{"id":7558,"date":"2011-04-16T20:16:48","date_gmt":"2011-04-17T01:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=7558"},"modified":"2011-09-24T12:29:13","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T17:29:13","slug":"unconscious-the-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2011\/04\/16\/unconscious-the-other\/","title":{"rendered":"unconscious the Other"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bailly, Lionel. Lacan: A Beginner\u2019s Guide<\/em>. Oxford: One World, 2009.<\/p>\n

For Lacan, the Subject remained that elusive thing that hides behind the ego, that is alienated from it, that is created in an act of language, and that is largely unconscious. It is the Subject that speaks, but when it speaks, it barely knows what it is saying. And I am no longer referring here to the \u2018unconscious discourse\u2019 that appears in clips of the tongue, dreams and pathological symptoms, I am referring to what the speaker (Subject) would think of as \u2018conscious speech\u2019. This is because for the most part, the Subject is unconscious of itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

This view may seem like overstatement: one feels provoked to say, \u2018But I do know what I\u2019m talking about … I only make a slop of the tongue very rarely, 99% of the time I mean exactly what I\u2019m saying\u2019, etc.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But the experienced analyst knows instantly when she\/he hears denegation (\u2018Of course, he\u2019s likeable enough\u2019 nearly always means I don\u2019t like him); and even the most common everyday use of language is closely governed by the unconscious. Most of the time, there is an interplay of conscious and unconscious in our speech: we may mean exactly what we say, but we hardly ever know why we say it.<\/p>\n

Consider the following examples:<\/p>\n

\u2018Has so-and-so got a partner\u2019<\/strong> appears a simple question, but what motivates it? Is the questioner a woman worried that the so-and-so in question is interested in her man? Or is it a man interested in so-and-so? Or is it a woman who, motivated by jealousy, hopes to learn that so-and-so is unlucky in love where she herself is not? Whichever it is, the speaker is bound to deny it, and say it\u2019s an innocent question motivated by altruistic concern or curiosity? We can never escape the unconscious \u2013 even when it is harmless. 70<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve cooked a roast for you \u2013 we got the joint from such-and-such specialist butcher\u2019<\/strong> could provoke guilt in a prodigal child, or encourage a guest to bring a bottle of better quality wine than usual (why not just \u2018a roast\u2019? Why mention the quality of it?), etc. But again, in both cases, the speaker\u2019s intentions are entirely unconscious.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m still recovering from the weekend\u2019 is a commonly heard phrase, but why does the speaker think the listener needs to know this? Is she\/he boasting about her\/his exciting social life, bolstering the edifice of an ego which includes the master signifiers \u2018socially successful\u2019 or \u2018popular\u2019? or is she\/he trying to convince her\/himself that she\/he had a good time, when in fact she\/he was very bored? 70<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even \u2018Please may I have a kilo of potatoes\u2019 <\/strong>could be multilayered statement: why not simply, \u2018a kilo of potatoes\u2019 \u2013 why the time spent on a formula of politesse<\/em>? Is the questioner trying to show her\/his good breeding? Or if, on the contrary, all politesse<\/em> is dispensed with \u2013 they why the rudeness?\u00a0 Might that be a way of establishing higher status over the lowly greengrocer? And is a kilo enough \u2013 or is the speaker being mean and not buying enough, or displaying an anxiety about inadequacy and asking for too many? 70
\nThese trivial examples only underline the power of the unconscious<\/strong> in directing the selection and combination of signifiers into chains with or without our conscious \u2018will\u2019; Lacan saw this interplay between conscious and unconscious in the Subject as being like the continuum of the surface of a moebius strip.<\/p>\n

The Other is manifest not only in language (even though this may be its principal domain), but also in the whole set of hypotheses that exert their influence upon the Subject. The Law, societal rules, taboos, mores and expectations, and even Time are different faces of the Other.<\/strong> The Other is constituted by the entire symbolic realm of human productions; accessing the Other involves the crossing of the bar described in chapter 3; it also involves the act of alienation described in the Mirror Stage, which situates the Subject within the Other. These processes of alienation and symbolisation which tie together Subject and Other are the essential basis of human creativity. 70-71<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bailly, Lionel. Lacan: A Beginner\u2019s Guide. Oxford: One World, 2009. For Lacan, the Subject remained that elusive thing that hides behind the ego, that is alienated from it, that is created in an act of language, and that is largely unconscious. It is the Subject that speaks, but when it speaks, it barely knows what … Continue reading “unconscious the Other”<\/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":[111,24,15,118],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-7558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-desire","category-lacan","category-subjectivity","category-symbolic","tag-whoa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7558","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=7558"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8231,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7558\/revisions\/8231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}