{"id":12434,"date":"2014-01-07T22:12:29","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T03:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=12434"},"modified":"2014-09-15T19:11:58","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T23:11:58","slug":"swales-perverse-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2014\/01\/07\/swales-perverse-patient\/","title":{"rendered":"swales perverse patient"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swales, Stephanie S. Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject<\/em>. Routledge, 2012.<\/p>\n

A perverse patient<\/strong> will be especially likely to heed prohibitions if they are given by a trusted group psychotherapist whom the patient has put in the position of symbolic Other<\/span>. In many cases, perverse patients are looking for ways to bolster their paternal functions, and a group therapist whom the pervert \u201celects\u201d to the position of symbolic Other<\/span> can have a good deal of influence on the patient as the subject-supposed-to-No!<\/p>\n

This will only be possible, however, if the patient puts the therapist in the position of symbolic Other; if the patient relates to the therapist on the imaginary plane<\/strong>\u2014as an other like himself\u2014then the group therapist\u2019s prohibitions will have no therapeutic effect<\/strong>. 236<\/p>\n

Consequently, the therapist should look for signs that the patient is speaking to her or him as a symbolic Other before advising the patient to abstain from doing something. Such signs often include the patient\u2019s admissions that there is some kind of knowledge\u2014namely, unconscious knowledge \u2014 that is at work in her or him of which s\/he her- or himself is ignorant, but about which the therapist is a knowledgeable authority. So too is symbolic transference evident when the patient thinks of the therapist as being the cause of her or his desire to be curious about himself and put his understandings of his life into question.<\/p>\n

The necessary condition for true analytic or psychodynamic work is the patient\u2019s having a question about himself that he addresses to an Other<\/strong> (the analyst or therapist) with the expectation that the Other (as subject-supposed-to-know) knows something about the answer that eludes the patient himself.<\/em><\/p>\n

In my work with Ray, that question was \u201cWhy am I an exhibitionist, and how can I prevent committing future acts of exhibitionism?\u201d Even though we understand the \u201cconstancy of [the pervert\u2019s] jouissance<\/span> as an answer, an answer which is already there\u201d (Miller 1996b, p. 310) the pervert\u2019s<\/strong> desire<\/strong><\/span> enables him to have a question that drives the progress of the analysis or therapy<\/strong>. 238<\/p>\n

While the pervert may seem to want to get away with murder, what he really desires is to bolster the lawgiving Other\u2019s existence. In his article, Clavreul made no mention of the pervert\u2019s suffering due to the inadequacy of the paternal function. When the pervert\u2019s subject position is seen as an attempt to prop up the paternal function, one can no longer maintain that the pervert cannot undergo traditional Lacanian analysis and that the only two positions available to the analyst of a pervert are those of moralizer and impotent voyeur. 239<\/p>\n

Certainly, it is difficult to do analytic work with perverts. This is largely because the pervert prefers to play the role of object a<\/span> (object cause<\/span> of the Other\u2019s jouissance<\/span>) in relation to the therapist, causing her anxiety and jouissance<\/span>. Analytic work with a pervert requires that the therapist maneuver the pervert into the role of split subject (as someone who sees himself as lacking at a certain level) so that the therapist can take up the role of object a<\/span> as object cause<\/span> of the patient\u2019s desire to do therapeutic work. In working with a pervert, the therapist must be alert to ways to get the patient intrigued by his own unconscious manifestations when the pervert occasionally lapses back into the role of object a. 239<\/p>\n

Situating the work at the symbolic level of <\/strong>desire<\/span> means, for one thing, that the therapist should avoid responding to the patient\u2019s requests for advice and interpretation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Although it is common for a patient at the beginning stages of his psychotherapy to see his psychotherapist as a subject-supposed-to-know<\/strong>, the psychotherapist should not fall prey to the trap of believing that s\/he holds privileged knowledge about the patient and what is good for him<\/strong> (or that if s\/he does not give him advice, no one else in the patient\u2019s life will do so; in the vast majority of cases, the patient gets plenty of advice from his PO, his group therapist and fellow participants, and his friends and family).<\/p>\n

Interpreting from the position of subject-supposed-to-know incites an imaginary order relationship of rivalry<\/strong> with the patient in which the patient sooner or later tries to disprove the therapist\u2019s theories and interpretations. Working at the level of demand<\/strong> means giving knowledge to the patient and fostering a relationship which is based on the patient\u2019s dependency on that knowledge. In providing the patient with ready-made interpretations, the therapist puts words into the patient\u2019s mouth and stymies the patient\u2019s own curiosity about himself.<\/p>\n

Working at the symbolic level of desire<\/strong>, however, involves the therapist\u2019s expressions of desire that the patient do the work of psychotherapy.<\/p>\n

Correspondingly, the therapist should aim to be positioned in the transference as the object-cause<\/span> of the perverse patient\u2019s desire to participate in psychotherapy and as the placeholder for the patient\u2019s unconscious. This transferential position enables the patient to work through (via emotive speech) his issues with the Other.<\/p>\n

Another way in which Lacan described the analytic progress of a subject is \u201cthe constant culmination of the subject\u2019s assumption of his own mirages\u201d (1953\/2006a, p. 251).<\/p>\n

One of the functions of the analytic method is to enable the subject to discover something about his unconscious, realizing that what he took to be his own individual thoughts and desires are actually ones he appropriated from the Other.<\/p>\n

The subject calls who he thinks he is\u2014the sum total of his ego misidentifications \u2014 radically into question<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The therapist aims to get the patient to speak about his experiences, fantasies, and dreams, to associate to them, and to be interested in possible Other, unconscious meanings<\/strong> of his utterances.<\/p>\n

A difficult and delicate stage of the pervert\u2019s treatment is the beginning stage. It is more difficult to get a perverse patient than a neurotic patient to question who he is and why he has become who he is. This is the question that psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy aims to answer. This question, when unanswered, is what drives the patient to undergo psychotherapy. 241<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swales, Stephanie S. Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject. Routledge, 2012. A perverse patient will be especially likely to heed prohibitions if they are given by a trusted group psychotherapist whom the patient has put in the position of symbolic Other. In many cases, perverse patients are looking for ways to bolster their … Continue reading “swales perverse patient”<\/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":[21,24,40,72,118,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jouissance","category-lacan","category-lack","category-objet-a","category-symbolic","category-unconscious"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434","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=12434"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13158,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434\/revisions\/13158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}