1 Theorising Agency in International Relations In Hobbes's Wake ...
1 Theorising Agency in International Relations In Hobbes's Wake ...
1 Theorising Agency in International Relations In Hobbes's Wake ...
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‘the most notable <strong>in</strong>ventions of all was that of speech (…) without which, there had been amongst men<br />
neither common wealth, no society, nor contract, nor peace, no more than amongst lions, bears or<br />
wolves.’ The centrality of language is the dist<strong>in</strong>ctive feature of Lacanian psychoanalytic thought, a large<br />
part of which developed as a re<strong>in</strong>terpretation of Sigmund Freud’s discoveries <strong>in</strong> order to draw out the<br />
efficaciousness of language. It is also what lends a dist<strong>in</strong>ctively collective, which is to say, political,<br />
dimension to his theoriz<strong>in</strong>g (Stavarkakis 1999, Edk<strong>in</strong>s 1999). If the task of psychoanalytic theoriz<strong>in</strong>g can<br />
be understood as the effort, <strong>in</strong> Freud’s wake, to uncover the deep structures of the human psyche on<br />
the one hand, <strong>in</strong> order to understand, on the other, how the <strong>in</strong>dividual relates (or fails) to the world<br />
around her, then one of Lacan’s key contribution was to draw out the extent to which these two<br />
dimensions, the <strong>in</strong>dividual and the collective, are tightly bound up. That contribution <strong>in</strong> turn rests on his<br />
foreground<strong>in</strong>g language as the primary social bond. Language, that dist<strong>in</strong>ctly human trait, is what leads<br />
humans out of the state of nature and makes all social (<strong>in</strong> Hobbes) and <strong>in</strong>dividual (<strong>in</strong> Lacan) life possible<br />
<strong>in</strong> the first place<br />
Second, although Lacan centrally foregrounds language, it is important to bear <strong>in</strong> m<strong>in</strong>d that his is<br />
fundamentally applied theory. His theoris<strong>in</strong>g is geared towards analytical practice, not towards<br />
understand<strong>in</strong>g literary texts or language per se. It mobilises the key <strong>in</strong>sight, common also to speech act<br />
theory, that words do th<strong>in</strong>gs, to echo Aust<strong>in</strong>’s (1962) formulation. Theory and practice are here tightly<br />
bound up as <strong>in</strong> few other contemporary spaces for theoriz<strong>in</strong>g the political. Here too there is a closeness<br />
to the realm of practice that is ak<strong>in</strong> to that of Hobbes who, writ<strong>in</strong>g dur<strong>in</strong>g the English civil war (1642-<br />
1651), stood before a civil order that was com<strong>in</strong>g undone, and thus at a juncture where the task of<br />
political theoriz<strong>in</strong>g was more directly efficacious than <strong>in</strong> these societies today. Both constitute bodies of<br />
thought developed with the press<strong>in</strong>g urgency of an ailment to cure, <strong>in</strong> the political and <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>dividual<br />
body respectively. Lacan’s start<strong>in</strong>g po<strong>in</strong>t is thus the <strong>in</strong>dividual’s experience; he sets out to uncover the<br />
deep structures undergird<strong>in</strong>g her relationship to the world around her.<br />
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