In Lacan's
psychoanalytical theory, the term Jouissance denotates a kind of
pleasure or enjoyment that is linked with sexual aspects. The concept of Jouissance
is linked with Lacan's concept of desire.
Lacan saw desire, as did Freud, as mental energy invested with an object and
which seeks an outlet in order to achieve a low level of tension. Lacan's Jouissance,
on the other hand, is linked to increased tension and the building up of
desire. This is the way in which Lacan ties together enjoyment and desire and
positions them both on sexual energies.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Lacanian Terminology: The Dialectic of Knowledge – Definition and Explanation
"The
Dialectic of Knowledge" is notion my Jacques Lacan which describes the
manner in which knowledge, any form of knowledge, is organized. According to
Lacan knowledge is always dialectic by being organized in a set of oppositions
(Lacan took this notion from the structuralist thought). Lacan distinguishes Savoir,
knowledge, and Connaissance, consciousness. Knowledge is part of the Symbolic
Order while consciousness is associated with Imaginary
Order. This means that there is always an inner gap in everything we
know, and that all knowledge is always dis-knowledge and conscious and always
also mis-conscious.
Lacanian Terminology: Reality Principle – Definition and Explanation
The
idea of the "Reality Principle" as it was formulated by Freud was
harshly objected in Lacan psychoanalytic theory. Freud described the initial
contradiction between the pleasure principle which seeks gratification from
previous experiences of pleasure but encounters the limitations imposed on such
a gratification by the reality principle. According to Freud, the reality
principle sublimates the pleasure principle by forcing it to seek indirect ways
of achieving pleasure.
Lacan
objected to this formulation of the reality principle. He thought the seeing
"reality" and objectively given was a simplistic notion that did not
correspond with the human experience. Lacan attributed reality, and the reality
principle, to the symbolic
order, where the subject cannot make such a clear cut distinction between
imagination and reality, as Freud would have it.
Lacanian Terminology: Instinctual Pressure – Definition and Explanation
Instinctual
pressure is of the impulses associated according to Lacan with the mirror
stage. for Freud, pressure is characteristic of all impulses and is their
essence. The amount of pressure can be theoretically quantified, and it the
measure of pressure which determines the strength of the conflict it imposes on
the subject. In relating to the mirror stage, Lacan describes aggression as an
impulse which operates on the subject and can dictate his behavior. Lacan suggested
that the extent of pressure operating on the subject during the mirror stage
can shape the manner in which any instinctual pressure can become threatening and
dangerous for the subject.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Lacanian Terminology: Transitivism – Definition and Explanation
Transitivism
is a psychoanalytic concept suggested by Charlotte Buhler
to designate a special kind of identification often observed with small
children. With transitivism we identify with the other in a manner that mirrors
(that is reversing) our own image. Lacan associated this reversal with the
function of what he called "the mirror stage". He argued that
trasivitism demonstrates the confusion between the I and the other which
is a part of imaginary identification.
Lacanian Terminology: Hysterical Repression – Definition and Explanation
In Lacan's
theory, Hysterical Repression is a repression of mental content which reemerges
through hysterical symptoms. Lacan saw repression as characterizing one of the
three structures of the subject (neurotic, pervertic and psychotic). While the
pervertic is characterized with denial and the psychotic with rejection, the
neurotic structure is associated predominantly with repression. Lacan calls
Hysterical Repression "the return of the repressed" which causes
hysteria like symptoms.
Lacanian Terminology: Displacement – Definition and Explanation
Lacan
uses the term "Displacement" to a great extent along the lines of
Freud's formulation of the concept. According to Freud, displacement is one of
the forms in which the unconscious dissociates one issue of mental content from
one thought to another by way of association. According to Freud, displacement
is usually manifested in dreams but also in speech.
Lacan,
being engaged with language and believing the mind to be functioning as language,
compared displacement with the literary function of metonymy – a contextual relation
between one signifier and another in the chain of signification (or signifying
chain).
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