Perversion the Social Relation

48 Bruce Finkattempt to prop up the paternal function (expressed in the father's law)—to make the Other pronounce the law, or to indicate oneself the placeof the law—so that the anxiety-relieving separation can come about. In aLacanian perspective, separation from the mOther may be anxiety producingin certain respects (the object becomes lost or falls away at themoment of separation), but is generally relieving at a more profoundlevel, that is, at the level of being. Hans, for example, is "afraid" at theconscious level that his mother will go away, but unconsciously wishesshe would go away and allow him to have desires that do not involveher. His "separation anxiety" reflects a wish to continue to "coax" withhis mother—in other words, to obtain certain pleasures with her—but asimultaneous wish for an end to be put to that "coaxing," to that jouissance,for the latter engulfs him and stops him from coming into beingas a desiring subject. 31 Thus his "separation anxiety" is a wish for separation—separationfrom his mother.Jouissance is simply overrated. It is not so wonderful that everyonereally wants it, the pervert supposedly being the only one who refusesto give it up and who is able to go out and get it. 32 The psychotic suffersdue to an uncontrollable invasion of jouissance in his or her body, andneurosis is a strategy with respect to jouissance—above all, its avoidance.Perversion too is a strategy with respect to jouissance: it involvesthe attempt to set limits thereto.Being and having, alienation and separationThe whole problem of the perversions consists in conceiving how the child, in its relationshipwith its mother—a relationship constituted in analysis not by the child's biological[vitale] dependence, but by its dependence on her love, that is, by its desire for her desire—identifies with the imaginary object of her desire.—Jacques Lacan, ÉcritsFreud reveals to us that it is thanks to the Name-of-the-Father that man does not remainbound to the sexual service of his mother.—Jacques Lacan, ÉcritsOne way to describe my essential thesis regarding perversion here is tosay that the pervert has undergone alienation—that is, primal repression,a splitting into conscious and unconscious, an acceptance or admissionof the Name of the Father that sets the stage for a true coming-to-beof the subject in language (unlike the psychotic)—fotf has not undergoneseparation}* How can we characterize the pervert's alienation here? As