Jacques Lacan: Ecrits

Lacan, Feminine Sexuality

Lacan is building off of Freud.

-      “The ‘object’ in question is, of course, the human object; but, more importantly, it is its internalization by the subject that is the issue at stake. It is never only an actual object but also the fantasy of it. Object-relations theory originated as an attempt to shift psychoanalysis away from 1-person to 2-person theory, saying there is always a relationship between at least two people.”

-      In humanistic reading mankind assumed subject exists from beginning. Freud and Lacan say neither unconscious nor sexuality can be re-given fact- they are constructions. Lacan makes this the focus on his work.

-      Lacan writes that the human animal is born into language and it is within the terms of language that the human subject is constructed. It does not arise from within the individual, it is always out there in the world outside, lying in way for the neonate. Language always ‘belongs’ to another person. The human subject is created from a general law that comes to it from outside itself and through the speech of others.

-      Human subject is not an entity with an identity, but a being created in the fissure of a radical split.

-      The words ‘me’ and ‘I’ are even from others, they do not arise in ourselves

-      Human subject is not a divded self that in a different could be made whole, but a self which is only created within a split- a being that cn only conceptualise itself when it is mirrored back to itself from the position of another’s desire.

Desire and sexual desire can only exist by its alienation. EX: baby playing throwing game to deal with its mothers disappearance. (throws something, it comes back). Shows that an object that is longed for only comes iunto existence as an object when it is lost to the baby. Thus any satisfaction that might subsequently be attained will always contain this loss within it. Lacan calls this ‘desire’. You can’t desire what you have. A baby’s needs can be met and it can be satisfied but the desire only exists because at one point it didn’t have it. Lacan says this shows that there is something fundamentally impossible about satisfaction itself.

The problem with the mirror stage is the figure we see in the mirror doesn’t fit how we think we look. So we learn and use words to fill the gap.

We try to change how others will see the external of us so that we can be properly understood. Lacan suggests we must accept we will almost always be wildly understood. Because of this when we find a lover we build a fantasy of them. Why we shouldn’t run for an ‘ideal’ partner. Our relationship hasn’t fallen apart, it is actually part of the natural path of love. So we must accept we will always be alone.