Seminar X -- Session 5

0:07okay let's start then with some

0:09questions

0:10questions from last time topics

0:13things you want reviewed things you want

0:15to make sure we get a chance to talk

0:17about tonight

0:18there are enough of us on the call now

0:20to begin and we are recording so fire

0:23away and rest assured that if you miss

0:25something tonight

0:27as always you'll have the recording the

0:28following day that you can review

0:34so i mean you have like missed this from

0:38one of the other lectures but

0:40you know at pacifica we we do study the

0:43jungian

0:44psychoanalysis or psychodynamic

0:47um and what i would like to know is how

0:50to incorporate lacanian psychology

0:54with

0:56the other forms of psychoanalysis

1:01yeah that's a tricky one and it might be

1:03something that you would want to go

1:05concept by concept with

1:07so for instance i think one of the

1:09things that comes out of seminar 10

1:11that could be really useful

1:13for someone who does

1:15um more object relations theory and

1:18practice

1:19would is this little a

1:21and what lacan is here doing with this

1:24object that is more a cause than an

1:26object and the move he's making with

1:28objectivity and science versus

1:31objectility in psychoanalysis so i think

1:34desiree it's probably a

1:35concept-by-concept

1:37tradition similarly you might look at

1:42a freudian notion

1:44like the death drive for instance

1:46and and work out how other folks

1:50have responded to it

1:52and then articulate that with lacan's

1:53notion of the

1:54death drive but a wholesale application

1:58of one on to the other i think is going

2:00to is going to leave you in a bit of a

2:02mess

2:04so i'd say concept by concept project by

2:07project is probably the best way to do

2:09this

2:11and as is true with any sort of

2:12theoretical work the test here is not so

2:15much whether it's nose bleed

2:18theoretical and conceptual but how

2:20useful is the [ __ ] thing

2:23good theory is useful theory and in the

2:26case of a clinician it might be useful

2:28in helping you understand and explain

2:31where an analyzand is coming from

2:34i like lacan because he helps me

2:37understand and explain

2:40vast areas of my life

2:43so

2:44it's for you it's for your work it's for

2:46the project and i'd say it should be

2:48driven by a specific concept

2:50and that's a much more useful way to do

2:52this i think

2:54and the projects that i've seen really

2:56succeed in using lacan

2:58they back away from the wholesale

3:00incorporation or application of his work

3:03to another thinkers and instead take it

3:05point by point

3:07it's the safest cleanest most

3:08responsible way to do it i think

3:13what

3:16else i'll uh ask a question can you hear

3:19me yes

3:21so on page 223 uh we didn't go over it

3:25uh last time it's from the buddha's

3:27eyelids uh chapter he talks about

3:30uh from the upanishads which is

3:33translated usually is uh thou art that

3:36or i am that it's at the bottom of the

3:38first full paragraph

3:40um

3:42so

3:45when i've been speaking to

3:48my canadians i have equated

3:50uh lots of big other

3:53with uh the

3:55the donson concept of brahman

3:58which was translated

4:00when i was in graduate school uh as that

4:03without attributes um

4:05basically if you can say it it's not it

4:09um

4:11and and for some reason i've been

4:13reprimanded in the past by lacanians so

4:16i was going to ask you

4:18in terms of

4:19uh what you know about uh

4:21the upanishads of vedanta

4:23uh

4:25what do you think the differences are

4:27between

4:28the concept of

4:30brahman

4:31with an a

4:32and

4:33luta the big the the big other

4:36that is a great question and it's not

4:38one that i can really speak to because i

4:41just know the lacanian stuff i don't

4:43know this tradition that he's dipping

4:45into very well

4:46i can get a sense of what is at stake

4:48for him

4:50in this chapter

4:51and you're right to start on page 223 i

4:54believe he's very interested in

4:57something here in which nothing would be

4:59reflected

5:00and it does have some

5:03origin in his earlier writings as he

5:06suggests

5:08he's interested in the parts of the

5:10mirror that do not reflect back and we

5:12learned that in our readings for tonight

5:14too it's the smudge or the stain or the

5:17piece of food that stuck to the mirror

5:19that that he really is intrigued by and

5:22in this chapter

5:24for better and for worse titled buddha's

5:26eyelids it's that part of the statue

5:29the eye that doesn't seem to be there

5:32even though it does give you an

5:34indication of its presence and if you

5:36look at the statue in question you can

5:38see exactly what he's up to here and

5:39what he's thinking

5:41this part on 223 that is his great lead

5:44into this

5:46comes from the character at the bottom

5:48for negation

5:49and then at the top of 223 he's messing

5:52with this not having

5:54and then in the middle it's kind of like

5:56mirror stage reflections

5:59so i can't speak to the latter part of

6:02your question ira i think it's great

6:05i have a sense of people whom we could

6:06ask about this

6:09but i can only speak to the big other

6:11and how he understands the big other and

6:13then you could then say does it line up

6:15with your experience

6:17of these other figures from the

6:18different tradition

6:20so that's a long apology

6:29it's important though that

6:31that this is a part of lacanian theory

6:34and technique that folks usually ignore

6:39this guy was intrigued by eastern

6:41thought and religion and mysticism

6:45remember this is coming

6:47after the first of two trips that he

6:49took to japan

6:51he also i believe was fluent in mandarin

6:55and has a master's degree had a master's

6:57degree i believe in

6:59chinese culture and language i think is

7:01what it is you'd have to check into it i

7:03can't speak to it directly but

7:05so this is something that means a lot to

7:07him

7:07the topic that keeps coming up in

7:09seminar 10 relative to this eastern

7:11tradition

7:12is the idea of

7:14desire desire is one of the central

7:17topics of the seminar and it's part of

7:20what he's doing when he drags in his

7:22experience his recent experience in

7:24japan

7:41but yeah my inclination is to read

7:44223 alongside his work

7:47with mirrors particularly his work in

7:50the 40s

7:51the mirror stage

7:52that which thou dost recognize in the

7:55other is thyself

7:59is that just a name of narcissism

8:03no it wouldn't be it's more basic than

8:05that

8:07you see what he's trying to get at here

8:10is if you scroll down a little bit on

8:12223

8:14he's trotting out

8:16this stuff about mirrors which he's

8:18already been through

8:19and then he brings up his article on

8:21psychical causality

8:23where he does indeed bring up this

8:25notion of a mirror in which nothing is

8:28reflected you can see it about midway

8:30through the page

8:32but it's at the bottom of 223

8:35that the reason why he's doing this and

8:37bringing this up starts to come clean

8:42the paragraph begins but if we introduce

8:46he's trying to help us understand what

8:48this object a is

8:50and if we introduce it as something

8:52essential in the relationship to desire

8:54this business of dualism and non-dualism

8:58takes on a quite different relief

9:02and then here's the key line

9:03if what is most me

9:06lies on the outside not because i

9:09projected it there

9:10but because it was cut from me

9:13the paths i shall take to retrieve it

9:15afford an altogether different variety

9:18so the stuff at the top of the page the

9:22passage that i read around that which

9:24thou dost recognize in the other is

9:26thyself lacan wants to say okay but it's

9:29not a simple projection

9:32and it's not narcissism in the sense of

9:34thinking that everybody wants to be like

9:36you

9:38it's something different because

9:40remember at this point

9:41he is connecting object a to the real

9:45we saw this on page one sixty one sixty

9:47one it's the part of the wholly embodied

9:52bio-animalistic being

9:55that can't get incorporated into the

9:58symbolic

9:59so we talked about this mythical

10:02presupposed here and now order

10:05of

10:06the infant's life

10:08where they're effectively a worm right

10:10they live in a state of raw materiality

10:15this is the bio-animalistic side of

10:17things that we refer to as the subject

10:19of pure need

10:21now when that subject of pure need is

10:23brought into the field of the big other

10:26of language of society there's always a

10:28part of them that can't be processed

10:32or metabolized by the symbolic

10:35that part of them is always an embodied

10:38part

10:39it always points back to their

10:40physicality to their bio animalistic

10:44components

10:45and it's a part of them that is then cut

10:48out

10:49and excluded

10:51and it is the basis for the real

10:55the real as a register in lacanian

10:58theory and technique was not there

11:00before the symbolic

11:02the real is an effect structure

11:05of the symbolic it's whatever in the

11:07symbolic the symbolic can't understand

11:11make sense of and

11:13so the real isn't even exterior to the

11:16symbolic

11:18it's excellent if you will

11:21it's an intimacy that is

11:27[ __ ]

11:28it's an exterior that has been rendered

11:31intimate to the structure of the

11:32symbolic

11:35so the real is not prior to the symbolic

11:38in fact the opposite is an effect of the

11:41symbolic and it is not exterior to the

11:43symbolic

11:45but in fact it is the very structuring

11:48ingredient to the symbolic

11:50it is the nothing that the symbolic has

11:53to have in order to legitimate its claim

11:56to account for everything in the world

12:00that's the real

12:02so what what lacan is here getting at is

12:05the way that object a is connected

12:09to this interior exterior this effect

12:13structure of symbolicity

12:16so here at this point in his career

12:19little a isn't just part of fantasy

12:22this imaginative symbolic act of putting

12:25desire in operation that we know of as

12:27fantasy

12:29here in seminar 10 object a starts

12:32taking on features of the real

12:35and by that here lacan is referring to

12:38the human form

12:40the body

12:41that's why as we're reading in the work

12:44tonight he's starting to shift more into

12:46body parts more into discussion of

12:49specific drive

12:52don't forget

12:53all of the drives for lacan

12:57they emerge from a body part

13:01an erogenous zone and all of the

13:03erogenous zones according to him have

13:05the same structure

13:07they are effectively openings in the

13:09human body that have a rim-like

13:11structure

13:13the erogenous zones to which the drive

13:16which is a partial satisfaction of

13:18desire is always

13:20attached

13:22is bodily

13:24so the oral drive

13:27not aural oral

13:29is connected to the mouth it's an

13:31opening in the human form that has a

13:32rim-like structure

13:34the anal drive

13:36is connected to the anus an opening in

13:38the human body that has a rim-like

13:40structure

13:41the scopic drive which is also ira what

13:44he's starting to gesture towards here

13:45with buddha's eyelids

13:47obviously is connected to the eyelid

13:50an opening into the human body

13:52that has a rim-like structure

13:55the invocatory drive

13:58has its origin in the ear which is an

14:01opening into the human body with a

14:03rim-like structure

14:05and you could go further you could look

14:07at pores

14:09name your body part

14:12but

14:12in each case the drive always emerges

14:16from an erogenous zone

14:18travels out into the world and then

14:21travels around in a circular fashion

14:24some sort of object of desire some cause

14:27of desire

14:29the word for that

14:30in lacanian algebra is object a

14:33they all circulate around an object a

14:36and then return

14:38back to that erogenous zone

14:40so the human form is really important

14:42here and that's what he's getting at the

14:44bottom of 223.

14:46if what is most me lies on the outside

14:49that's the first claim

14:52the truth of who you are

14:53as we've learned from communication

14:55scholars like john durham peters

14:59belongs to the other

15:01you know me better than i know myself

15:05it's not because i project myself onto

15:08you

15:10but because that part of me

15:13has been cut from me it's a body part

15:18and as a result when we shift from

15:20projection

15:22to

15:23incision and excision

15:26objectility the notion of the cut

15:29we have to travel an altogether

15:31different path

15:33and understanding what that's about

15:36and our goal last time and tonight is

15:38going to walk is going to be to walk

15:40this path a little bit

15:43um may i ask whether

15:46um so originally i was mistaken this as

15:48explaining narcissism but now it sounds

15:51like it's actually explaining opposite

15:53which is

15:55why humans are altruistic in a way

15:58because

16:00what we think we care about the other is

16:02actually just part of ourselves

16:05so it's trying to explain empathy and

16:08altruism

16:09i don't think he's messing with that

16:10here at all

16:12in fact i think what he's getting at you

16:14can see it

16:15at the bottom of 223 and the top

16:19of 224.

16:20he again wants to get first of all

16:24to a notion of spatiality

16:27that is there whether you have mirrors

16:28at all

16:30because the human eye is a reflective

16:32surface

16:35and that's what's missing from the

16:37bodhisattva statues that he encounters

16:39in japan

16:41they look like they have half closed

16:44eyes but when you look closer they've

16:46all been rubbed

16:48away

16:49it's an illusion

16:51it's an illusion of an eye and when you

16:53look closer what you can see is an eye

16:55that doesn't look back at you

16:59one hand you have the human eye which is

17:01a mirror surface that is there before

17:03any spatialization of the world so he's

17:06[ __ ] with kant here and working with

17:07a priori

17:09notions of space and time particularly

17:11space

17:12the human eye he wants to say is already

17:15a mirror

17:16and he's and so he has this quip at the

17:18top of 224

17:20where if you you know sometimes you can

17:22put two mirrors across from each other

17:24and you get an infinite reflection back

17:25and forth

17:26he's like you don't actually need to do

17:28that all you need to do is stand in

17:29front of a mirror and look very very

17:31closely at the way that that mirror is

17:34reflected in your eye

17:36and when you look in the mirror you can

17:37see this back and forth reflective

17:40capacity

17:41so the eye itself is a mirror

17:44but that's not really what he wants to

17:46get at

17:47he wants to get at is this notion

17:49emphasized again on page 224 it was

17:52italicized on 223 it's italicized on

17:56224.

17:57a

17:58surface

18:00in which nothing is reflected

18:04and i think it might be nice to read

18:06lacan to the letter here

18:08and ask what kind of a res of a surface

18:10can reflect

18:12the no thing

18:14that thing

18:16becomes of the no

18:18can i ask a question

18:20please do fire away

18:24i read the

18:27buddha's eye

18:29as something else

18:30um i read the half open

18:34uh eyelid

18:35indicating that the um

18:39buddha was

18:40enlightened and thus

18:43in

18:44i'm complaining

18:46the

18:46hinduism vedanta and buddhist but um at

18:50one with a lot

18:53one with the big other

18:55that could be true and he does make

18:57allusions to the half-closed eye of the

19:00contemplating noetic if you will

19:04buddha or bodhisattva but on 228

19:07the first line of the first full

19:08paragraph if you need still more details

19:12you may notice that there is no opening

19:14for the eyes on this statue

19:18the statue he's looking at

19:21does not have eyes open closed or

19:24halfway closed at all

19:27so he's not looking at a statue

19:30that captures the sense of the

19:32enlightened subject

19:34in this state of reposed

19:37almost um

19:39meditative thought

19:42or contemplation in the western

19:43tradition that's somebody's talking

19:45about he says it simply has at the level

19:48of the eyes a kind of pronounced ridge

19:51which means that with the reflection off

19:54the wood

19:55one always seems to be able to make out

19:58an eye

19:59but there's nothing there in the wood i

20:01examined the wood at length and i made

20:04inquiries at which point he cites

20:07professor condo

20:09and he moves on down in this paragraph

20:12at the end to talk about the slit of the

20:14eye on the statue has disappeared

20:17due to the more or less daily needing it

20:20endures from the hands of the nuns of

20:23the convent

20:24where it is the most precious treasure

20:27when they think to dry the tears of this

20:29figure of archetypal divine

20:32recalls and then at the bottom he's on

20:35to the drives

20:37so i find this a very weird chapter

20:40i think it's super interesting

20:43i think the stake is

20:46a figure of buddhist contemplation

20:50the eyes of which are gone but that

20:53nevertheless are indicated

20:58it's an eye that unlike the one staring

21:00at it yields no reflection

21:04it is a non-reflective eye that

21:06nevertheless seems to be looking back at

21:08you

21:10and don't forget

21:12the object of the scopic drive is

21:14technically speaking the gays

21:18and that is not

21:20the position from which you look

21:22it is the position from which you are

21:24seen

21:26the gays according to lacan

21:29for all of the positions in the room in

21:32which you find yourself

21:34from which someone or something can see

21:36you

21:38he recalls in one of his seminars being

21:40on a fishing boat when he was trying to

21:42get some cash together and one of the

21:45rather drunken fishermen says do you see

21:47that can over there in the water

21:51and lacan says no i don't

21:53and the fisherman says well it sees you

21:56and then they all laugh i still don't

21:58get if that's a joke or what the deal is

22:00but lacan says this is seminar 11 by the

22:03way this is the one after this one he

22:05says yeah this is exactly what the gaze

22:07is it's the position from which you can

22:10be seen which is why in great feminist

22:14and cinematographic turns

22:16you can get this internalization of the

22:17leukanian notion of the gays in terms of

22:21male erotic gays that women have

22:24internalized in the western tradition so

22:26that such that when woman stands in

22:28front of the mirror

22:29she's not looking at herself from her

22:31own point of view but from the viewpoint

22:34of a more or less

22:36turned on male

22:38so we've heard about this laura molve

22:40the feminist after lacan made a great

22:42deal

22:44of of the gays

22:46it's the position from which you're seen

22:48and it can be assigned to the painting

22:52on the wall in front of you

22:54it's the little glowing red

22:57or

22:58green

22:59light on your laptop indicating that

23:01your camera is now on

23:03it is your laptop itself it has the gaze

23:07within that broad discussion of the gaze

23:10lacan wants to talk very particularly

23:12about the type of gaze

23:16that you get

23:17from a smudge on the mirror that does

23:20not reflect something back to you

23:25it does occupy the gaze but it's staring

23:28back at you in a way that is rather

23:30disturbing

23:32disturbing technically because it

23:34disturbs the otherwise whole

23:37image of you

23:39the specular image

23:42and we can draw that little i

23:45next to little a and parens that's the

23:48lacanian algebra for the specular image

23:52if you strip away the little eye and

23:54pull the parens out you know what

23:56letters left

23:57is little a

23:59what stares back at you from the stain

24:02or the smudge or the spittle or the

24:05particle of food attached to your mirror

24:08is

24:09object

24:12sorry just um

24:14in my understanding

24:18this what you're describing the gaze

24:20from which you're seeing is more like a

24:23foucaultian

24:24panoptic gaze

24:26that would be similar to the cinematic

24:30gaze male gaze on a female

24:32but i remember reading la khan and

24:35um

24:36he sounds like at some point i forgot

24:38which book it was that he was saying

24:41that the gays is a witch that does not

24:43see you but not that witch that sees you

24:47and i was just doing a quick

24:49googling of luck on um

24:53it was

24:54it was a story written

24:561964 i forgot which book it is but

24:59basically it's the exact story you were

25:01mentioning the quote says the young

25:03fisherman says to look on do you see

25:05that box do you see it well it doesn't

25:08see you

25:10so

25:11does the gay see you or it doesn't see

25:13you

25:14furlough

25:15the stake here

25:17is one that occupies a position from

25:19which you can be seen

25:22the question is not whether that piece

25:24of food that popped out of your mouth

25:26while you were flossing and is stuck to

25:28the mirror has eyes and is staring back

25:30at you

25:32the question is how it disturbs

25:35and troubles the otherwise seamless

25:37relationship between the spectator and

25:40the speculum between the person in front

25:43of the mirror and the mirror itself it

25:45troubles at otherwise

25:48um

25:49stadium of reflections it calls it into

25:51question

25:52it's something that sticks out in a way

25:55that troubles the situation that's why i

25:57use the word disturb

26:00yeah

26:03so the gaze doesn't see you can i use it

26:05to describe chinese government

26:07who represses

26:08the people when locked down and ignores

26:11their call

26:12yeah you can use it to describe you can

26:14use a lot of things to describe the

26:15chinese government i don't know if this

26:17fits

26:19yeah but the gaze is typically and and

26:22notice how i'm saying this a position

26:24from which you can be seen

26:27so it doesn't

26:28it doesn't mean that the plant across

26:30the room from you has eyes and is

26:32staring back at you

26:34it means that that is one position from

26:37which somebody if they were to remove

26:39that plant could sit in a chair and

26:41stare back at you and that's enough to

26:43do the kind of work i don't know if this

26:45is where you're going by bringing up

26:46foucault's panopticon but it is

26:49certainly suggestive there right

26:51what people figured out in the 19th

26:53century was that a mirror here or there

26:56keeps subjects way more in line than an

26:58actual guard with a club

27:01because it's the work of being watched

27:04that allows for self-discipline so this

27:06is how you get the prison tower

27:08according to foucault right you don't

27:10even have to have a guard in that thing

27:11you just put a tower up put some mirrors

27:14around it

27:15and the assumption made by the prisoners

27:17is that they are being watched and they

27:20are on the side of behaving as a result

27:23that's the notion of the panopticon you

27:24have elementary schools that are still

27:26designed this way as well

27:28anybody who has

27:29attended lectures at san francisco state

27:32you'll know that many of the classrooms

27:34have a mirrored wall in the back and

27:36that's so social scientists can be back

27:39there studying subjects doing whatever

27:42it is that they do

27:43now some rooms in san francisco state

27:45also have curtains

27:47that you pull in front of those mirrors

27:51because students show up

27:52and they're like what the [ __ ] is there

27:54a mirror doing here who's back there

27:56what why are they watching me

27:59i don't know if i'm telling you to go

28:01ahead and steal from walmart because

28:03there is no camera behind those black

28:05bubbles attached to the ceiling

28:08but the fact that the bubbles are there

28:10is usually enough

28:12to deter people

28:13and i know this all the time living in

28:15san francisco because i know people

28:18who simply bought

28:19a non-working outdoor camera

28:23and attached it to their garage

28:26so that it looks like there's a working

28:28camera and it comes with a sign that

28:29says this property is under 24-hour

28:32surveillance that camera if you just

28:34look at you can look at the camera

28:35there's a wire hanging from it it's not

28:36plugged into anything

28:39so that's partly how the gaze can work

28:42whether the camera is flipped on or not

28:44it is suggestive of being watched

28:48and that's enough

28:51really though for laconda remember it's

28:53this body part

28:55i keep coming back to the image of a

28:57piece of food that is popped out of your

28:59teeth while you floss and get stuck to

29:02the mirror

29:04it now renders that section of the

29:05mirror unreflective

29:07and it also marks a part of you

29:11a body part

29:12remember object a is a real

29:17body part from the mythical subject that

29:21can't be metabolized by the symbolic

29:24and it's one that calls into question

29:26the otherwise pristine existence that

29:29you have in your super clean bathroom as

29:31you clean your super clean teeth

29:34under super crystal

29:363000 luminescent lights that make you

29:39look this that and the other instead i'm

29:41saying

29:42it disrupts the illusion

29:45of perfection and coherence

29:48and really beauty

29:50which is why lacan introduces this

29:52concept with the notion of the beauty

29:55mark

29:56which he then immediately transforms

29:58into the stain

30:02that's part of what he's getting at here

30:04he's really working hard here really as

30:06hard as i've seen him work he's working

30:08extremely hard here to try and bring us

30:12to this very odd enigmatic object

30:16that is not an object

30:20so it has a gaze but that doesn't mean

30:22that it's watching you

30:25he's working really hard to try and

30:27gather this stuff up

30:30object a is not exactly an object out in

30:33the world

30:35it's an opening

30:37remember what i said last time

30:44the object of the desirous others

30:48pursuit

30:51is the opening

30:53in which i might pursue my own desire

30:58that's why lacan says anxiety is not

31:00without an object

31:03it doesn't mean it has one in the normal

31:04sense

31:05the object of anxiety is an opening

31:10and little a

31:12is just his choice of

31:14algebraic symbols to

31:17signal this opening

31:20this cut or rupture in an otherwise

31:24pretty clear fabric

31:28that's why the stain on the mirror comes

31:30up that's why the eyes that are

31:32there and indicative of vision but

31:35aren't there

31:36are relevant here as well

31:38their eyes that not only don't look back

31:40at you

31:42but their eyes that also don't reflect

31:46other than the surface of polished wood

31:50dead eyes

31:53dead eyes can still reflect

31:56the world around them ask neil young

31:59dead eyes can reflect the world around

32:01them even if they can't look back at you

32:04that's why it's so freaky when you walk

32:05by a dead creature

32:08and you look down and it looks like

32:09they're staring at you

32:13or if you this is a classic

32:15trope in films as well

32:19or where in comedy the version of this

32:21is where you the subject starts to speak

32:23to somebody in the film and their eyes

32:25are open and all of a sudden they let

32:26out a snore

32:28and it turns out they're asleep they

32:30sleep with their eyes open

32:32but the subject doesn't realize that and

32:33it's carrying on a conversation with

32:35them because the eye is open

32:37it serves the purpose of that mirror

32:40but it doesn't mean that eye is looking

32:43on the contrary that i is unconscious

32:49have you seen that movie the tenant

32:51roman polanski

32:53whenever somebody asked me if i've seen

32:55a movie i just always say i don't think

32:56so

32:58even if i know i have

33:00i figure i think i have found is just a

33:01safer way to proceed

33:04so i don't think so it's very creepy and

33:07has something to do with people around

33:09him turning into the

33:11the other that doesn't see him

33:14anyway

33:15we don't need to

33:17if it's a horror movie okay we have

33:19horror movies lined up and this is one

33:20of them thank you

33:23we have work to do

33:25but i want to make sure we get some more

33:26questions answered

33:29i have a question sam go ahead so is the

33:32purpose

33:34of the analyst to be placed

33:38or to be seen as object a by the

33:40analysion so

33:42does that cause transference

33:46what it does is it awakens desire

33:49and so if you look in seminar 17

33:52from the four discourses and you look at

33:54the discourse of the analyst

33:56you can see that the position of the

33:58subject the position of the speaker the

34:00analyst's position

34:02is designated with little

34:04a and i believe that what lacan is

34:07suggesting there

34:09is that a good analyst

34:11is a jump starter

34:14for the analyzan's desire

34:17and the first move is at some level

34:20to make the analyzand curious

34:24about the analyst

34:26now i'm using the word curious and not

34:28anxious

34:30but it could be as simple and for those

34:32of you that that work with patients i'm

34:34sure you've seen this where

34:36the analyzand is sitting across from you

34:38and looking at you as if to say what do

34:41you want from me

34:44oh i know what you're thinking

34:46or

34:46here's what's up with me okay now give

34:48me an answer

34:50you're supposed to know everything

34:53but in a way that is

34:55reserved and held back in a way that

34:58peaks the interest

34:59of the analysand

35:01now i think that part of the artistry of

35:03what would happen in the room and i'm no

35:05practicing locanian so we'd have to ask

35:07one

35:09is the ability to show up

35:11in the place of object a

35:15awaken the curiosity of the patient

35:19about you as an analyst

35:22and then over time

35:24redirect that curiosity

35:27back at themselves

35:29so that now the analyzand becomes

35:31curious about themselves

35:33why am i here

35:35what am i up to what's going on with me

35:39and i think that's part of the artistry

35:41of being a lacanian analyst is to

35:44awaken

35:45the subject desire

35:48and then redirect that desire back at

35:51them

35:53at least that's what i've heard

35:55and i think if you read some of bruce

35:56fink's work the clinical introduction to

35:58lacan

35:59you can see him spelling out some of

36:01this as well this kind of

36:03this kind of delicate dance of

36:04redirecting desire

36:07now what's important also is not just

36:09the position of the analyst

36:11but the position that the analysts

36:14discourse

36:16imposes on

36:18the analysand

36:20the analyze and sometimes will show up

36:22and want to play master i know what's

36:24wrong with me i'm here because i'm

36:26anxious and i need you to help me figure

36:28out x y and z they may even show up with

36:30a list

36:31of things that they want you to address

36:33they want to show up and play master

36:36a good lacanian analyst though speaks to

36:38them not like their masters but like

36:40their hysterics

36:42and i don't want to get too bogged down

36:44in the clinical substructure of neurosis

36:47known as hysteria

36:49because what lacan is here suggesting is

36:51that the analyst by playing object a

36:55is going to speak in a way that

36:56addresses the analyzand like they're a

36:59split subject

37:01he's not going to speak to them as

37:02though they are a whole coherent

37:05masterful being in other words he's not

37:08going to address their ego

37:11instead he's going to address the parts

37:13of them that feel insecure

37:15uncertain

37:16a little bit i don't know i can't really

37:19explain it

37:20so bruce fink has an example

37:23of a patient

37:24who shows up and says

37:28i was watching this movie the other

37:30night it was called the tenant

37:32and there's this character in there

37:34who's acting

37:37i don't know they just

37:38anyway they're in a relationship and and

37:40this character is treating their partner

37:42badly and

37:43i really got pissed off because like

37:46that's not the kind of

37:48relationship i want to be in

37:52and

37:53bruce says that he's tempted in this

37:54moment

37:56he says the temptation

37:58is to immediately jump on this

38:02expression of desire and ask the patient

38:05well what kind of relationship do you

38:07desire for yourself let's talk about

38:09what you might actually want for

38:11yourself

38:13incorrect that was a trap

38:15the better move

38:17is instead to talk about the feeling of

38:20repulsion

38:21and disgust that the person felt towards

38:24the person in the film that they don't

38:26want

38:27as their significant other

38:30what was it about them that got you so

38:32upset

38:34because that

38:36is not speaking to the desire of the ego

38:39but to the justice

38:42of the unconscious

38:44what you are doing in that moment is

38:46you're saying aha

38:47i just found something in your life that

38:50gets you hot

38:52that riles you up that troubles you

38:55isn't that interesting look at how alive

38:57you just were in that moment

39:01and now we're on the path of lacanian

39:03psychoanalysis

39:05not pursuing the parts of the subject

39:07that seem coherent

39:09in the sense of that's not the kind of

39:11relationship i want

39:13honey the kind of relationship that i

39:14want looks like blah blah blah and

39:16you're going to have to forgive me

39:18because i'm in the middle of watching

39:20the assassination of gianni versace

39:24and working through this character this

39:27sociopathic character of andrew cannon

39:30oh my gosh and all the things that he

39:32wants in this elaborate facade that is

39:34his

39:35sense of self that everyone seems ready

39:38to see through

39:40because behind that facade is a split

39:43subject

39:45and so the question here is not just

39:47what position does the analyst occupy

39:49but to what position do they speak

39:52they speak at the part of the subject

39:56that is not on display that is not

39:58polished in fact they speak at the part

40:01of the subject that all of the display

40:04and polish are designed to conceal

40:07that part of them that feels split

40:09insecure

40:10out of control

40:12the same way they felt a little out of

40:14control in their rage toward this person

40:16in the film

40:18that position is that of a split subject

40:20which is why if you look at the

40:22discourse of the analyst in seminar 17

40:25it's little a speaking at bard s

40:30you awaken their desire and speak to

40:32them

40:34in a way that highlights their cracks

40:36not in the mean way but in a way that

40:39calls that out

40:41now when i say speak to the crack

40:44i want you to notice what i'm pointing

40:46to at the as the object

40:49the object is not the split subject

40:52it's that which splits them

40:54that is the split itself

40:57and so tonight is going to be a night of

40:59elaborate math equations here's the

41:01first one

41:03you want to understand the split subject

41:05you have to understand this one plus one

41:08equals three

41:12and you know why it equals three right

41:15because object a

41:17is the minimum distance

41:20irreducible between two points that

41:23allow those points to remain distinct

41:26in the split subject you don't just have

41:28a bioanimalistic self

41:30and a sociolinguistic cell that are in

41:33tension with each other no

41:35what you have

41:37are all of these gaps between the two

41:40parts

41:41of your subjectivity those openings

41:44represented by the bar that goes through

41:47the letter s

41:49are a third element

41:52but the reason why we forget that one

41:54plus one equals three is because that

41:56third element is not an element like the

41:59rest

42:01not a thing it's not a part

42:04it's an opening

42:08it's a fissure it's a rupture it's an

42:10irreducible

42:12distance however slight

42:16you see the question of

42:18sexuality is oftentimes

42:20how close can i put these two bodies

42:23together

42:24how close

42:26can i imprecate these bodies

42:28yours inside of mine and mine inside of

42:31yours

42:32the khan's point is not that you become

42:35one in those moments

42:37but that your relationship becomes one

42:39of thirdness instead

42:42because what's on display at that point

42:45are all of your cracks of course

42:48but primarily the split between you and

42:50the other person

42:51two bodies pressed together are always

42:54still two bodies

42:55no matter how close

42:58or one they feel

43:00that's going to be lecon's point so the

43:02first math equation for us tonight is 1

43:04plus 1 equals 3

43:06and that third element that you add to

43:08it

43:08is you can call it the plus

43:10sign you can call it the equation itself

43:15but for us i think it's good to talk

43:17about it as the minimum distance

43:19required to have one

43:21and another

43:23together

43:24this is them kissing

43:28i couldn't resist

43:30can we have a light one question before

43:32we dive into material go ahead go ahead

43:34ara can you relate this to uh analysis

43:38please my understanding was that uh

43:41the

43:42analyst shows up as the big other lothra

43:45and what you were referring to earlier

43:48uh the suze supposed

43:50that the um

43:52analysis comes in

43:55uh believing that the analyst knows more

43:59about um

44:01him or her than she does and and the end

44:04of analysis is a successful analysis and

44:07my understanding is when the

44:11analysis realizes that the

44:14analyst doesn't know more

44:17that's a very good way to put it i've

44:19heard it put many different ways of how

44:22analysis ends

44:23the position you're describing is indeed

44:25the one i was alluding to in english

44:28it's translated usually as the subject

44:30supposed to know

44:31but hold on let me ask you but this is

44:33this is something that came to my mind

44:34one second ago this is really

44:36interesting to me susie supported this

44:37about like

44:39why wouldn't it be lobje supposed

44:42why why does the

44:45analysan see the analyst as a subject

44:49rather than an object

44:51oh good question

44:53i don't know

44:57i mean you could you could run it a

44:58couple different ways and come out with

45:00a pretty clean answer

45:03maybe it's because deep down the the

45:06inverse of that statement which is to

45:08say its truest

45:10component

45:12is

45:13is uh that the analyzand views

45:16themselves as an object

45:19that's very interesting

45:20and they know they know they're the

45:22piece of [ __ ]

45:23which is why they have to treat you dear

45:25clinician

45:27as the slave get to work give me your

45:29knowledge i'm paying for this you might

45:31even have had a patient show up and be

45:33like yeah you know what i'm the boss

45:36you're fired

45:38i'm paying for this so tell me what's up

45:41oh you're just gonna sit there and just

45:42take notes and not say anything

45:45come on man get to work i don't i mean i

45:48don't know how this works but i've heard

45:49horror stories it just sounds awful i

45:52can't even believe that then you would

45:54end a session and five minutes later

45:56have some other [ __ ] come into your

45:58office

45:59and try to do the same thing for like

46:01eight hours i can't even imagine that

46:03you all are saints you are miracle

46:06workers to be able to like process all

46:08that

46:09but yeah the subject supposed to know

46:11it's a great question of why that would

46:13be a subject and not an object but

46:15usually when you have

46:17addresses being designated and called

46:20out

46:21you can usually invert

46:24the positionality that is being assigned

46:27to them and

46:29read it back into the addressor to the

46:32person speaking so if i call you

46:35um

46:37an [ __ ]

46:39and we're in therapy it's probably

46:41because i feel like i'm the [ __ ]

46:44or maybe you know the inverse of

46:46whatever an [ __ ] is

46:48so

46:49it might be that i'm trying to perform

46:51as as being a really nice person and so

46:54you have to be the [ __ ] but you get

46:56into this dialectic

46:57that's pretty useful

46:59to i believe um

47:02but part of that dialectic is the

47:04analyst and showing up and assuming that

47:06you're the one who's supposed to have

47:08all the answers you are the subject even

47:10though you probably should be an object

47:12because you're certainly being treated

47:13as one you're the commodity supposed to

47:15know

47:16and and and that's a troubling place to

47:18be because

47:20if you will look at the graph

47:23where lacan is uh working out the the

47:26discourse of the analyst and let me go

47:29ahead and share the screen so you all

47:32can see this

47:33the discourse of the analyst

47:39here's your little a that's the position

47:41of the speaker

47:43here's the subject that they are

47:44addressing

47:45then there's this position of truth if

47:47you know seminar 17

47:50in the position of truth

47:53in the discourse of the analyst in

47:55seminar 17

47:56you have this figure which is knowledge

48:01this is usually the position of

48:03something that is hit

48:06usually from this person this person

48:08can't quite see what's underneath them

48:11this is their truth this is where they

48:13speak from this is who they speak to

48:15this is what they ask the person to

48:16produce but this is the truth

48:19of the speaker's position and i bring

48:22this up here not to take us too far

48:24afield

48:25but to just remind those of you that

48:27have studied 17 that in the position of

48:30truth

48:31the hidden position

48:33for the analyst is knowledge

48:37so the sub when the analyzer shows up

48:39and treats the therapist as the subject

48:42supposed to know

48:44they are tempting them

48:46to trot out all their knowledge

48:48tempting them in other words to change

48:50positions and instead of speaking in

48:54response

48:55from position

48:56object a

48:58if the analyst succumbs to this they

49:01will then speak from the position of

49:03knowledge

49:05and this puts them in a totally

49:07different discourse

49:09in fact it's gathered by just a simple

49:12quarter turn where each of the four

49:14positions here simply moves down one

49:17if you look at this you can see

49:19so s2 pops up little a shifts over split

49:23subject drops down

49:26whoops hold on a second

49:33and this would be

49:36s1

49:42just one minute and then and then i'll

49:44explain it here

49:46now what's happening in this moment is

49:48the animal is the analyst has given in

49:51to playing a different role now which is

49:53not that of the analyst but instead that

49:56of the professor

50:00or as lacan refers to it the university

50:06this is the university discourse

50:08so when that happens ira

50:11if the analyst responds in a way it says

50:14well actually it doesn't sound like you

50:16have anxiety at all dear sir in fact

50:18i've got some better ideas of what it is

50:20that might be bothering you

50:22in that case they're now no longer

50:24speaking from the position of object

50:26and thus no longer able to incite the

50:29desire or to mobilize the desire of the

50:32analyst and but now they're speaking

50:34from the position

50:36of a professor talking to a student

50:38trying to pique their curiosity

50:42and allow them to feel inadequate

50:44all the while neglecting the fact that

50:47they are in fact doing the work of the

50:49master

50:51this is the truth of the university

50:54according to lacan is that professors

50:56don't realize when they're dropping all

50:58kinds of knowledge and scandalizing

51:00students that they're just the

51:02mouthpiece for power

51:04and this is the great insight that marx

51:07had long before the khan the ruling

51:10ideas in any given era are always

51:14the ideas of the ruling class in that

51:16era and the professor all too often has

51:19been the mouthpiece for whatever is the

51:22ruling ideas

51:25so anyway you don't want to be that as

51:27an analyst i guess is the moral of this

51:28story

51:32okay um one last question when you made

51:34the symbol the the fingers and uh what

51:37would the um the analyst's goal be in

51:41terms of um

51:43uh i don't know the reconciling or um

51:48the space between the um

51:50the animal desires and the um

51:53uh

51:55the the the regulations against those

51:58primal desires

52:00i don't think that there's a search for

52:01reconciliation here

52:04i haven't ever seen that in writings uh

52:07from the comments let me just go back

52:08and say that in terms of what you said

52:10in the the

52:12the

52:13um

52:13the cracks between the the two

52:16um what would the analyst goal be

52:22maybe just to increase some awareness of

52:24that

52:25and i would say ultimately

52:28to allow the analyzand

52:31to be cool with it

52:32if you ask me after these years of

52:35studying look on and thinking about what

52:37this is about as a clinical practice

52:40i'm no clinician but my understanding of

52:43the end of analysis for lacan looks a

52:46lot like somebody who has completed some

52:49significant coursework on

52:51self-compassion

52:53they recognize that they are imperfect

52:56and they're cool with that

52:59in terms of happens as a result of that

53:01is that they now have a capacity to love

53:04not just love themselves but to love

53:05others so that in my view is the horizon

53:08whether you're in analysis or not of

53:11reading lacan

53:12is coming to terms

53:15right it's the talking gear coming to

53:17terms with the parts of you that feel

53:19inadequate incomplete

53:22accepting those parts even loving them

53:24even picking the worst part of your life

53:28and thanking

53:30the perpetrator

53:32that's how extreme some of these some of

53:34these thoughts go because if that

53:36horrible [ __ ] hadn't happened to you all

53:38those years ago

53:39you wouldn't be the person you are today

53:42and the person you are today is pretty

53:44damn solid it's kind of a good person i

53:47kind of like that person and you should

53:48too

53:50and as a result don't have regrets don't

53:52wish things would be different

53:54all of your flaws all this stuff you

53:56know

53:56it would be about accepting those

53:58and it would be about having a sense of

54:00compassion towards oneself when you [ __ ]

54:02up

54:03you're only human nobody's perfect

54:06people make mistakes

54:08and as a result being able to extend

54:11that

54:12acceptance of your own lack to another

54:15person which is to say to allow them to

54:17[ __ ] up to allow them to have a horrible

54:20past

54:21you ever been in a relationship where

54:23someone is kind of like holding you

54:25hostage to previous people you've had

54:27sex with

54:28like before you met them they're like

54:30looking down their nose at you because

54:31you happen to [ __ ] somebody else before

54:34you met them like huh what are you

54:36talking about that's not the same as me

54:37cheating on you fool

54:39that's not what that is like

54:41because i had sex with somebody 10 years

54:43ago doesn't mean that i had an affair

54:45are you tripping that doesn't work it

54:47doesn't work that way

54:48it would be about

54:50this kind of radical acceptance that

54:52lacan defines as love

54:55giving what you don't have

54:57and the reason why people add to someone

55:00who probably doesn't want it is because

55:02what you're doing in that moment

55:06is you're embracing the parts of a

55:08person that their ego can't come to

55:10terms with that they won't accept that

55:12they keep shoving aside

55:16this is what i would think

55:18would be a horizon

55:20ira for working through the lacanian

55:22tradition

55:23now i can't speak to this again for in a

55:25clinical context

55:27but i think it does hold over it does

55:30carry over into everyday life reading

55:32lacan would have this as an effect if

55:34done well

55:36what i thought you were going to go to

55:38uh was awareness of the split of being a

55:42split subject

55:44yeah that's fine that's great too

55:47but it would be an awareness that

55:48doesn't say i'm one plus one

55:52and thus twofold

55:55it would be a one plus one that yields

55:58an endless count and recount

56:03don't forget the origin of the word

56:06tell

56:08and

56:09count or tally

56:11they come from the same word to tell a

56:13tale

56:14is oftentimes to recount one there's a

56:17sense in which the coming to terms the

56:20narration of one's history

56:23where the past is no longer something

56:25that determines your life but something

56:27that you now have owned and claimed as

56:29your past known as history

56:31this kind of retelling

56:34is also a recounting

56:36and the math is fuzzy here

56:39so this self-awareness ira would be one

56:42plus one equals three that's me

56:45i'm one plus one equals three

56:48at the very least

56:50and the count would continue from there

56:54now

56:56i've got things

56:57i came here to say

57:00i came here to say some things to you

57:02all

57:04and i realize at this point

57:07our fifth session together

57:09that we could just keep on going in this

57:12direction

57:14and hell maybe that would be good enough

57:18but damn if i wouldn't feel remiss

57:22i came here to put you all through some

57:24paces and to draw some beautiful

57:26pictures on a blackboard

57:29the whiteboard is what i do in person

57:30the blackboard is what i do

57:32virtually

57:34but first i want to review some stuff

57:38i want to walk us through

57:41the three basic steps that we've got

57:44here if you want like a lacanian

57:46ontology this is it and i'm going to

57:48present these things in a way that are

57:50sequential

57:52but bear in mind that each step

57:55is retroactively constituted by the one

57:58that follows

58:00so it's not that one begets two it's

58:02that as soon as you have the number two

58:04you start imagining what one must have

58:06been

58:07remember that as we get going

58:09so first things first where we started

58:11here

58:12was with this subject of pure need not

58:14just tonight but with all of our

58:16sessions so far this is a mythical

58:19a priori

58:21presupposed being in what lacan calls

58:25the here and now of the all in the

58:28process of becoming

58:30don't forget that's also what's popping

58:32in the chapter on buddha's eyelids

58:35it's not just about ones and zeros it's

58:37about the all and nothing

58:40the all in question here

58:42is this bio animalistic state

58:45that the subject of pure need occupies

58:47the representation that we have of that

58:50state is just a simple delta

58:54a triangle

58:56i'm going to share my screen again so we

58:58can start

58:59throwing up some of these images

59:02the subject of pure need is represented

59:06by

59:08a simple triangle you also see it in

59:10lacan represented in these tables

59:14as an s

59:15this is the subject of pure need

59:18what comes next

59:20is the imaginary

59:23here we talk about it in a different

59:25triangle the pre-editable triangle that

59:27we were working with that looks

59:29something like this

59:30where you have the child here

59:35you have the maternal function up here

59:38and then you have this object in the

59:40corner

59:41the imaginary phallus

59:44so the next object for us is this

59:47imaginary phallus this is a pre-editable

59:50triangle that is ruled by the child's

59:53relationship to mother's desire

59:56the child has a desire for the mother

59:58realizes mom has other interests and

1:00:01then tries to identify with those things

1:00:03in order to get

1:00:04the maternal function directed at it in

1:00:07order to secure in other words and

1:00:09satisfy the child's desire for the

1:00:12mother this next step is imaginary it's

1:00:15not mythical it's imaginary

1:00:18and it's represented for us by the

1:00:19imaginary object here

1:00:22greek fee

1:00:24next

1:00:25from imaginary triangles

1:00:28to symbolic squares

1:00:30this is the point at which the paternal

1:00:32function

1:00:34shows up

1:00:36and cuts a line through here

1:00:39introducing a fourth element making this

1:00:41a square

1:00:42the symbol here

1:00:45is of the imaginary phallus

1:00:47removed

1:00:49so here is our mythical

1:00:52here is our imaginary and here is our

1:00:55symbolic

1:00:56this is a properly edible experience

1:01:00not the pre-edible triangle of the

1:01:02imaginary but the edible square of the

1:01:05symbolic

1:01:06what happens in this moment as you know

1:01:09is that the name or the no of the father

1:01:11cuts in

1:01:13denies everyone access to this object

1:01:16saying that the mother doesn't have it

1:01:18and the kid can't be it for her

1:01:22in other words subtracting this element

1:01:25from the equation

1:01:27and in its place

1:01:29some space emerges

1:01:32an opening

1:01:33between

1:01:35the devouring desire of the mother

1:01:38and the child who now has some breathing

1:01:41room

1:01:42in which to cultivate a desire of their

1:01:44own

1:01:46this process

1:01:47where the know of the father introduces

1:01:50some breathing room or a cut

1:01:53is known as castration

1:01:55you'll oftentimes hear it referred to as

1:01:56alienation as well it is represented by

1:02:00parens

1:02:01minus fee for our purposes

1:02:05the next term

1:02:07is the signifier for lack in lacanian

1:02:11algebra

1:02:12it's the lack that becomes the cause of

1:02:16the child's desire you see once

1:02:18the maternal function's desire

1:02:21has been

1:02:22cut and set aside introducing some

1:02:25breathing room for the child that's a

1:02:27gap or an opening

1:02:29some breathing room in which the child

1:02:35the symbol we have

1:02:37for that

1:02:38is a

1:02:40a is the symbol for lack that we have

1:02:44that comes to

1:02:46mark this void space

1:02:51it is a sign of lack

1:02:53and little a is how we

1:02:55figure or symbolize this lack it's the

1:02:58lack that is the cause

1:03:01or you might even think of it as the

1:03:02opportunity or as i've referred to it

1:03:04tonight the opening

1:03:06for the child's desire

1:03:09so so far our trajectory looks like this

1:03:11there's a subject of pure need

1:03:14then you have this imaginary triangle

1:03:17then the imaginary triangle

1:03:20has to account for a symbolic cut or a

1:03:22rupture

1:03:24then we get this fourth term that allows

1:03:26us to designate this open space

1:03:31what i want to do now is call out

1:03:35this element

1:03:37lacan refers to this

1:03:39on several occasions in our readings for

1:03:41tonight

1:03:44maybe you caught this too

1:03:48as the zero point

1:03:51pages 242 253 254

1:03:56it's all over this and there's zero talk

1:03:58elsewhere too

1:03:59pages 25 104 329 will get there

1:04:03eventually

1:04:05there's a lot about zeros happening in

1:04:08this seminar

1:04:11to identify little a

1:04:14as the zero point

1:04:16is to do something very interesting

1:04:19something that in our case is going to

1:04:21require a new color and with it

1:04:24another really complicated

1:04:26math equation

1:04:29one

1:04:30minus

1:04:31one

1:04:32equals and this time there's no trick to

1:04:34it

1:04:36zero

1:04:39now let's replace

1:04:41these elements with the terms that we

1:04:44have

1:04:56here it is

1:04:58this is what lecon is up to when it

1:05:00refers to little a as a zero point

1:05:02what is the number zero but a signifier

1:05:06for nothing

1:05:07a signifier for that that marks a place

1:05:10where nothing is

1:05:15it is a figure of lack

1:05:17it is the algebraic term like the number

1:05:20zero that indicates a place in the

1:05:24symbolic where nothing

1:05:26shows up

1:05:29and i like that nothing shows up there

1:05:32in every sense of the phrase

1:05:35this little a designates the point in

1:05:37the symbolic where nothing shows up

1:05:47i guess i'll go ahead and save this just

1:05:49in case but i'm ready to move on to the

1:05:51next step in this analysis

1:05:57first

1:05:58questions real quick before we jump on

1:06:00to the next phase

1:06:08all right then let's recall where we've

1:06:10been

1:06:12now i'm not going to slow down i'm going

1:06:14to keep moving fast here

1:06:17knowing that all of this is recorded and

1:06:19you can always go back

1:06:23and see what's being said

1:06:24what i've given you here

1:06:29and to my knowledge it's been given

1:06:31nowhere else

1:06:32is a formula for anxiety

1:06:38the desire of a lacking other

1:06:41greater than

1:06:44the cause of the desire

1:06:47of the split subject

1:06:50now what i want to focus on here is this

1:06:52little a again

1:06:54lacan refers to this moment sometimes

1:06:58only once that i can find in here

1:07:01as a coincidence without merger of two

1:07:04points

1:07:05first the anxiety point

1:07:14and second the point of desire

1:07:19hey sam i oh i can't see the what you're

1:07:22writing

1:07:26you

1:07:38okay so nobody can see what i'm writing

1:07:40here all right hold on hold on let's put

1:07:42on some kind of weird that's just that

1:07:44someone put on together mode so what

1:07:46you'll have to do is go to view in the

1:07:48top right hand corner and change it back

1:07:50to grid and then you can see sam screen

1:07:55yeah so upper right hand corner go to

1:07:57view

1:07:58did that work

1:08:01um

1:08:05hold on let me stop sharing and then

1:08:07i'll come back to it real quick and see

1:08:08if that helps

1:08:12okay so now does everyone just see us

1:08:15again

1:08:16all right

1:08:17so now let's go to share screen again

1:08:23how's it looking y'all

1:08:34if i go to grid view can you also

1:08:40are we good

1:08:42yes

1:08:43all right great thank you

1:08:44so what we're working on here is this

1:08:46little a

1:08:47and what lacan is suggesting here

1:08:50is that it's the anxiety point

1:08:54but it also at some level serves as a

1:08:57point of desire yeah what is it

1:09:00is there another technical issue

1:09:03what's up

1:09:04y'all i thought i heard a chirp or

1:09:07something

1:09:12all right thumbs up if you can see the

1:09:14screen in black again just to make sure

1:09:16we're all good

1:09:22thumbs up please

1:09:25we can see your skype window

1:09:30what does that mean you can see

1:09:36my skype window

1:09:38yeah if you go back to the black screen

1:09:41we can see the black screen

1:09:44so you can see whatever it is that i

1:09:47am hovering over

1:09:49yeah all right got it thank you oliver

1:09:51so damn helpful damn okay

1:09:54so what we have here then

1:09:56is this formula for anxiety

1:09:58and we have a finer tuned analysis

1:10:01emerging of this little a

1:10:04and what i want to know is

1:10:06if it's true as lacan claims on page 242

1:10:13that this little a

1:10:15as the zero point

1:10:17can be

1:10:19a coincidence without merger of these

1:10:22two elements

1:10:24the origin of desire

1:10:26and the object of anxiety

1:10:29how are we to understand this

1:10:31how can little a be both of these things

1:10:33at once

1:10:42one way that we can start to get some

1:10:44answers to this question

1:10:46and hear you all i'm gonna move on

1:10:49to another drawing and one that you've

1:10:51seen before

1:10:53is to get us back to this table that

1:10:56lacan is messing with throughout the

1:10:58middle portion of this book

1:11:01and i drew it for you last time

1:11:04it looked something like this

1:11:16recognize this one

1:11:19and he puts joey sans over here

1:11:24corresponding to the upper level

1:11:26he puts anxiety

1:11:31here

1:11:32and then desire below

1:11:36and what i was telling you last time is

1:11:38the way to understand the progression of

1:11:40this table because it does have some

1:11:41movement built into it

1:11:43is to notice the circle

1:11:46that occurs here you start at this point

1:11:50with the subject of pure need

1:11:52passes over and through the big other

1:11:55and as a product of this you get these

1:11:58two elements

1:12:00which result in desire and fantasy

1:12:03but notice how the khan's got this set

1:12:05up anxiety

1:12:08occupies this median point between the

1:12:11two

1:12:12this is what we've been trying to

1:12:13understand

1:12:16he leaves us with this

1:12:18and then somewhere in our readings

1:12:20he shifts to talking about

1:12:23moms and babies he shifts to talking

1:12:27about uterine experience

1:12:30and here what i want to do is map this

1:12:33onto

1:12:34these three levels

1:12:37the series of circles that i think might

1:12:39help us understand what he's up to

1:12:43really more like

1:12:45oddly shaped doughnuts

1:12:50this is the experience la khan is

1:12:52referring to

1:12:53when he talks about the uterine

1:12:56experience in seminar 10. here is the

1:12:58maternal organism

1:13:03the mama to be

1:13:05here is the baby

1:13:08the individual to be

1:13:10and then here this element in between

1:13:15is

1:13:21the mammalian component

1:13:23represented for lacan here by the

1:13:24placenta

1:13:29the baby is connected to the placenta is

1:13:31connected to the uterine wall of the mom

1:13:35now this is corresponding with the upper

1:13:38level

1:13:41it is a mythical level now we all know

1:13:43this is anatomically true

1:13:47what we want to get at is what happens

1:13:49next

1:13:51the next thing that happens in this

1:13:56process

1:13:59is an opening

1:14:00for desire

1:14:02which lacan would have us draw as such

1:14:06he says there's a first cut

1:14:14that results

1:14:16in a split subject the mama is still

1:14:19here

1:14:22and so also is her attachment

1:14:27to the mana

1:14:29the placenta in this case

1:14:32what is emerging in this moment is what

1:14:34lacan calls the desire point

1:14:42the anatomical example he's working with

1:14:44here is

1:14:46a rather normal birth

1:14:48where the baby pops out

1:14:51and then a little while later you know

1:14:53what happens next the placenta is

1:14:55delivered it's a second delivery

1:14:58but what comes first

1:15:00after you have this holistic experience

1:15:03so to speak is a severance

1:15:06of the baby from the maternal organism

1:15:14interestingly lacan refers to this

1:15:16process

1:15:17as sep partition

1:15:20not separation sep partition

1:15:22on page 237 it's a partition on the

1:15:26inside he says in a way that is internal

1:15:29to the child's existence

1:15:32this is the emergence of a partial

1:15:34object

1:15:36in the oral drive

1:15:38this is going to become

1:15:40the breast

1:15:43this is the part of the mom that belongs

1:15:45to her that the child longs for

1:15:50this is the partial object it's the

1:15:52partial object that will awaken desire

1:15:56it's the partial object

1:15:58depending on your drive

1:16:00around which you will later circulate in

1:16:03life

1:16:05so it's interesting to think of a as the

1:16:07opening here

1:16:09but as a partial object it also can work

1:16:12here

1:16:13but this space in between is the desire

1:16:16point

1:16:20and we've got some of these terms

1:16:22i want to talk about what happens

1:16:24in anxiety using the exact same

1:16:27structures that we were just messing

1:16:29with

1:16:33when anxiety

1:16:34occurs

1:16:36there is a second cut

1:16:40according to lacan

1:16:52in which

1:16:54the maternal organism is no longer whole

1:16:56or coherent but shown to be lacking

1:17:00just as much

1:17:01here we see the emergence of

1:17:04anxiety point

1:17:13now you've got a proper configuration

1:17:16where you have little a here in the

1:17:17middle

1:17:18marking the space and on one side of it

1:17:21you've got the anxiety point on the

1:17:23other side of it you've got the desire

1:17:25point this is that coincidence

1:17:28without merger that lacan is talking

1:17:30about

1:17:32now if you go back down to this desire

1:17:35element

1:17:36the child is born the placenta drops out

1:17:38the child is unaware of this whatever

1:17:40but the child does become aware of the

1:17:42maternal breast

1:17:44just keeping it very traditional

1:17:48that becomes an object of desire

1:17:51a desire for nourishment a desire for

1:17:54food not just because

1:17:57it keeps you alive

1:17:59right

1:18:01as a subject of pure need but also

1:18:03because it just feels good

1:18:07and this is a trick that a lot of

1:18:08nursing moms deal with

1:18:10when is the baby just there

1:18:13chewing on the breast and when are they

1:18:15actually feeding

1:18:16sometimes the kid falls asleep

1:18:18other times the mother will say things

1:18:20like you know what this this kid's not

1:18:22hungry

1:18:23they just like nursing they just like

1:18:25being there on mother's breast

1:18:28that is a desire

1:18:30to be close to mom to close this gap

1:18:36when anxiety occurs it's something

1:18:38different mother is no longer seen

1:18:42as a feeder as a provider of nourishment

1:18:46who is full of milk

1:18:48but instead

1:18:50somebody

1:18:52who lacks

1:18:53in this case milk

1:18:55this is anxiety fundamentally lacan says

1:18:58about the breast drying up

1:19:02anxiety at the oral phase is about a

1:19:05breast

1:19:06quotation marks around breast drying up

1:19:10the glass going empty

1:19:14or better yet the bar running out

1:19:17of beer

1:19:19because that would be the big other who

1:19:20is now shown as lacking

1:19:25there are lots of examples of this

1:19:31what i want to suggest though

1:19:33is that we see a very interesting move

1:19:36that is occurring here

1:19:38from the imaginary

1:19:41to castration

1:19:43to desire to fantasy

1:19:46at the level of desire here

1:19:51it's a coherent

1:19:53move

1:19:56which we might be able to represent like

1:19:58this

1:20:10the level of anxiety we see something

1:20:12totally different

1:20:14we see this little a

1:20:16being forced

1:20:19to account for itself

1:20:21in a different way

1:20:24this mark as we know from our work with

1:20:26the symbolic square is the mark of

1:20:29castration it's not the mark of lack

1:20:33but of castration

1:20:35the predecessor to lack

1:20:38in anxiety

1:20:39a big other who themselves is lacking

1:20:43shows up

1:20:44and doesn't just demand

1:20:47and close out the opening in which you

1:20:49might pursue your desire

1:20:52they show up and demand that you show up

1:20:54as castrated

1:20:56show me prove it

1:20:58this is precisely what lacan is working

1:21:00at on page 46 and why we spent some time

1:21:04working on this part

1:21:11i think it's important to hold in mind

1:21:13this shift

1:21:15from

1:21:16the subtracted phallus

1:21:19to little a in desire which is that

1:21:22trajectory that we were working on that

1:21:24looked like this don't forget

1:21:34i'm not stepping too far away from this

1:21:36here y'all

1:21:43this is the entire ontology

1:21:46subject of pure need imaginary triangle

1:21:49symbolic square the opening of lack that

1:21:53in turn becomes the cause for the desire

1:21:56of a split subject

1:21:58an extension if you want to go further

1:22:02the mobilization of desire at the level

1:22:04of fantasy

1:22:05a split subject in relation to their a

1:22:07that would be the next step here what's

1:22:10happening in the field of anxiety is a

1:22:13reversal

1:22:16where the subject the desiring subject

1:22:19is not just being marched back to their

1:22:21lack

1:22:23but being marched back one step further

1:22:26to their castration

1:22:29this is why lacan again

1:22:31and those famous pages some of the best

1:22:34pages i think so far in this seminar

1:22:3745 and 46

1:22:3946 what the neurotic shrinks back from

1:22:42is not castration but from turning his

1:22:45castration into what the other lacks

1:22:49he shrinks back from turning his

1:22:51castration into something positive

1:22:53namely the guarantee of the function of

1:22:55the other

1:22:56this is important

1:22:58because castration is experienced by the

1:23:01subject as a negative

1:23:03it is a taking away a subtractive

1:23:06prohibitive no that we've spoken so much

1:23:09about

1:23:10when anxiety strikes

1:23:12that negation

1:23:14that produces the opening for the

1:23:17subject to pursue their desire is

1:23:20positivized

1:23:22it becomes the object

1:23:24of the other's desire

1:23:27and says give it to me i want that show

1:23:30me that you've undergone it

1:23:33show me that you're castrated

1:23:35and you can scroll down on 46 and see

1:23:37this playing out

1:23:39this can only ensure for himself by a

1:23:41means of a signifier and the signifier

1:23:44is necessarily missing

1:23:46the subject is summoned in anxiety to

1:23:49this missing place

1:23:51to tender the exact change

1:23:54in the shape of a sign

1:23:56the sign of his own castration

1:24:00the sign of the subject's castration

1:24:03is this

1:24:06when anxiety happens

1:24:09hear me now the opening in which the

1:24:12subject used to cultivate their desire

1:24:16is being marched back

1:24:21to the point of castration that first

1:24:24cut that opened up that place for the

1:24:27subject to move into

1:24:31that is how i read what lacan is saying

1:24:33here

1:24:34about the anxiety point and the point of

1:24:36desire

1:24:38coinciding at times but not in ways that

1:24:41allow them to merge

1:24:45which raises a really key question for

1:24:47us

1:24:50what's left

1:24:52after anxiety

1:24:54what can you do after anxiety

1:24:58well

1:25:01note our table here

1:25:02if this arrow is an accurate description

1:25:07what comes after desire is anxiety

1:25:10and what comes after anxiety

1:25:14is joisons

1:25:16not

1:25:17the mythical

1:25:18j zero

1:25:20of the subject of pure need which is why

1:25:23we put jewish science in quotation marks

1:25:24here lacan is very clear that if we can

1:25:27even use the word jewish sons to

1:25:29describe this uterific experience which

1:25:33we really can't technically that's an

1:25:35error we can't actually use the words

1:25:37you sounds to describe this

1:25:39mythical presupposed state of oneness

1:25:43we can just call it j zero because that

1:25:44[ __ ] don't exist now bear in mind what

1:25:47you already know about zero two as i say

1:25:49that

1:25:50point three here

1:25:52is like juan

1:25:55it's a different kind of jewish songs

1:25:57what i want to suggest here before we

1:25:59take a little break

1:26:03is that what's left to do after anxiety

1:26:09is to reclaim joisons

1:26:12and i use the word reclaim here

1:26:15very hesitantly

1:26:17because it's not like joey sons was once

1:26:19had and lost and now we're regaining it

1:26:22anxiety though tills the soil

1:26:25for suicides

1:26:27on the other side of anxiety what i want

1:26:30to suggest

1:26:32is not more desire

1:26:35but instead

1:26:36enjoyment

1:26:39desire

1:26:40is the prey of anxiety

1:26:43anxiety preys on the desire

1:26:46of the subject

1:26:48what

1:26:49however

1:26:51the death of anxiety

1:26:53turns up

1:26:54the soil that it tills for the subject

1:26:58is that of enjoyment

1:27:01the other side of anxiety is a kind of

1:27:04jewish songs

1:27:06that is accessed

1:27:08by the partial satisfaction of desire

1:27:12in the drive

1:27:16this is the uppermost return arrow of

1:27:20the graph of desire

1:27:23which passes from

1:27:28the drive

1:27:34you can see it on page four yourself

1:27:36which occurs in a field of castration

1:27:39all the way back over

1:27:44to

1:27:44joissan's

1:27:46this trajectory from desire to anxiety

1:27:49to jewish sons is also i believe on

1:27:52display at the uppermost

1:27:55arc

1:27:56in the graph of

1:27:58desire now that's a lot

1:28:01and we're going to unpack some more of

1:28:03this as we go

1:28:05but for right now i want to take a pause

1:28:07we're at 7 35

1:28:10which means we're halfway through

1:28:12tonight's work

1:28:13let's take 10

1:28:15everybody and come on back here

1:28:18at about

1:28:207 48.

1:28:23okay we are officially on break come

1:28:26back at 7 48 and we'll be ready to

1:28:28answer questions and take a few more

1:28:30steps

1:38:37okay welcome back everybody i realized

1:38:39that last stretch was a bit of a bliss

1:38:42so what i'm going to do is i'm going to

1:38:43go back to sharing screen

1:38:47and with any amount of luck you should

1:38:49be able to see where we just were

1:38:52and please know that i'm happy to

1:38:54explain anything here further

1:38:56and i'm also happy to

1:38:58to trot out some illustrations one of

1:39:00which is actually pretty disturbing but

1:39:03i've been saving it all week for you

1:39:13so looking at this

1:39:15imagery here

1:39:17of yellow green and blue

1:39:20what questions do you have

1:39:24or what points would you like me to

1:39:26rehearse or explain more

1:39:48and again just remember that we can um

1:39:50go back through this in the recording

1:39:52too if that's going to be easier

1:40:22well let's first then talk about this

1:40:25anxiety thing

1:40:27and i want to hit you with that

1:40:28disturbing example which i remembered

1:40:30the other night

1:40:32i was hanging out with a family

1:40:34and and the

1:40:37the mother

1:40:39of the two daughters in the household

1:40:42told them

1:40:45can you all hear me okay

1:40:47i want to make sure i only have to say

1:40:49this once all right cool thank you

1:40:52she told them

1:40:54in front of others

1:40:57think of me as the tuna can

1:41:00bobbing along in the sea

1:41:03the tuna can

1:41:04that

1:41:06can't see me but is nevertheless

1:41:09looking

1:41:11she says to her children

1:41:13i used to have great tits

1:41:16until you sucked them off

1:41:20now don't get caught up in the verbiage

1:41:21of things being sucked off

1:41:24but focus on what we're doing here

1:41:27at the level of anxiety

1:41:32if the anxiety point

1:41:34in the case of the oral drive

1:41:37would be

1:41:39not a desire

1:41:41to be fed by a full other and that's

1:41:44important to note here the mama in

1:41:47question at this point

1:41:50is taken to be a very full

1:41:52other in this case full of milk

1:41:56at the level of anxiety i told you this

1:41:58is anxiety

1:42:01about the breast potentially drying up

1:42:03in other words there not being

1:42:06a lot of milk there

1:42:08in this case the mother would pass from

1:42:11being a full

1:42:12feeder

1:42:14to a lacking

1:42:17and thus desirous being

1:42:19that's why we go from an unbarred a here

1:42:22to a bard a

1:42:27the mother is now seen to be lacking

1:42:29represented in the graph of desire

1:42:34by this element a signifier

1:42:38of mother's lack and that was pretty

1:42:40much what this lady trotted out

1:42:43was that she used to have great tits and

1:42:45thus be an object of desire and a sexual

1:42:48being presumably in exchange

1:42:51until these little desirous beings

1:42:54showed up and drained her

1:42:58sucked her tits off

1:43:01here the child's dependence on the

1:43:03mother for sustenance is targeted

1:43:06called out

1:43:08signaled

1:43:09and addressed kicked back to the child

1:43:12and called for

1:43:14a response

1:43:15account for the fact

1:43:18that it was your lack that left me with

1:43:21mine

1:43:23you see how this is working

1:43:26here is

1:43:29our child

1:43:34here is

1:43:35the lack in them

1:43:36that is bigger

1:43:38for a partial object here known as the

1:43:40breast

1:43:42and here

1:43:43is this parent

1:43:45who just showed up and said

1:43:47i want this back

1:43:49that's mine i used to have them and now

1:43:52i don't have it anymore and as a result

1:43:54i lack give it back to me

1:44:01i think this is what lacan is getting at

1:44:04as he ramps up to the drives

1:44:06specifically the oral drive with this

1:44:08discussion of mammalian existence early

1:44:12on

1:44:14so you can think of nursing as the basic

1:44:16oral drive here

1:44:17a desire for sustenance a desire for the

1:44:20breast

1:44:21and then did you notice did you notice

1:44:23this move where lacan turns from the

1:44:26nursing child to the vampire

1:44:30what is vampirism

1:44:32an anxious fantasy or image

1:44:36of the breast drying up

1:44:39and of the oral drive passing from

1:44:42a desire for self-nourishment and

1:44:45comfort and care at the level

1:44:48of nursing

1:44:50to the very destruction

1:44:53of the being that would otherwise keep

1:44:55it alive

1:44:56vampirism

1:44:58passing from sucking the milk

1:45:01out of a full other who can produce more

1:45:04later to keep the child alive

1:45:06to sucking the warm vital source

1:45:09of this very being's nourishment not the

1:45:12nourishment of the child but the

1:45:13nourishment of the mother

1:45:16the vampire is a figure of anxiety

1:45:20because it suggests that once the milk

1:45:22runs out

1:45:24blood is going to follow

1:45:26and once the sucking passes from milk to

1:45:29blood

1:45:30eventually

1:45:32the mom is not just going to be lacking

1:45:35in milk

1:45:36she herself is going to die

1:45:39she will not just be drained of milk but

1:45:42she will be drained of life itself

1:45:46you can see lacan working this out in

1:45:48the 230s pages 236 and 238 in fact are

1:45:54the key passages here

1:45:56the one on 238 deserves some special

1:46:00attention from us

1:46:04so flip with me if you will to 238

1:46:08now

1:46:09i just flipped back over to this screen

1:46:12do you still see the black board in

1:46:14front of you or do you now see me and

1:46:16the rest of us

1:46:18i see the skype window now okay great

1:46:20that's totally fine as long as you can

1:46:22hear me and we can work through this

1:46:23together

1:46:25so 236 was one i called out

1:46:28this is where vampirism is first

1:46:31brought up

1:46:32but 238 is the one i want to call your

1:46:35attention to

1:46:37i'd say it's probably a dozen lines up

1:46:39from the bottom on 238 the passage

1:46:41begins likewise

1:46:44i haven't brought up the phantasm

1:46:46fantasmatic image of the vampire just

1:46:49for the sake of it

1:46:50do you see that

1:46:52yeah the vampire is not dreamt of in the

1:46:57human imagination

1:46:59in any other way than as a mode of

1:47:01fusing

1:47:03or initial subtraction at the very life

1:47:06force where the assailing subject can

1:47:09find

1:47:11and here's the key point the well head

1:47:14of his joissance

1:47:17when i'm working through this table and

1:47:20telling you that after desire comes

1:47:23anxiety and after anxiety comes

1:47:25jouessance this is one of the passages

1:47:28that i'm vamping on if you will

1:47:34this move from

1:47:36the full other

1:47:38loaded with milk

1:47:40to the lacking other

1:47:42not only devoid of milk but eventually

1:47:44to be drained of life itself that's how

1:47:47significant the lack and the big other

1:47:49here is

1:47:50opens the door to something

1:47:53in fact notice the use of word here well

1:47:55head

1:47:56i don't have the french in front of me

1:47:58but i kind of wonder what is meant by

1:48:00well head

1:48:02is this like the start of some kind of

1:48:04river

1:48:05is this the origin of the mississippi

1:48:08somewhere deep in minnesota

1:48:11is this the beginning

1:48:13of the flow of a different flow

1:48:16if it is it is not the flow of desire

1:48:19and it is not the flow of anxiety this

1:48:21is the well-head of juice

1:48:25at the outer reaches of anxiety when the

1:48:28big other has been drained not only

1:48:32of what it was we once desired from it

1:48:36but from what it also depends on for its

1:48:38own existence

1:48:40we now have the source of another stream

1:48:44of experience

1:48:46and that experience is enjoyment

1:48:50this is where i'm getting

1:48:52this turn towards joisons not just from

1:48:56a careful reading of the table

1:48:59that he's been developing throughout the

1:49:00seminar

1:49:03but also of the progression that this

1:49:05table suggests the reading of this table

1:49:09suggests that you will be passing from

1:49:11desire to anxiety

1:49:13and then on the return circuit to

1:49:15joissance

1:49:18this is how we start getting to that

1:49:19juice

1:49:20something on the other side of anxiety

1:49:25you'll also note on the following page

1:49:28239

1:49:30lacan doubles down

1:49:32first full paragraph

1:49:35this is what allows us to justify what

1:49:37the clinic shows us very frequently

1:49:40and now i'm not a clinician but if this

1:49:42is what you all are seeing when you work

1:49:44with patients

1:49:46damn i must be in the long in the wrong

1:49:47line of work

1:49:49namely the fundamental equivalence

1:49:51between orgasm

1:49:53and at least certain forms of anxiety

1:49:57the possibility of an orgasm occurring

1:49:59at the height of an anguishing situation

1:50:02the possibility of eroticization so we

1:50:05are told all over the place

1:50:08of an anguishing situation that is

1:50:10sought out as such

1:50:12in order to get off on it

1:50:15so here we have at the peak of anxiety

1:50:21a bizarre

1:50:22turn towards joisons

1:50:25a well-head

1:50:27of the split subject's enjoyment

1:50:31to the point even of capturing that

1:50:34ultimate

1:50:35experience of jouessant's orgasm

1:50:39now it's tempting to think about this

1:50:42in terms of couples

1:50:44that fight in order to [ __ ]

1:50:46and that in fact might have a pretty

1:50:48quick turnaround

1:50:50a fight [ __ ] on a regular basis

1:50:53the notion of makeup sex here comes to

1:50:55mind as well

1:50:58so also though does this lacanian notion

1:51:02of enjoying one's symptoms

1:51:06what i would like to suggest is that

1:51:08another way to read

1:51:10this

1:51:11well head of jewish sons that comes from

1:51:13anxiety

1:51:15is to think about all the ways that we

1:51:18get off on being overwrought

1:51:22all the ways that as anxious generalized

1:51:25or acute subjects

1:51:28we find ourselves accessing joisons at

1:51:32the level of the symptomatic expression

1:51:34of what ails us

1:51:36of our own anxiety

1:51:39enjoying one's symptoms strikes me as

1:51:42another way of talking about the

1:51:43transition from anxiety

1:51:46to joisons especially if you're

1:51:48symptomatic

1:51:50of anxiety

1:51:53you might also think of examples

1:51:55where

1:51:56somebody who is anxious

1:51:59passes over into a fit of rage rage also

1:52:03counts as joisons

1:52:05in fact i just saw an example of this

1:52:07today

1:52:12saw someone leaving my building

1:52:16i know which car is hers it's parked on

1:52:18the curb just down the street i was

1:52:21walking the dog i just walked by her car

1:52:24the side window had been busted out the

1:52:26night before somebody broke into her car

1:52:28stole all her [ __ ] whatever

1:52:32she sees her car window missing

1:52:35and doesn't just open the door leaving

1:52:38the building to go check on her car she

1:52:40pushes the door so hard that it slams

1:52:44open and hits the side of the building

1:52:47and leaves a dent in the wall

1:52:50here we see a moment of anxiety

1:52:53what has been taken from me

1:52:56what has been stolen from my car

1:52:59what am i missing

1:53:00what an invasion of my personal space

1:53:04and in san francisco just like this [ __ ]

1:53:05just happens day in and day out

1:53:08what's been taken from me

1:53:10i'm anxious about it

1:53:12what did they take from me

1:53:15when i wasn't there

1:53:17hear me now

1:53:19transformed into a fit

1:53:22of anger

1:53:25and here's what happened next

1:53:28i saw her i know her

1:53:31we walk over to her car together if

1:53:33you've ever seen a broken car window

1:53:34it's not like all the glass just

1:53:36suddenly falls in

1:53:38it goes into these little balls these

1:53:40little cubes that's basically there to

1:53:42cut you up without killing your ass when

1:53:44[ __ ] goes south in a car accident right

1:53:46if it was all like sharp plates of glass

1:53:48you'd be [ __ ] dead all of us would

1:53:50probably be dead at this point

1:53:52but she starts rattling the rest

1:53:54the remnant cubes of glass out of the

1:53:57window

1:53:59and sure enough

1:54:00just because they're tiny cubes doesn't

1:54:01mean they can't cut you

1:54:04she winds up

1:54:05with not a squirting cut

1:54:08but a dripping cut that won't stop

1:54:12her gash kept oozing

1:54:15to the point that when i was calling the

1:54:18city basically just to tell them that

1:54:19there's glass on the sidewalk come pick

1:54:21that [ __ ] up i walk my dog and people up

1:54:22and down the street you know pick up the

1:54:24glass and the city will come and sweep

1:54:25it up

1:54:27i looked down with my phone to take the

1:54:29image and i realized

1:54:31that the glass across the pavement and

1:54:34the sidewalk plate was now splattered

1:54:37with blood

1:54:39not spray but drips

1:54:41large pools sometimes even a dime size

1:54:46and i said yo yo yo yo

1:54:49you know you're bleeding

1:54:51like i'm not trying to get all up in

1:54:52that like i'll help you but like there's

1:54:54blood now on your car door there's blood

1:54:56on the sidewalk

1:55:03this is almost certainly what i came

1:55:05here to tell you about

1:55:06i didn't realize it though until this

1:55:08afternoon when the [ __ ] went down this

1:55:10person had her car broken into

1:55:15she was in a state of juice

1:55:18her anxiety very quickly passed over

1:55:23into a much more

1:55:27effective state

1:55:29a state of bodily intensification

1:55:32to the point of having her ass carved up

1:55:37on the object of her anxiety and not

1:55:39even notice it

1:55:41i'm like how can you not even notice

1:55:44that you got blood at your feet there's

1:55:46blood on your car door

1:55:49and she's like

1:55:50they didn't even take my

1:55:53audio cable

1:55:55what she realized

1:55:57actually

1:55:58nothing had been taken from her car

1:56:01nothing was missing things were out of

1:56:03place but nothing was gone

1:56:08it was a bizarre experience i'm not

1:56:10entirely sure what to do with it but i

1:56:13bring it up as an illustration of the

1:56:15way that fits of anxiety

1:56:18can condition

1:56:20outbursts of jewish songs

1:56:22so these are some examples

1:56:24building on what lacan is saying about

1:56:27nursing and vampirism

1:56:30and this whole imagery of flowing jewish

1:56:33sons

1:56:36it's not our final word tonight but it

1:56:38is a pausing place because i think it's

1:56:40a pretty wild contention

1:56:43that on the other side of desire is

1:56:45anxiety

1:56:47and on the other side of anxiety is

1:56:48jesus

1:56:53yeah it it makes me think about the he's

1:56:55the hysteric as i mean freud defines the

1:56:57hysteric

1:56:58differently but um as as

1:57:01i mean he begins it with conversion

1:57:03disorder right he's thinking about

1:57:05transplanting huge amounts of

1:57:07energy from one place to another

1:57:09normally into the body for the hysteric

1:57:11right

1:57:12so so based on sort of your story um is

1:57:15the hysteric

1:57:16just constantly in this state of

1:57:21uh overflowing jewish science

1:57:25no

1:57:26i don't think so

1:57:29i think i mean not for lacan at least

1:57:31i think lacan i can't speak for freud as

1:57:33much but i think that for lacan the

1:57:35hysteric

1:57:37if they're overflowing with anything its

1:57:39desire

1:57:42the hysteric somebody who is constantly

1:57:45in search of masters

1:57:47not to be mastered but in order to

1:57:50undermine them

1:57:51to show

1:57:52them and to force them to confess that

1:57:55they know dick

1:57:59all the while what the hysteric doesn't

1:58:01realize is that that constant

1:58:04provocation of others

1:58:06of big others of masterful others

1:58:11is what gets her off

1:58:12now

1:58:13that does lend itself to jewish sons

1:58:17but i think what i mean hereby get off

1:58:19is more like

1:58:20kept in a state of desire

1:58:23where she's constantly longing for but

1:58:26never allowing herself to access and i

1:58:29use the feminine here

1:58:31just because from all the analysts i've

1:58:33spoken with

1:58:35all they say is listen

1:58:37i can't say that hysteria is a

1:58:39fundamentally masculine or feminine

1:58:42clinical structure

1:58:43i mean don't forget freud also learns

1:58:45about hysteria from studying guys coming

1:58:48home from world war one

1:58:50with quote unquote shell shock he was

1:58:52like oh damn this is hysteria too

1:58:54so it's never been a strictly feminine

1:58:57position even though we know the origin

1:58:59of the word hysteria

1:59:01comes from histor the word for uterus in

1:59:04greek and that whole

1:59:05horrible tradition

1:59:08but in this case hysteria

1:59:10would be something that according to my

1:59:12analyst friends

1:59:13it's just what they notice subjects who

1:59:16come in identifying as women

1:59:19tend to be more inclined towards

1:59:21hysteria and subjects who come in

1:59:23identifying more as men tend to be more

1:59:25drawn towards

1:59:27obsessional neurosis

1:59:28it doesn't mean it's always that way i

1:59:30think what it just means is that when

1:59:32you live in a intensely heteronormative

1:59:35society the feminized body is inclined

1:59:38towards hysteria in the field of

1:59:41disorder desire

1:59:43and the masculinized body is drawn or

1:59:46lured or pushed towards

1:59:49an obsessional

1:59:51state of disorder desire

1:59:54and i say disordered because

1:59:57it's not fun to be obsessive even if you

2:00:00just have like some obsessional

2:00:02characteristics that [ __ ] sucks it's

2:00:04kind of embarrassing

2:00:06and truth be told it's not fun to be a

2:00:10hysterical to be a hysteric is to love

2:00:13being chaste

2:00:15but you never actually get to have great

2:00:17sex

2:00:20you never actually want to get caught

2:00:22and in fact one of the great dilemmas of

2:00:24hysteria is that if all you get off on

2:00:28is provoking other people's desire

2:00:32then you can never get off on allowing

2:00:35them to satisfy it

2:00:38because as soon as you give yourself to

2:00:40them

2:00:41if they are truly the desirous beings

2:00:44that you've attracted

2:00:45they don't want you anymore

2:00:47they only want what they can't have so

2:00:50the dilemma of playing hard to get which

2:00:53is a very normal way of

2:00:56realizing hysteria

2:00:58is that you only attract people who get

2:01:01off on the chase

2:01:03but don't ever want to catch what

2:01:05they're running after

2:01:08as a result you just wind up [ __ ]

2:01:09lonely

2:01:11you attract people that like you from

2:01:13afar

2:01:15you enjoy if you will

2:01:18the systematic frustration of your

2:01:21desire

2:01:23so cody what i would say is that if the

2:01:24hysteric is going to tap into something

2:01:26like jewish sons it is going to be at

2:01:29the level of enjoying their symptoms