{"id":10942,"date":"2013-04-29T09:35:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T14:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=10942"},"modified":"2013-04-29T13:56:12","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T18:56:12","slug":"johnston-ethics-desire-seminar-vii-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2013\/04\/29\/johnston-ethics-desire-seminar-vii-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"johnston ethics desire Seminar VII part 2 das Ding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnston, Adrian. “The Vicious Circle of the Super-Ego: The Pathological Trap of Guilt and the Beginning of Ethics.” Psychoanalytic Studies.<\/em> 3.3\/4 (2001): 411-424.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude42 Johnston does not agree with \u017di\u017eek’s take on das Ding.<\/p>\n

\u017di\u017eek\u2019s definition: das Ding<\/span> doesn\u2019t exist prior to the \u2018backwards glance\u2019 of the nostalgic subject of the Symbolic<\/strong> wishing to have lost something he\/she never possessed in the \u008efirst place (das Ding<\/span> is a result of the fundamental strategy of fantasy, wherein the structural impossibility of the drives\u2019 \u2018full satisfaction\u2019 qua<\/strong> \u2018jouissance<\/span> obtained\u2019 is concealed from the subject by making it seem as if this enjoyment is hypothetically re-obtainable<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

However, this is a misleading exaggeration that treats Lacan as wholly Hegelian.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most misleading feature of virtually every extant commentary on Lacan\u2019s ethics of psychoanalysis<\/span> is the attribution to him of the imperative \u201cDo not give way on your desire!\u201d<\/p>\n

In the seventh seminar, Lacan<\/strong> does not<\/span> present the link between desire and guilt<\/span> in the form of a command, an injunction to \u2018persist\u2019 in one\u2019s desire.<\/p>\n

Instead, he merely states that guilt<\/span> is the result of \u2018ceding on\u2019 (i.e., not enacting in reality<\/strong>, refraining from concrete actualization ) one\u2019s desires<\/strong>\u2014\u201cJe propose que la seule chose don t on puisse \u00eatre coupable, au moins dans la perspective analytique, c\u2019est d\u2019avoir c\u00e9d\u00e9 sur son d\u00e9sir\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this seminar, Lacan remarks that psychoanalysis is confronted , across the range of its analysands, with the omnipresence of guilt<\/span> in human life.<\/p>\n

Lacan is not so much interested in proposing a new prescriptive ethics as in comprehending the precise nature of \u2018moral masochism\u2019, in fully grasping how the constellation of the id, the super-ego, and the socio-symbolic Umwelt<\/em> of reality \u2018pathologize \u2019 the ethical \u008efield.<\/p>\n

At most, this Lacanian analytic diagnosis of moral masochism should be interpreted as a preparatory clearing of the ground for a genuine ethics, as a mapping out of the obstacles hindering the construction and enactment of a non-pathological \u2018metaphysics of morals\u2019. 417<\/p>\n

Lacan repeatedly makes reference to the Freudian super-ego<\/span> as an excessive, greedy, and out-of-control agency. Echoing Freud, he observes that, \u201cthe more one sacrifi\u008eces to it, the more it demands\u201d.<\/p>\n

The super-ego<\/span> isn\u2019t satisfied with mere external\/behavioral conformity to ethico-moral precepts; it uncompromisingly insists upon<\/strong> the impossible purification of intentionality itself<\/span> (thus, the<\/span> super-ego<\/span> is, in a manner of speaking, a spontaneous <\/span>Kantian)<\/span>. 418<\/p>\n

… when Lacan speaks about being guilty for having \u2018ceded\u2019 or \u2018given ground\u2019 relative to one\u2019s desire<\/strong>, what he really means is the following: the more the subject surrenders (to) his\/her desires by obeying the restrictions of the Law, the more <\/span>guilty<\/span> he\/she feels, since such concessions only aggravate the (unconscious) volatility and intensity of these same desires<\/span> (namely,\u2018internal\u2019 repressed desires which never fail to escape the notice of the omniscient authority of the sadistic super-ego<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Near the end of his 1974 television interview, Lacan clearly advances this claim in saying that, \u201cFreud reminds us that it\u2019s not evil, but good, that engenders <\/strong>guilt<\/span>\u201d (Lacan, p. 45).
\nTo be Continued …<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johnston, Adrian. “The Vicious Circle of the Super-Ego: The Pathological Trap of Guilt and the Beginning of Ethics.” Psychoanalytic Studies. 3.3\/4 (2001): 411-424. \ud83d\ude42 Johnston does not agree with \u017di\u017eek’s take on das Ding. \u017di\u017eek\u2019s definition: das Ding doesn\u2019t exist prior to the \u2018backwards glance\u2019 of the nostalgic subject of the Symbolic wishing to have … Continue reading “johnston ethics desire Seminar VII part 2 das Ding”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,79,21,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-desire","category-ethics_real","category-jouissance","category-lacan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10942"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10944,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10942\/revisions\/10944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}