Good, I would like all the same to give the floor to someone whom I asked tocome here to express a certa<strong>in</strong> number of th<strong>in</strong>gs which seem to me to be worthy,altogether worthy of be<strong>in</strong>g enunciated. In other words I th<strong>in</strong>k that Ala<strong>in</strong> DidierWeil is someone who is not badly engaged <strong>in</strong> his bus<strong>in</strong>ess. What I can tell you, isthat, for me, I was very attached to flatten<strong>in</strong>g out someth<strong>in</strong>g. Flatten<strong>in</strong>g outalways participates <strong>in</strong> a system, it simply participates <strong>in</strong> it, which is not say<strong>in</strong>g alot. A flatten<strong>in</strong>g out, for example that I made for you with the Borromean knot, isa system. I am try<strong>in</strong>g of course to crush this Borromean knot, and this <strong>in</strong>deed iswhat you see <strong>in</strong> these two images.The ideal, the Ego Ideal, <strong>in</strong> short would mean f<strong>in</strong>ish<strong>in</strong>g with the Symbolic, <strong>in</strong> otherwords say<strong>in</strong>g noth<strong>in</strong>g. What is this demoniacal force which pushes forward to saysometh<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>in</strong> other words to teach, is what I have come to tell is that, theSuperego. That is what Freud designated by the Superego which, of course, hasnoth<strong>in</strong>g to do with any condition that could be designated as natural. On thesubject of this natural, I ought all the same signal someth<strong>in</strong>g to you, it is that Ifound myself strongly drawn to read someth<strong>in</strong>g which appeared <strong>in</strong> the RoyalSociety of London and which is an ‘Essay on dew’. This had the greatest esteem ofsomeone called Herschel who wrote someth<strong>in</strong>g entitled ‘Discours prélim<strong>in</strong>aire surl’étude de la philosophie naturelle’. What most strikes me <strong>in</strong> this ‘Essay on dew’,is that it is of no <strong>in</strong>terest. I obta<strong>in</strong>ed it, of course, at the Bibliothèque Nationalewhere I have like that from time to time a particular person who makes an effortfor me, a person who is a musicologist there and who is <strong>in</strong> short not too badlyplaced to obta<strong>in</strong> for me on occasion, s<strong>in</strong>ce I had no other means of gett<strong>in</strong>g thisorig<strong>in</strong>al text which at a p<strong>in</strong>ch I might have managed to read. What I asked her forwas a translation. It had been translated <strong>in</strong> effect, this‘Essay on dew’, this ‘Essayon dew’ had been translated from its author William Charles Wells, it wastranslated by someone called Tordeux, a master <strong>in</strong> pharmacy and you really haveto force yourself enormously to f<strong>in</strong>d it of the slightest <strong>in</strong>terest. That proves thatnot all natural phenomena <strong>in</strong>terest us as much, and dew quite particularly, we slipover the surface of that. It is all the same curious that dew, for example, has notthe same <strong>in</strong>terest that Descartes succeeded <strong>in</strong> giv<strong>in</strong>g to the ra<strong>in</strong>bow. Dew is asnatural a phenomenon as the ra<strong>in</strong>bow. Why does it not have any particularimportance for us? It is very strange and it is quite certa<strong>in</strong> that it is by reason of60
its relationship to the body that we do not have the same lively <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> dew as<strong>in</strong> the ra<strong>in</strong>bow, because the ra<strong>in</strong>bow, we have the feel<strong>in</strong>g that this opens out tothe theory of light, at least we have this feel<strong>in</strong>g s<strong>in</strong>ce Descartes demonstrated it.Yes. Anyway, I am perplexed about the little <strong>in</strong>terest that we have <strong>in</strong> dew. It iscerta<strong>in</strong> that there is someth<strong>in</strong>g centred on the functions of the body, whichensures that we give a sense to certa<strong>in</strong> th<strong>in</strong>gs. Dew lacks a little sense. That atleast is what I can bear witness to after read<strong>in</strong>g as attentively as I could this ‘Essayon dew’. And now I am go<strong>in</strong>g to give the floor to Ala<strong>in</strong> Didier Weill, whileapologis<strong>in</strong>g for hav<strong>in</strong>g delayed him a little; he will have no more than an hourand-aquarter to speak to you, <strong>in</strong>stead I th<strong>in</strong>k of what I guaranteed for him, whichwas an hour-and-half.Ala<strong>in</strong> Didier Weill is go<strong>in</strong>g to speak to you about someth<strong>in</strong>g which has arelationship to Knowledge, namely, ‘I know’ or ‘he knows’. It is on thisrelationship between ‘I know’ and ‘he knows’ that he is go<strong>in</strong>g to play.- Ala<strong>in</strong> Didier Weill: Can we say that I am go<strong>in</strong>g to talk about the Passe?- <strong>Lacan</strong>: You can also talk about the Passe.[ADW’s lengthy <strong>in</strong>tervention has been <strong>in</strong>cluded for completeness but has not been ascarefully translated and revised as <strong>Lacan</strong>’s own words. CG]- Ala<strong>in</strong> Didier Weill: The po<strong>in</strong>t from which I came to propose to Dr <strong>Lacan</strong> theseelucubrations that I am go<strong>in</strong>g to submit to you, comes from what is representedfor me by what is called <strong>in</strong> the Ecole Freudienne, the Passe. Effectively a rumourcirculates for some time <strong>in</strong> the School, which is that the results of the Passe whichis supposed to have functioned for a certa<strong>in</strong> number of years, did not respond tothe hopes that had been put <strong>in</strong> it. Given that this idea, like that, that there is theidea of a failure of the past, this is someth<strong>in</strong>g that personally I f<strong>in</strong>d hard to put upwith, <strong>in</strong> the Passe where for me it seems to guarantee what can preserve theessential and what is most liv<strong>in</strong>g for the future of psychoanalysis; I cogitated onthe question a little, and I th<strong>in</strong>k I have eventually found what could account for atopological montage which does not exist and which would account for the factthat the jury d’agrement perhaps does not manage to use, and to use what is61
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after all noticed that to consist m
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It would be enough for you to take
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that exists, he says what he believ
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In short, one must all the same rai
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particular besides, neurotic, a sex
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functioning as something else. And
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mean to deny? What can one deny? Th
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slipping from word to word, and thi
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Seminar 12: 17 May 1977People in th
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y writing. And writing only produce
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not pinpointed it? He calls this a