Perversion the Social Relation

$6 Bruce Finking the ego—not simply reminding the ego of the law, but getting off onberating the ego for its failure to execute the law and enjoying a kind ofvicious enunciation of the law. The superego, as the internalization ofthe criticism we receive from our parents, is a repository not merelyof the moral principles our parents hand down to us, but also of the kindof harshness we sense in their voices when they lecture, scold, and punishus. The superego can be ferocious in certain cases, obviously takinga good deal of pleasure in badgering, berating, and bludgeoning the ego,but the important point here is that it is impossible—except in philosophicaltreatises—to divorce the statement of a moral principle fromthe libido or jouissance attached to its enunciation; it is impossible to divorcea precept taught us by our parents (for example, "Do unto othersas you would have others do unto you") from the tone of voice in whichit was pronounced.The moral law, as it plays a role in our psychical lives, is not an abstractproposition, principle, or statement with universal or quasiuniversalapplication: it is an enunciation, announcement, proclamation,or kerygma. The moral law—whether it goes by the name of the"voice within," the voice of conscience, or the superego—originates inparental voices, most typically in the voice of the father. 44 It is experiencedby children as an expression of the Other's desire. The father who"lays down the law" for his children expresses, announces, and proclaimshis desire for things to be a certain way and not another. 45The moral law is thus inextricably associated with expressions of theOther's desire and jouissance, and the masochist seeks to elicit thatjouissance in lieu of the law. Since he cannot obtain the symbolic law assuch, he seeks that which he somehow understands to be associated withit. The Other's desire or will is accepted by the masochist instead of thelaw, in the place of the law, in the absence of the law. As Lacan mentions,the Marquis de Sade (better known as a sadist, but here manifesting decidedlymasochistic tendencies) pushes his mother-in-law, Madame deMontreuil, to the point where she expresses her will that Sade be punished.It is her desire or will that has to serve Sade as a law. Not the law,but a law.The neurotic tends to be upset when the enunciation of the law isaccompanied by jouissance on the part of the enunciator. The neuroticsenses that there has been some kind of miscarriage of justice or abuse of