22:26is that the top half of it

1:22:28is unconscious

1:22:29and the bottom half is conscious

1:22:32so that's how lacan works this thing if

1:22:34you look at the graph of desire you can

1:22:36basically cut that thing in half

1:22:38and the top portion has the exact same

1:22:41structure

1:22:42and outline as the lower portion

1:22:46different elements but it's the same

1:22:48structure so in other words what i'm

1:22:50trying to get at here is desire is

1:22:52fundamentally going to be unconscious

1:22:55that's the reason what's one of the

1:22:56reasons why it appears in the

1:22:58unconscious section

1:23:00and drive would be as well

1:23:03according to lacan doesn't mean you

1:23:04can't get more or less

1:23:06enlightened

1:23:08and cognizant of these things to bring

1:23:10to start work working this toward the

1:23:11hegelian point about self-consciousness

1:23:15um

1:23:16so then how do you distinguish between

1:23:18desire and drive if they're both

1:23:20unconscious

1:23:23well conceptually we can distinguish

1:23:25between them

1:23:26desire is

1:23:29let me say this

1:23:30drive is a partial instantiation of

1:23:33desire

1:23:35it gives it allows you to access ins in

1:23:39doses or you might even say moments or

1:23:42better even still events

1:23:44it allows you to access what desire

1:23:47never grants you which is satisfaction

1:23:51you can have drive satisfaction

1:23:54now all drives lacan says are death

1:23:57drives which means a lot but for our

1:23:59purposes what it means is that they work

1:24:01on a principle of repetition

1:24:04so

1:24:05if you have let's say an oral

1:24:08drive

1:24:10which is a drive things in your mouth

1:24:13a drive to chew on things

1:24:15you like to eat

1:24:16you enjoy smoking and drinking you pick

1:24:18your teeth when you're nervous you bite

1:24:20your nails you smoke perhaps whatever

1:24:21the case may be if you have an oral

1:24:23drive it doesn't mean that you smoke

1:24:25like one cigarette and you're like okay

1:24:27we're good there

1:24:29the drive is a circuitous thing it comes

1:24:32out circles around the object that gets

1:24:35you off

1:24:36and then gives you a partial

1:24:38satisfaction and then

1:24:40cues it up again

1:24:42it's a repetitive

1:24:58wait what's the address

1:24:59we're listening hold on i'm getting my

1:25:01google maps out hold on i want to see

1:25:03what the address is

1:25:05wait where's the address

1:25:08where's the address

1:25:09okay so i'm i'm messing around here

1:25:11right i'm not trying to invade your

1:25:12privacy or anything like that i don't

1:25:14care what the address is but i'm trying

1:25:16to show you what it might mean for the

1:25:18symbolic

1:25:19to get a little desirous on your ass

1:25:22give me the address i want the address

1:25:25what's the address tell me the address

1:25:27now if you're paying attention you're

1:25:29going to be like aha mccormick

1:25:31you just messed up

1:25:32that's not a desirous big other that's a

1:25:35demanding big other because you're

1:25:37telling them exactly what you want

1:25:40what's the address what's the address

1:25:43now i might pop back in that moment and

1:25:45say actually you have to bear in mind

1:25:47the circumstance in which this is

1:25:49occurring

1:25:51something weird again just popped up in

1:25:53our call

1:25:55i seized on it and i'm now acting a

1:25:58little strange

1:26:01making the most of it which is why some

1:26:02of you were smiling and kind of

1:26:03chuckling a little bit around this stuff

1:26:05because it's awkward

1:26:07that though gets us closer to anxiety

1:26:10because you're not quite sure what the

1:26:12[ __ ] i'm doing with this element and

1:26:14whoever it is that was trying to get

1:26:15that address

1:26:16they haven't even weighed in i think

1:26:17maybe they turn their microphone off and

1:26:19they're like oh [ __ ] okay okay we're

1:26:20cool maybe they'll come back later like

1:26:23i'm sorry that was ridiculous we're

1:26:24silly whatever i don't care in fact i

1:26:27see this is a very um interesting

1:26:29learning opportunity for me

1:26:32yes i'm issuing a demand

1:26:34but i'm doing so in a very squirrely

1:26:37desirous fashion

1:26:40which can provoke a little bit of

1:26:41anxiety even though what i'm asking for

1:26:43something very precise what's the

1:26:45address tell me the address

1:26:47it's almost creepy right the creepy part

1:26:51of this

1:26:52is the angsty part of this

1:26:54so even if somebody is issuing you a

1:26:57demand

1:26:58the feeling because it's in this case a

1:27:00repetitive demand tell me the address

1:27:04tell me the address what's the address

1:27:07it can provoke anxiety

1:27:09so i like this about lacanian terms

1:27:12where you can see some fuzzy

1:27:15ground between

1:27:25so that makes this a very organic

1:27:29clinical

1:27:30a method for lacan and you have to

1:27:33remember all of this stuff if you asked

1:27:35him where he learned all this he's not

1:27:37going to say hey

1:27:38all right he's going to say i learn all

1:27:40this from my analyzands they're the ones

1:27:42that taught me all this stuff

1:27:44and half of them are crazy

1:27:46so it's going to sound a little crazy

1:27:48sometimes no that that's just an

1:27:49exaggeration but

1:27:51um ira you did ask about the hegel thing

1:27:55thank you

1:27:56okay all right i do i do think it's

1:27:58important to just remember that hegel i

1:28:00don't want to downplay it hagel is a

1:28:02great influence on the con

1:28:05early in his career in the 30s lacan is

1:28:07studying hegel particularly this book

1:28:10that your commentator mentioned the

1:28:11phenomenology of spirit i bring this up

1:28:14though just to remind you

1:28:16that in the class that lacan was taking

1:28:20on hegel

1:28:22he received a very specific

1:28:25and unique

1:28:26reading of the phenomenon of jesus

1:28:29spirit

1:28:30and it is not the only way to read that

1:28:32book

1:28:33it is a method of reading that book that

1:28:35privileges you won't be surprised to

1:28:37hear this desire

1:28:40it was from um a russian scholar

1:28:43alexander kojov who in the 30s is

1:28:45educating all these french folks

1:28:47on hegel and he's given them kodev's

1:28:50reading of hegel

1:28:51which is kind of great because it allows

1:28:54us to remind ourselves that what you're

1:28:56getting right now

1:28:58is lacan's reading of freud

1:29:02there are people who i know who are

1:29:04freudians

1:29:05and i tell them that i read lacan

1:29:06they're like oh my god why would you

1:29:08dare do that he doesn't understand

1:29:09anything about floyd

1:29:12you know and similarly you might meet

1:29:14other lacanians out there and say yeah

1:29:16i've been attending this series with

1:29:18this guy professor mccormick it's kind

1:29:20of interesting kind of what kind of this

1:29:22kind of woo-woo

1:29:23and they were like what

1:29:24how dare you professor mccormick he

1:29:27makes everything about the no

1:29:29isn't he the one that emphasizes that

1:29:31the name of the father is always the

1:29:33know of the father that's definitely not

1:29:35the way to read lacan

1:29:37now they are incorrect

1:29:40and that's okay because everybody's

1:29:41allowed to to have opinions

1:29:44even wrong ones i'm joking of course but

1:29:46just remember that

1:29:48um

1:29:50just because lacan says i'm influenced

1:29:52by hegel doesn't mean that when you go

1:29:54back to hegel you're going to see a

1:29:56bunch of lukan

1:29:57there will be elements that track

1:30:00and that's part of part and parcel of

1:30:02intellectual historical work is when you

1:30:04dig in and start figuring out how did

1:30:08lacan

1:30:09learn hegel

1:30:10or in the case for those of you that

1:30:14have seen my second book the chattering

1:30:15mind you see a lot of work in there

1:30:18trying to understand the relationship

1:30:20between heidegger and lacan

1:30:23they were friends

1:30:24lacan is translating heidegger in the

1:30:2750s

1:30:28and going out to visit heidegger

1:30:31in fact

1:30:32lacan had a german

1:30:35analysis a german speaking analyzand

1:30:38a patient

1:30:39now imagine this clinicians

1:30:41lacan would take his patient and say why

1:30:44don't you come away with me for the

1:30:45weekend

1:30:46put his ass in the car

1:30:48and drive him up to heidegger's place

1:30:51and force this poor wretch now can you

1:30:54imagine what a great honor this would be

1:30:55and how much fun it would be for all the

1:30:57nerds like us

1:30:58but force this poor wretch

1:31:00who thinks he's getting therapy from the

1:31:02great jacques lacon to basically

1:31:05translate nosebleed conversations

1:31:07between the non-french-speaking

1:31:09heidegger and the poorly german-speaking

1:31:12lacan

1:31:14i demand to know what those

1:31:16conversations were about

1:31:18i can only tell you though that

1:31:20later on in life um heidegger really

1:31:23regretted the relationship

1:31:25and in fact he ends his thinking on

1:31:28lacon

1:31:29by saying i think our dear psychoanalyst

1:31:32needs a psychoanalyst of his own

1:31:36so it didn't end well but for a little

1:31:38while it was pretty fun the wives would

1:31:40hang out

1:31:41heidegger apparently was very nervous by

1:31:43how fast le con drove

1:31:46these are all things that are part and

1:31:48parcel of intellectual history and i

1:31:50bring it up because some of you i know

1:31:52are curious about this and so the work

1:31:54here would be like

1:31:56okay i'm going to read the phenomenology

1:31:58i'm going to read kojev's commentary on

1:32:00the phenomenology and then i'm going to

1:32:01look into folks who are in that 1930s

1:32:04class and see how it trickled into pecan

1:32:08the great news is that a lot of scholars

1:32:10have already done this work and it

1:32:11sounds ira like you found somebody who

1:32:13was able to kind of like connect those

1:32:15dots

1:32:17you'll note though that in the opening

1:32:19pages of seminar 10

1:32:21lakhan is trying to distinguish what

1:32:23he's doing

1:32:25from what hegel's doing

1:32:26and in fact on page 25 where we get that

1:32:29really nice formula for anxiety

1:32:32lacan is is working 24 and 25 against

1:32:35hegel

1:32:37these are formulas against the standard

1:32:39hegelian reading of desire

1:32:41so

1:32:42sidebar wonderful love it

1:32:45i see some other hands up here is it

1:32:48is it just ira

1:32:52david you're on my mind and not in a

1:32:54sadistic way

1:32:56because i know you want to hear about

1:32:57masochism

1:32:59are there other questions before

1:33:01i continue to delay responding to david

1:33:14sam i do i have a quick question

1:33:16um

1:33:17the khan he did most of his studies were

1:33:20on

1:33:22was on psychosis right like most of his

1:33:25patients

1:33:26that's where he gathered most of his

1:33:28work

1:33:29yeah i mean he likes to pit himself

1:33:31against freud in this way to say that

1:33:33freud dealt predominantly with with

1:33:35neurotic patients

1:33:36but lacan's great interest was in the

1:33:39psychosis

1:33:40i think in in reading lacan's work

1:33:44i would say that most of what he learned

1:33:46from

1:33:49his clientele

1:33:51uh

1:33:51i think his work with psychotics

1:33:54was the most influential on his work and

1:33:57in fact

1:33:58i know some of you are out there

1:33:59struggling to read seminar three and i

1:34:02have a series of lectures already

1:34:03recorded that i'd be happy to share to

1:34:05kind of help you through that stuff it's

1:34:06sometimes not great but in other times

1:34:09it's really [ __ ] brilliant

1:34:12and it's like he really just gets

1:34:14psychosis

1:34:16and the reason why i think lacan gets

1:34:18psychosis so well is that he makes it

1:34:20fundamentally about a disordered

1:34:21relationship to language

1:34:24it's a problem relative to the symbolic

1:34:27that produces psychosis as a clinical

1:34:30structure for the column

1:34:33i'm sorry sam yeah go ahead

1:34:35i was it so for lecon

1:34:38object r is in the real

1:34:41is it because

1:34:44okay

1:34:45yeah

1:34:46carolina that is a great question

1:34:48because

1:34:49on page 161 if i'm not mistaken

1:34:53you start hearing lacan refer to

1:34:56little a

1:34:58as something that is occurring in the

1:35:00irreducible

1:35:02real

1:35:04an irreducible real aspect of the

1:35:07subject

1:35:10i think that's something we should put a

1:35:11pin in for now

1:35:14and let's see if he comes back to it

1:35:17um

1:35:19the reading of little a as he says here

1:35:23it's what represents the s as in the the

1:35:28mythically full subject

1:35:30in its irreducible real

1:35:34is a powerful reading

1:35:36it's extremely suggestive in fact

1:35:39he starts it on page 160.

1:35:43the real he says at the end of section 1

1:35:45on page 160

1:35:48is what anxiety signals

1:35:52so i think we have a really great

1:35:54mystery ahead of us in terms of figuring

1:35:56this out

1:35:59um

1:36:00is there another passage though carolina

1:36:02that you saw that you think we should

1:36:05work out

1:36:07um

1:36:08not specifically to that i was i was

1:36:10comparing it to i have i think and the

1:36:14con out and there's a line where things

1:36:16says object a is the residue of some

1:36:19symbolization so that's why i was

1:36:20thinking because the psychotic

1:36:25doesn't live within language that there

1:36:27was some

1:36:28connection with it to the real

1:36:31i was trying to understand that part of

1:36:33where object a goes

1:36:36yeah i think um fink is absolutely right

1:36:40that

1:36:41um and lacan is saying as much here as

1:36:43well is that and we're going to work on

1:36:44this actually here after our break

1:36:47little a

1:36:48is

1:36:49what drops out

1:36:51or falls away

1:36:52or is a remainder lacan even uses this

1:36:55really clever

1:36:56it's a decidum

1:36:58like a deciduous tree it's like the

1:37:00leaves that fall from the process of

1:37:02life

1:37:03little a is something that falls out

1:37:06and is a residue or remainder from the

1:37:09subjectification process which i have

1:37:11referred to as castration

1:37:14otherwise using a term alienation as

1:37:16well

1:37:17the introduction of or let's say the

1:37:20subjugation

1:37:22of the child or baby to the demands of

1:37:26language and society

1:37:28that produces a split subject there's

1:37:30always some residue that comes out and

1:37:34in fact if you were to look at the graph

1:37:36of desire

1:37:37on page 4 of this seminar

1:37:40little a

1:37:41if you want to find a place to put it on

1:37:43the graph of desire

1:37:45is between the big a in a circle and the

1:37:48little d of desire

1:37:52little a is what is what spins out you

1:37:55can see leaving

1:37:57big a out of the top you see two arrows

1:38:00the left arrow circles back around in

1:38:03ways that produce the split subject as

1:38:04we've discussed

1:38:06the right arrow points up towards desire

1:38:09that right arrow is the arrow of residue

1:38:12of remainder

1:38:14that's the arrow that points to where

1:38:16little a would be so little a is that

1:38:18line that connects big a to little d in

1:38:21the graph of desire on page four

1:38:24and that is where it falls out

1:38:29so that's one way and a great way i

1:38:31think of understanding what lacan's

1:38:34doing with little a or bruce in this

1:38:35case um as something that's a remainder

1:38:38or a leftover

1:38:40as for the psychotics relationship to

1:38:43the real

1:38:44let's hold on to that one too

1:38:47the psychotics big struggle is the

1:38:49relationship to the symbolic

1:38:52and the way that they have imaginary

1:38:55re-delusional or hallucinogenic props

1:38:59enormous imaginary others to compensate

1:39:02and do the work

1:39:04for not having

1:39:05a proper symbolic other

1:39:08that's the psychotics dilemma in essence

1:39:11is that because they don't have the

1:39:14containing holding structure of the

1:39:15symbolic in place

1:39:18by the way because their relationship to

1:39:20the no of the father is [ __ ] up

1:39:23that process we talked about last time

1:39:25beiahung

1:39:26this german term meaning affirmation

1:39:30instead of that

1:39:32the psychotic has

1:39:34absolutely rejected that primitive

1:39:36affirmation of language

1:39:37and that primitive um signifier in this

1:39:40case is the name of the father the

1:39:42psychotic rejects that their

1:39:43relationship to the symbolic is fraught

1:39:45as a result

1:39:47and without the symbolics containing

1:39:50work

1:39:51they're left with a very awkward

1:39:54relationship to language

1:39:56um an overwhelming

1:39:58um

1:39:59unstoppable unconscious the reason why

1:40:02they speak in voices according to lacan

1:40:03is because they don't they're i'm not

1:40:05able to segment the interior from the

1:40:07exterior

1:40:08the voices outside are the voices within

1:40:10and in fact they have to wear tin foil

1:40:12on their heads

1:40:13because otherwise people can see right

1:40:15through them

1:40:17the problem that this that the psychotic

1:40:19struggles with according to lacan is

1:40:21that they are fundamentally porous

1:40:24they are pervaded by others they are

1:40:27shot through by aliens who can read

1:40:29their brains and the nsa who is hacking

1:40:32their phone and colonel sanders who

1:40:34wants their money and my mother who

1:40:35won't leave me alone but been dead for

1:40:3717 years

1:40:39so um

1:40:41how the real ties in with that

1:40:44is a little trickier

1:40:45we know how the symbolic ties in for the

1:40:47psychotic it's broken we know how the

1:40:50imaginary ties in for the psychotic it's

1:40:52a prop

1:40:53the aliens are an imaginary big other

1:40:58read delusional

1:41:00hallucinogenic

1:41:01colonel sanders

1:41:03isn't out there trying to take your

1:41:05money

1:41:06your mom is not still on the street

1:41:08calling your name she's dead

1:41:11so you feel me these are like delusional

1:41:14ways of being that are there to

1:41:16supplement for the broken relationship

1:41:18to the symbolic according to lacan

1:41:22how the real ties into that man all i

1:41:25would say is that just to be brief and a

1:41:27little bit quipping

1:41:29it's all too real for the psychotic

1:41:33it is not a comfortable place to be

1:41:35according to the lacan it's an extremely

1:41:37uncomfortable place to be

1:41:40i live in san francisco and i can tell

1:41:41you that the same people that have a

1:41:43broken relationship to the symbolic

1:41:46and inflated imaginary others around

1:41:48them usually sleep on hard pavement at

1:41:51night

1:41:53they drink themselves down

1:41:55the reel is just all too present

1:41:58among the housing insecure psychotics in

1:42:01my neighborhood

1:42:03so um

1:42:05carolina that's like three different

1:42:06pins that we have to put in this little

1:42:09a the real and the psychotic

1:42:12i won't forget

1:42:13thank you you bet great questions man

1:42:16y'all are

1:42:18knocking things around

1:42:20um

1:42:23where are we at now do you all want to

1:42:24take a little break are you feeling a

1:42:26break it's 7 44.

1:42:29oh wait hold on david's got another

1:42:31question is anxiety still the last oh

1:42:34david post that again will you please

1:42:39i just saw it flash up for a second is

1:42:41anxiety

1:42:42still the lack of a lack for the

1:42:44psychotic

1:42:45um