Μιλάω στους τοίχους

by Jacques Lacan

"Μιλάω στους τοίχους", λέει ο Λακάν και αυτό σημαίνει: "Ούτε σε σας ούτε στον μεγάλο Άλλο. Μιλάω μόνος μου. Είναι για την ακρίβεια αυτό που σας ενδιαφέρει. Δική σας ευθύνη να με ερμηνεύσετε".
Αυτοί οι τοίχοι είναι οι τοίχοι του παρεκκλησίου του ψυχιατρικού νοσοκομείου της Σαιντ-Αν. Ο Λακάν ξαναβρίσκει εκεί τα νεανικά του χρόνια όταν ήταν ειδικευόμενος ψυχίατρος. Διασκεδάζει, αυτοσχεδιάζει, μιλάει ελεύθερα. Η πρόθεση είναι πολεμική: οι καλύτεροι από τους μαθητές του, αιχμαλωτισμένοι από την ιδέα ότι η ψυχανάλυση διαγράφει κάθε προϋπάρχουσα γνώση, σήκωσαν το λάβαρο της μη γνώσης που είχαν δανειστεί από τον Μπατάιγ. Όχι, λέει ο Λακάν, η ψυχανάλυση εκπορεύεται από μια γνώση που υποτίθεται, τη γνώση του ασυνειδήτου. Αποκτούμε πρόσβαση σε αυτή μέσω της οδού της αλήθειας (ο αναλυόμενος προσπαθεί να πει ωμά ό,τι του περνάει από το μυαλό) όταν καταλήγει στην απόλαυση (ο αναλυτής ερμηνεύει τα λεγόμενα του αναλυόμενου με όρους λίμπιντο).
Αντίθετα, δύο άλλες οδοί μπλοκάρουν αυτή την πρόσβαση: η αμάθεια (η παράδοση με πάθος στην αμάθεια οδηγεί πάντοτε στην εδραίωση της υπάρχουσας γνώσης) και η εξουσία (το πάθος της ισχύος σφραγίζει αυτό που αποκαλύπτει η παραπραξία). Η ψυχανάλυση διδάσκει τις αρετές της ανικανότητας: εκείνη τουλάχιστον σέβεται το πραγματικό.
Μάθημα σοφίας σε μια εποχή, τη δική μας, που βλέπει μια γραφειοκρατία, αγκαζέ με την επιστήμη, να ονειρεύεται να αλλάξει στον άνθρωπο την πλέον ενδόμυχη πλευρά του - με την προπαγάνδα, τον άμεσο χειρισμό του εγκεφάλου, τη βιοτεχνολογία ή ακόμα και με το social engineering. Χτες, ασφαλώς, τα πράγματα δεν ήταν καλά, όμως αύριο θα μπορούσαν να είναι χειρότερα. (Ζακ-Αλέν Μίλερ, από την παρουσίαση στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου)

Genres: Psychoanalysis

152 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2011

About the author

Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. His yearly seminars, conducted in Paris from 1953 until his death in 1981, were a major influence in the French intellectual milieu of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly among post-structuralist thinkers.

Lacan's ideas centered on Freudian concepts such as the unconscious, the castration complex, the ego, focusing on identifications, and the centrality of language to subjectivity. His work was interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, amongst others. Although a controversial and divisive figure, Lacan is widely read in critical theory, literary studies, and twentieth-century French philosophy, as well as in the living practice of clinical psychoanalysis.

Reviews

[michal k-c · Rating 4 out of 5]

would God believe in himself? If only we could ask... I find Lacan's seminars endlessly readable, despite the fact that he is constantly flipping between topics and never quite settling on one. Like your really weird grandfather is rambling to you about something called le petit objet a.

[Sergio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito bom para entender alguns conceitos lacanianos e ficar em dúvida à respeito de outros e me fazer ir atrás de "mais"...
A linguagem de Lacan não é complicada, só tem muita vírgula, muito vai e vem!

[Peter Mathews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talking to Brick Walls consists of three talks that Lacan gave at the end of 1971 and the beginning of 1972 on the topic of The Psychoanalyst's Knowledge. Although his Seminar was taking place at the Law Faculty at the Sorbonne, Lacan returned here to the original public site of the Seminar at the Sainte-Anne Hospital. These talks were given in the lead-up to Seminar XIX, on the topic "...or Worse."

The first talk, "Knowledge, Ignorance, Truth and Jouissance," starts with a meditation on ignorance as being important for showing up the value of knowledge. Lacan flits around to various topic, but settles on none, choosing instead to repeat his various slogans without giving much explanation.

The second talk, "On Incomprehension and Other Themes," begins with a question that one woman had asked Lacan: "Is the failure to comprehend Lacan a symptom?" Lacan insists that people must be able to understand him at some level, since they keep coming back to listen to him. He then gives a long, rambling discourse about the interplay between the symbolic, the real, and science.

The third talk, "I've Been Talking to Brick Walls," sees a nostalgic Lacan reflecting on his former times at the Sainte-Anne Hospital. He then makes a series of plays on the word for wall (la mur) and love (l'amour) that goes nowhere at all.

The volume also includes an appendix that is supposed to clarify the meaning of the last talk, but fails to add anything of interest.

Talking to Brick Walls is the third in this series of books by Polity Press that seeks to "fill in" various gaps in the Lacanian record. Unfortunately, this lead-up to Seminar XIX is a disappointment, showing an unfocused Lacan simply riffing on established grooves rather than doing anything really new or insightful.

[June Min · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have already read some of his stuff but longer more tedious reads, W/ this Can better understand the attribution of diff alluring qualities to him

I do question the truthfulness of some of his detours into subjects really outside of psychoanalysis like politics and economics, but The main conceptual ideas in this work I can get behind: the objet petit a, his theory of jouissance, how foreign people outside of you naturally have to be, etc