Seminar XXIV Final Sessions 1 - Lacan in Ireland
Seminar XXIV Final Sessions 1 - Lacan in Ireland Seminar XXIV Final Sessions 1 - Lacan in Ireland
particular besides, neurotic, a sexual obsessional as has been said. It is hard tosee why an obsession with sexuality would not be as valid as any other, since forthe human species sexuality is quite rightly obsessive. It is in effect abnormal inthe sense that I defined; there is no sexual relationship. Freud, namely, a case,had the merit of seeing that neurosis was not structurally obsessional, that it wasfundamentally hysterical, namely, linked to the fact that there was no sexualrelationship, that there are people disgusted by it, which is all the same a sign, apositive sign, is that it makes them vomit.Sexual relationship must be reconstituted by a discourse, namely, somethingwhich has a quite different finality. What discourse is useful for from the outset,it serves to order, I mean to convey the commandment that I allow myself to callthe intention of the discourse, because there remains something of theimperative in every intention. Every discourse has an effect of suggestion. It ishypnotic. The contamination of discourse by sleep is worth highlighting, beforebeing highlighted by what one can call intentional experience, in other wordstaken as a commandment imposed on facts. A discourse is always soporific,except when one does not understand it. Then it wakes you up.Laboratory animals are wounded not because one harms them more or less, theyare woken up, completely, because they do not understand what is wanted ofthem, even if people stimulate their supposed instinct. When you make ratsmove in a little box, you stimulate their alimentary instinct, as it is put; it is quitesimply hunger that is at stake. In short, awakening is the Real in its aspect of theimpossible, which is only written by force or through force what is called counternature.Nature, like every notion that comes to our minds, is an excessively vague notion.To tell the truth, counter-nature is clearer than the natural. The pre-Socratics, asthey are called, had a penchant for counter-nature. This is the whole reason whyattributing culture to them is deserved. They had to be gifted to force a little thediscourse, the imperative saying which we have seen puts people to sleep.114
Does truth waken up people or put them to sleep? That depends on the tone inwhich it is said. Spoken poetry is soporific. I take advantage of this to show thething that François Cheng thought up. In reality he is called Cheng Tai-tchen. Heput in François like that, as a way of being reabsorbed into our culture, which hasnot prevented him from maintaining very firmly what he says. And what he says,is L’écriture poétique chinoise (Chinese poetic writing), which is published by Seuiland I would really like you to follow the grain of it, follow the grain of it, if you area psychoanalyst, which is not the case for everyone here.If you are a psychoanalyst, you will see that these forcings by which apsychoanalyst can make something else ring out, something other than sense, forsense, is what resonates with the help of the signifier; but what resonates, doesnot go very far, it is rather flabby. Sense deadens things, but with the help ofwhat one can call poetic writing, you can get the dimension of what one could callanalytic interpretation.It is quite certain that writing is not that by which poetry, the resonance of thebody is expressed. It is all the same quite striking that the Chinese poets expressthemselves by writing and that for us, what is necessary, is that we should holdonto the notion, in Chinese writing, of what poetry is, not at all that all poetry – Iam talking especially about ours – that all poetry is such that we can imagine it bywriting, by poetic Chinese writing; but perhaps, you will sense something in it,something which is different than what ensures that Chinese poets cannot dootherwise than write. There is something that gives the feeling that they are notreduced there, the fact is that they sing, that they modulate, the fact is that thereis what François Cheng enunciated before me, namely, a tonic counterpoint, amodulation which ensures that that it is sung, for from tonality to modulationthere is a slippage. That you are inspired eventually by something of the order ofpoetry to intervene, is indeed why I would say, it is indeed something towardswhich you must turn, because linguistics is all the same a science that I would sayis very badly orientated. If linguistics raises itself up, it is in the measure that aRoman Jakobson frankly tackles the questions of poetics. Metaphor, andmetonymy, have an import for interpretation only insofar as they are capable of115
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particular besides, neurotic, a sexual obsessional as has been said. It is hard tosee why an obsession with sexuality would not be as valid as any other, s<strong>in</strong>ce forthe human species sexuality is quite rightly obsessive. It is <strong>in</strong> effect abnormal <strong>in</strong>the sense that I def<strong>in</strong>ed; there is no sexual relationship. Freud, namely, a case,had the merit of see<strong>in</strong>g that neurosis was not structurally obsessional, that it wasfundamentally hysterical, namely, l<strong>in</strong>ked to the fact that there was no sexualrelationship, that there are people disgusted by it, which is all the same a sign, apositive sign, is that it makes them vomit.Sexual relationship must be reconstituted by a discourse, namely, someth<strong>in</strong>gwhich has a quite different f<strong>in</strong>ality. What discourse is useful for from the outset,it serves to order, I mean to convey the commandment that I allow myself to callthe <strong>in</strong>tention of the discourse, because there rema<strong>in</strong>s someth<strong>in</strong>g of theimperative <strong>in</strong> every <strong>in</strong>tention. Every discourse has an effect of suggestion. It ishypnotic. The contam<strong>in</strong>ation of discourse by sleep is worth highlight<strong>in</strong>g, beforebe<strong>in</strong>g highlighted by what one can call <strong>in</strong>tentional experience, <strong>in</strong> other wordstaken as a commandment imposed on facts. A discourse is always soporific,except when one does not understand it. Then it wakes you up.Laboratory animals are wounded not because one harms them more or less, theyare woken up, completely, because they do not understand what is wanted ofthem, even if people stimulate their supposed <strong>in</strong>st<strong>in</strong>ct. When you make ratsmove <strong>in</strong> a little box, you stimulate their alimentary <strong>in</strong>st<strong>in</strong>ct, as it is put; it is quitesimply hunger that is at stake. In short, awaken<strong>in</strong>g is the Real <strong>in</strong> its aspect of theimpossible, which is only written by force or through force what is called counternature.Nature, like every notion that comes to our m<strong>in</strong>ds, is an excessively vague notion.To tell the truth, counter-nature is clearer than the natural. The pre-Socratics, asthey are called, had a penchant for counter-nature. This is the whole reason whyattribut<strong>in</strong>g culture to them is deserved. They had to be gifted to force a little thediscourse, the imperative say<strong>in</strong>g which we have seen puts people to sleep.114
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