SlideShare a Scribd company logo
1
LITERATURE AND PSYCHOANALYSIS SERIES (October 2016)
ON THE ETHICS OF SPEECH
Michel de Certeau (1983). ‘Lacan: An Ethics of Speech,’ translated by Marie-Rose
Logan, Representations, University of California Press, No. 3, Summer, pp. 21-39.
INTRODUCTION
The term ‘speech’ plays an important role in Lacanian theory and practice. It is even
possible to chart the development of Lacanian psychoanalysis by tracing the uses to
which Lacan puts this term. While doing that may be beyond the scope of this
review, reading Michel de Certeau’s paper on Lacan’s ‘ethics of speech’ will give
readers of Lacan a feel for what is at stake in this term. But, before summarizing the
main points in de Certeau’s paper, I want to point out that the term ‘speech’ is used
within specific philosophical contexts in Lacan. The thinkers relevant in this context
include Ferdinand de Saussure, Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss, St. Augustine,
and Martin Heidegger. In other words, the Lacanian notion of speech is related to a
genealogy that includes structural linguistics, anthropology, theology, and
philosophy. It is therefore important to know how this term is used in these areas.
The term ‘speech’ is used in linguistics in the context of the opposition between
langue and parole; in anthropology it occurs in the context of symbolic exchanges; in
theology it refers to the act of ‘symbolic invocation;’ and, finally, in philosophy, it
structures the opposition between full speech and empty speech.1 The Lacanian
ethics of speech builds on all these aspects of the term. In addition to these aspects,
Lacan points out that psychoanalysis is meant to be a ‘talking cure.’ What this means
is that the patient can be cured only if he puts his symptoms across to the analyst,
through acts of speech, in a clinical form that is known as ‘free association.’ It is
therefore important for him to situate his notion of speech within the genealogy of
1 See Dylan Evans (1996,1997). ‘Speech,’ An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis
(London: Routledge), pp. 190-192.
2
this term in the history of ideas. The difference between full and empty forms of
speech is important because it is used as an indicator of health and neurosis. The
main problem in a neurosis is that the patient appears to be speaking in vain about
somebody who resembles him without being able to become one with his speech.
The moment that he is able to do so, he is deemed to have been cured.
ON FREE ASSOCIATION
The term ‘speech’ then has both theoretical and practical consequences to what we
mean by an ‘analysis,’ or what we mean by ‘free association,’ in the clinic. An
analysis basically consists of attempts made by both the patient and the analyst to
make sense of what the patient says from the couch. The ‘basic rule’ involved in free-
association is that the patient must say whatever appears on the surface of his mind
without attempting to censor its contents. The term ‘free-association’ was an
incorrect translation of the German phrase ‘freier Einfall’ by A.A. Brill. What
Sigmund Freud had in mind was something akin to the emergence of ‘sudden ideas’
rather than systematic associations. Nonetheless, this term caught on. It is widely
misunderstood even by analysts who are not aware of the original Freudian term in
German. Freud was so excited when he stumbled upon this technique that he gave
up hypnosis in its favour. The basic assumption in this method is that if the patient is
willing to let go, his thoughts will lead invariably to the repressed content in his
unconscious.2 These free associations also demonstrate that the unconscious is not a
reservoir of instincts, but that they have a discursive structure that Lacan compared
to a language. The term ‘free’ does not mean that the sequences in which ideas occur
in the mind are devoid of psychic determinism. On the contrary, both the formal and
substantive elements of free association play a role in interpreting the discourse of
the patient.3 The main difference between the terms ‘free association’ and ‘speech’ is
that the former is used mainly as a clinical term whereas the latter is imbued with
philosophical associations that Lacan seeks to harness in his theory of the subject, the
symptom, and the unconscious. The reason that he qualifies the term ‘speech’ with
ethics relates to the fact that the unconscious does not lend itself to ontological
description. In other words, it is not possible to simply differentiate between
consciousness and the unconscious in ontological terms; that is because the
unconscious is characterized by the pulsative function. What this means is that any
attempt to inspect the contents of the unconscious leads to its sudden closure; hence
the Lacanian contention that the unconscious is ‘pre-ontological.’ If the unconscious
2 See, for instance, Charles Rycroft (1995). ‘Free Association,’ A Critical Dictionary of
Psychoanalysis (London: Penguin Books), pp. 59-60.
3 See Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis (1973, 1988) ‘Free Association (Method or
Rule of),’ The Language of Psychoanalysis, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith, introduction
by Daniel Lagache (London: Karnac Books), pp. 169-170.
3
cannot be rendered theoretically through an ontological description, then, Lacan is
forced to describe it as an ‘ethical’ phenomenon. The term ethics is not used here in
the sense of conventional morality, but in the sense that the ‘gap’ which constitutes
the unconscious is pre-ontological; hence the term ‘ethics of speech’ in the title of
Michel de Certeau’s paper.4 Since the patient’s speech is the only way of accessing
the unconscious through acts of free-association, the term ‘ethics’ qualifies both
speech and the structure of the unconscious that it reveals during an analysis. Lacan
also uses the term ‘ethics’ in his theory of desire and the death instinct in his seminar
of 1959-60.5
POETICS OF THE FREUDIAN CORPUS
The first thing that Michel de Certeau notices about Lacan is that he is to be found
speaking in his seminars. Moreover the rhetoric that is associated with Lacan is that
of withdrawal. Lacan was also fond of founding and dissolving new schools of
psychoanalysis lest they ossify into new forms of analytic orthodoxy. That is why
there is something akin to a tragic comedy in his approach to his seminars. It will not
be possible to understand the doctrinal elements at stake in his work unless the
aesthetic and stylistic aspects of the seminar are taken into consideration. That is
why the Lacanian approach to reading psychoanalysis involves a return to ‘the
poetics of the Freudian corpus.’ In other words, the meaning of the analytic doctrine
will remain elusive unless the reader is willing to read Freud as a literary text.
Lacan’s commentaries on Freudian psychoanalysis are invariably accompanied by
readings of literary texts from different traditions; that is why students of not only
French but also comparative literature are fond of Lacan. Furthermore, the Lacanian
approach is not to interpret literary texts using psychoanalysis but to explicate
aspects of the analytic doctrine with the help of literary texts. Needless to say, this
must have been extremely flattering to literary critics who had reconciled themselves
to a subordinate relationship to analysts within the Freudian approach to literature
and psychoanalysis. Lacan’s interest and participation in the aesthetics of surrealism
is also relevant in this context. What the analysts and surrealists had in common was
the aesthetics of the dream work. In other words, what they shared in common was
4 See Jacques Lacan (1973, 1979). ‘Of the Subject of Certainty,’ The Four Fundamental Concepts
of Psychoanalysis, Seminar XI, translated by Alan Sheridan, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller
(London: Penguin Books), pp. 29-30. For an account of psychoanalysis in the context of
conventional morality and moral values, see Lewis Samuel Feuer (1955). Psychoanalysis and
Ethics (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publisher) and Heinz Hartmann (1960).
Psychoanalysis and Moral Values (New York: International Universities Press).
5 Jacques Lacan (1986, 1992). The Ethics of Psychoanalysis 1959-1960: The Seminar of Jacques
Lacan, Book VII, translated by Dennis Porter, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller (London:
Routledge).
4
a preoccupation with the formations of the unconscious. Furthermore, they agreed
that they must make whatever forays were required into the unconscious. An
important spur to their creativity was precisely the question of whether an
ontological description of the unconscious was possible. Both surrealist paintings
and films inspired by surrealism toyed with these oneiric descriptions.
THE OBSESSION WITH DREAMS
The obsession with dreams and dream work is related to the Freudian contention
that dreams represent the ‘royal road to the unconscious.’ Not everybody
understood that dreams only show us the way to the unconscious; they were often
conflated with the unconscious itself. The main theoretical problem was the need to
differentiate between the structure and the function of the unconscious; and account,
if possible, for both within the same theoretical description of the unconscious. A
recurrent problem in theory was whether the Freudian unconscious had anything to
do with the forms of creativity that characterize artists and writers; hence the
surrealist experiments with automatic writing. Another important dimension was
whether dreams constitute fiction or an alternate model of truth. Who was the
author of a dream? What was the dreamer’s intention in dreaming? Can the author
of a dream be compared to a writer in the empirical world? What were the
similarities and differences? The analysis of a dream in the analytic situation is
mediated by secondary representation. In other words, it is not the dream as
‘dreamt’ by the dreamer but the dream as ‘described’ by the dreamer that is subject
to interpretation by the analyst. The ontological difference between the dream and
its description through secondary representation then is what is at stake in the
analytic clinic.6 In other words, it was the structure, function, and representations of
the dream and the psychology of the dreamer that united the artist, the writer, and
the analyst in their explorations of the unconscious. The preoccupation with
Freudian poetics in the history of psychoanalysis then is not only a ‘return to Freud’
but a ‘return of Freud’ himself to the history of psychoanalysis from which he had
been excluded in his own life (after the theoretical controversies on the discovery of
the death instinct had split the analytic movement).
CONCLUSION
In addition to Freud, there is also the question of how psychoanalysis relates to
Christ; this is the question of ‘Christian archaeology’ in Lacan’s thought. Why did
Lacan dedicate his doctoral dissertation to his brother, Marc-François Lacan, who
became a Benedictine monk? De Certeau points out that there are a number of
6 See Sigmund Freud (1900, 1991). ‘The Dream Work,’ translated by James Strachey and
Angela Richards, The Interpretation of Dreams (London: Penguin Books), Vol. 4, Penguin
Freud Library, pp. 381-651.
5
Benedictine elements in the Lacanian doctrine. These include Lacan’s definitions of
work, speech, desire, the monk, and truth. So while it is known that Lacan was
influenced by Catholicism, it is not necessarily the case that his readers are able to
appreciate the Benedictine elements in it. This is one of the most important points in
De Certeau’s interpretation of the Lacanian ‘ethics of speech’ in this paper. That is
why, as he puts it, ‘the West has for three centuries been concerned with the
question of what to do about the Other.’ Lacan’s attempt to deal with this question is
mediated by the influence of Alexandre Kojève’s seminars on Hegel in Paris (which
was to serve as a role model for his own) and in his readings of Aristotle, St. Paul,
Sade, Kant, and Sophocles. In other words, the ethics of speech culminates in the
theory of desire that is articulated in the seminar on the ethics of psychoanalysis.
Another way of saying this is to point out that we cannot understand the ethics of
speech unless we come to terms with the conditions of possibility of the subject
acting on its desire.
Hence the culmination of the ethics seminar with the Last Day of Judgement in
which the subject is asked to justify whether or not he acted on his desire; and what
his excuse was for giving up on his desire. The ethics of speech as represented by
Michel de Certeau then is just another way of articulating the subject’s relationship
between speech, desire, and the unconscious in the work of Jacques Lacan.
SHIVA KUMAR SRINIVASAN

More Related Content

What's hot

Benjamin and marx
Benjamin and marxBenjamin and marx
Benjamin and marx
DeborahJ
 
Derrida-Hegel: Différance-Difference
Derrida-Hegel: Différance-DifferenceDerrida-Hegel: Différance-Difference
Derrida-Hegel: Différance-Difference
Melanie Swan
 
Jacques lacan the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis
Jacques lacan   the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysisJacques lacan   the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis
Jacques lacan the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis
saeed_eob
 
Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)
Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)
Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 
Presentation on freud and lacan
Presentation on freud and lacanPresentation on freud and lacan
Presentation on freud and lacan
Ramshankar Yadav
 

What's hot (20)

Benjamin and marx
Benjamin and marxBenjamin and marx
Benjamin and marx
 
Sigmund Freud on 'Libidinal Types'
Sigmund Freud on 'Libidinal Types'Sigmund Freud on 'Libidinal Types'
Sigmund Freud on 'Libidinal Types'
 
Freud beyond the pleasure principle
Freud beyond the pleasure principleFreud beyond the pleasure principle
Freud beyond the pleasure principle
 
Derrida-Hegel: Différance-Difference
Derrida-Hegel: Différance-DifferenceDerrida-Hegel: Différance-Difference
Derrida-Hegel: Différance-Difference
 
Jacques Lacan on the Unconscious
Jacques Lacan on the UnconsciousJacques Lacan on the Unconscious
Jacques Lacan on the Unconscious
 
SociologyExchange.co.uk Shared Resource
SociologyExchange.co.uk Shared ResourceSociologyExchange.co.uk Shared Resource
SociologyExchange.co.uk Shared Resource
 
Phenomenology
PhenomenologyPhenomenology
Phenomenology
 
Bruce Fink on Treating Psychosis
Bruce Fink on Treating PsychosisBruce Fink on Treating Psychosis
Bruce Fink on Treating Psychosis
 
Edith 2
Edith 2Edith 2
Edith 2
 
Bruce Fink on the Transference
Bruce Fink on the TransferenceBruce Fink on the Transference
Bruce Fink on the Transference
 
Psychoanalysis: an Introduction
Psychoanalysis: an IntroductionPsychoanalysis: an Introduction
Psychoanalysis: an Introduction
 
Freud on Object Choice
Freud on Object ChoiceFreud on Object Choice
Freud on Object Choice
 
Jacques lacan the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis
Jacques lacan   the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysisJacques lacan   the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis
Jacques lacan the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis
 
Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)
Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)
Jacques Lacan on Naricissism and the Ego (October 2016)
 
Presentation on freud and lacan
Presentation on freud and lacanPresentation on freud and lacan
Presentation on freud and lacan
 
Jean francois lyotard
Jean francois lyotardJean francois lyotard
Jean francois lyotard
 
Critique of judgment
Critique of judgmentCritique of judgment
Critique of judgment
 
philosophical hermeneutics
philosophical hermeneuticsphilosophical hermeneutics
philosophical hermeneutics
 
Lacan presentation by laxman
Lacan presentation by laxmanLacan presentation by laxman
Lacan presentation by laxman
 
Structuralism
StructuralismStructuralism
Structuralism
 

Viewers also liked

9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech
9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech
9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech
mayorgam
 
On the Transference and the Counter-Transference
On the Transference and the Counter-TransferenceOn the Transference and the Counter-Transference
On the Transference and the Counter-Transference
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 
Donald Winnicott on the Mirroring Function
Donald Winnicott on the Mirroring FunctionDonald Winnicott on the Mirroring Function
Donald Winnicott on the Mirroring Function
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 
On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)
On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)
On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 

Viewers also liked (20)

Analysis on Freedom of Expression in Armenia
Analysis on Freedom of Expression in ArmeniaAnalysis on Freedom of Expression in Armenia
Analysis on Freedom of Expression in Armenia
 
3 censorship privacy
3 censorship privacy3 censorship privacy
3 censorship privacy
 
9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech
9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech
9694 thinking skills limitations on free speech
 
On the Transference and the Counter-Transference
On the Transference and the Counter-TransferenceOn the Transference and the Counter-Transference
On the Transference and the Counter-Transference
 
Review of 'Psychoanalysis as History'
Review of 'Psychoanalysis as History'Review of 'Psychoanalysis as History'
Review of 'Psychoanalysis as History'
 
On 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego'
On 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego'On 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego'
On 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego'
 
Jacques Alain Miller on 'A and a in Clinical Structures'
Jacques Alain Miller on 'A and a in Clinical Structures'Jacques Alain Miller on 'A and a in Clinical Structures'
Jacques Alain Miller on 'A and a in Clinical Structures'
 
Lionel Trilling on Art and Neurosis
Lionel Trilling on Art and NeurosisLionel Trilling on Art and Neurosis
Lionel Trilling on Art and Neurosis
 
Sigmund Freud's Autobiographical Study
Sigmund Freud's Autobiographical StudySigmund Freud's Autobiographical Study
Sigmund Freud's Autobiographical Study
 
Review of 'Interpreting Lacan'
Review of 'Interpreting Lacan'Review of 'Interpreting Lacan'
Review of 'Interpreting Lacan'
 
Stanley Leavy on Jacques Lacan
Stanley Leavy on Jacques LacanStanley Leavy on Jacques Lacan
Stanley Leavy on Jacques Lacan
 
On the Psychoanalysis of Conflict
On the Psychoanalysis of ConflictOn the Psychoanalysis of Conflict
On the Psychoanalysis of Conflict
 
Bruce Fink on Phone Analysis
Bruce Fink on Phone AnalysisBruce Fink on Phone Analysis
Bruce Fink on Phone Analysis
 
On Sigmund Freud's 'Outline of Psychoanalysis'
On Sigmund Freud's 'Outline of Psychoanalysis'On Sigmund Freud's 'Outline of Psychoanalysis'
On Sigmund Freud's 'Outline of Psychoanalysis'
 
Ethics in public speaking
Ethics in public speakingEthics in public speaking
Ethics in public speaking
 
On Clinical Techniques in Freud and Lacan, Clinical Notes Series
On Clinical Techniques in Freud and Lacan, Clinical Notes SeriesOn Clinical Techniques in Freud and Lacan, Clinical Notes Series
On Clinical Techniques in Freud and Lacan, Clinical Notes Series
 
Freedom of Expression, Media and Journalism under the European Human Rights S...
Freedom of Expression, Media and Journalism under the European Human Rights S...Freedom of Expression, Media and Journalism under the European Human Rights S...
Freedom of Expression, Media and Journalism under the European Human Rights S...
 
On Resistances to Psychoanalysis
On Resistances to PsychoanalysisOn Resistances to Psychoanalysis
On Resistances to Psychoanalysis
 
Donald Winnicott on the Mirroring Function
Donald Winnicott on the Mirroring FunctionDonald Winnicott on the Mirroring Function
Donald Winnicott on the Mirroring Function
 
On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)
On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)
On Lacanian Literary Criticism (October 2016)
 

Similar to On the Ethics of Speech

Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical Essay
Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical EssayKey Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical Essay
Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical Essay
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 
Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'
Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'
Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 
Key Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docx
Key Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docxKey Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docx
Key Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docx
jesssueann
 
Review of Roland Barthes's Image Music Text
Review of Roland Barthes's  Image Music TextReview of Roland Barthes's  Image Music Text
Review of Roland Barthes's Image Music Text
Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
 

Similar to On the Ethics of Speech (20)

Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical Essay
Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical EssayKey Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical Essay
Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis - A Lexical Essay
 
Jacques Lacan on 'My Teaching'
Jacques Lacan on 'My Teaching'Jacques Lacan on 'My Teaching'
Jacques Lacan on 'My Teaching'
 
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part II'
 
Review of The Language of the Self
Review of The Language of the SelfReview of The Language of the Self
Review of The Language of the Self
 
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'
J-A Miller on 'Lacan's Orientation Prior to 1953, Part III'
 
Review of The Lacanian Subject
Review of The Lacanian SubjectReview of The Lacanian Subject
Review of The Lacanian Subject
 
Marcelle Marini on Jacques Lacan
Marcelle Marini on Jacques LacanMarcelle Marini on Jacques Lacan
Marcelle Marini on Jacques Lacan
 
Patrick Mahony - Psychoanalysis & Discourse
Patrick Mahony - Psychoanalysis & DiscoursePatrick Mahony - Psychoanalysis & Discourse
Patrick Mahony - Psychoanalysis & Discourse
 
Bruce Fink on Interpreting
Bruce Fink on InterpretingBruce Fink on Interpreting
Bruce Fink on Interpreting
 
Sigmund Freud's 'New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1932-33)'
Sigmund Freud's 'New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1932-33)'Sigmund Freud's 'New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1932-33)'
Sigmund Freud's 'New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1932-33)'
 
Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'
Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'
Jacques-Alain Miller on 'Lacan's Clinical Perspectives'
 
Paul Schimmel (2014). Sigmund Freud’s Discovery of Psychoanalysis: Conquistad...
Paul Schimmel (2014). Sigmund Freud’s Discovery of Psychoanalysis: Conquistad...Paul Schimmel (2014). Sigmund Freud’s Discovery of Psychoanalysis: Conquistad...
Paul Schimmel (2014). Sigmund Freud’s Discovery of Psychoanalysis: Conquistad...
 
Manipulation and cognitive pragmatics. Preliminary hypotheses
Manipulation and cognitive pragmatics. Preliminary hypothesesManipulation and cognitive pragmatics. Preliminary hypotheses
Manipulation and cognitive pragmatics. Preliminary hypotheses
 
Ernest Jones on Psychoanalysis
Ernest Jones on PsychoanalysisErnest Jones on Psychoanalysis
Ernest Jones on Psychoanalysis
 
Philosophyactivity
PhilosophyactivityPhilosophyactivity
Philosophyactivity
 
On The First Freudians
On The First FreudiansOn The First Freudians
On The First Freudians
 
Paul ricoeur
Paul ricoeurPaul ricoeur
Paul ricoeur
 
Bruce Fink on 'The Lacanian Subject'
Bruce Fink on 'The Lacanian Subject'Bruce Fink on 'The Lacanian Subject'
Bruce Fink on 'The Lacanian Subject'
 
Key Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docx
Key Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docxKey Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docx
Key Thinkers in Practical Philosophy Dr Irvin D. Yalom Stephen Jame.docx
 
Review of Roland Barthes's Image Music Text
Review of Roland Barthes's  Image Music TextReview of Roland Barthes's  Image Music Text
Review of Roland Barthes's Image Music Text
 

More from Shiva Kumar Srinivasan

More from Shiva Kumar Srinivasan (9)

Donald Winnicott on Playing
Donald Winnicott on PlayingDonald Winnicott on Playing
Donald Winnicott on Playing
 
Review of Winnicott
Review of WinnicottReview of Winnicott
Review of Winnicott
 
On Transitional Objects
On Transitional ObjectsOn Transitional Objects
On Transitional Objects
 
Review of The Literature Machine
Review of The Literature MachineReview of The Literature Machine
Review of The Literature Machine
 
Review of Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida
Review of Roland Barthes's Camera LucidaReview of Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida
Review of Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida
 
Review of The Key Concepts in Nietzsche
Review of The Key Concepts in NietzscheReview of The Key Concepts in Nietzsche
Review of The Key Concepts in Nietzsche
 
Review of On Beauty
Review of On BeautyReview of On Beauty
Review of On Beauty
 
Review of The Mirror and the Lamp
Review of The Mirror and the LampReview of The Mirror and the Lamp
Review of The Mirror and the Lamp
 
Review of Harold Bloom's The American Religion
Review of Harold Bloom's The American ReligionReview of Harold Bloom's The American Religion
Review of Harold Bloom's The American Religion
 

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

MARUTI SUZUKI- A Successful Joint Venture in India.pptx
MARUTI SUZUKI- A Successful Joint Venture in India.pptxMARUTI SUZUKI- A Successful Joint Venture in India.pptx
MARUTI SUZUKI- A Successful Joint Venture in India.pptx
 
Salient features of Environment protection Act 1986.pptx
Salient features of Environment protection Act 1986.pptxSalient features of Environment protection Act 1986.pptx
Salient features of Environment protection Act 1986.pptx
 
Danh sách HSG Bộ môn cấp trường - Cấp THPT.pdf
Danh sách HSG Bộ môn cấp trường - Cấp THPT.pdfDanh sách HSG Bộ môn cấp trường - Cấp THPT.pdf
Danh sách HSG Bộ môn cấp trường - Cấp THPT.pdf
 
The Benefits and Challenges of Open Educational Resources
The Benefits and Challenges of Open Educational ResourcesThe Benefits and Challenges of Open Educational Resources
The Benefits and Challenges of Open Educational Resources
 
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS Module
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleHow to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS Module
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS Module
 
Sectors of the Indian Economy - Class 10 Study Notes pdf
Sectors of the Indian Economy - Class 10 Study Notes pdfSectors of the Indian Economy - Class 10 Study Notes pdf
Sectors of the Indian Economy - Class 10 Study Notes pdf
 
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
 
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptx
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxInstructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptx
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptx
 
B.ed spl. HI pdusu exam paper-2023-24.pdf
B.ed spl. HI pdusu exam paper-2023-24.pdfB.ed spl. HI pdusu exam paper-2023-24.pdf
B.ed spl. HI pdusu exam paper-2023-24.pdf
 
Gyanartha SciBizTech Quiz slideshare.pptx
Gyanartha SciBizTech Quiz slideshare.pptxGyanartha SciBizTech Quiz slideshare.pptx
Gyanartha SciBizTech Quiz slideshare.pptx
 
Matatag-Curriculum and the 21st Century Skills Presentation.pptx
Matatag-Curriculum and the 21st Century Skills Presentation.pptxMatatag-Curriculum and the 21st Century Skills Presentation.pptx
Matatag-Curriculum and the 21st Century Skills Presentation.pptx
 
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERP
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERPHow to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERP
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERP
 
Advances in production technology of Grapes.pdf
Advances in production technology of Grapes.pdfAdvances in production technology of Grapes.pdf
Advances in production technology of Grapes.pdf
 
slides CapTechTalks Webinar May 2024 Alexander Perry.pptx
slides CapTechTalks Webinar May 2024 Alexander Perry.pptxslides CapTechTalks Webinar May 2024 Alexander Perry.pptx
slides CapTechTalks Webinar May 2024 Alexander Perry.pptx
 
Basic Civil Engineering Notes of Chapter-6, Topic- Ecosystem, Biodiversity G...
Basic Civil Engineering Notes of Chapter-6,  Topic- Ecosystem, Biodiversity G...Basic Civil Engineering Notes of Chapter-6,  Topic- Ecosystem, Biodiversity G...
Basic Civil Engineering Notes of Chapter-6, Topic- Ecosystem, Biodiversity G...
 
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptx
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxSynthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptx
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptx
 
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptx
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxStudents, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptx
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptx
 
GIÁO ÁN DẠY THÊM (KẾ HOẠCH BÀI BUỔI 2) - TIẾNG ANH 8 GLOBAL SUCCESS (2 CỘT) N...
GIÁO ÁN DẠY THÊM (KẾ HOẠCH BÀI BUỔI 2) - TIẾNG ANH 8 GLOBAL SUCCESS (2 CỘT) N...GIÁO ÁN DẠY THÊM (KẾ HOẠCH BÀI BUỔI 2) - TIẾNG ANH 8 GLOBAL SUCCESS (2 CỘT) N...
GIÁO ÁN DẠY THÊM (KẾ HOẠCH BÀI BUỔI 2) - TIẾNG ANH 8 GLOBAL SUCCESS (2 CỘT) N...
 
Mattingly "AI & Prompt Design: Limitations and Solutions with LLMs"
Mattingly "AI & Prompt Design: Limitations and Solutions with LLMs"Mattingly "AI & Prompt Design: Limitations and Solutions with LLMs"
Mattingly "AI & Prompt Design: Limitations and Solutions with LLMs"
 
Introduction to Quality Improvement Essentials
Introduction to Quality Improvement EssentialsIntroduction to Quality Improvement Essentials
Introduction to Quality Improvement Essentials
 

On the Ethics of Speech

  • 1. 1 LITERATURE AND PSYCHOANALYSIS SERIES (October 2016) ON THE ETHICS OF SPEECH Michel de Certeau (1983). ‘Lacan: An Ethics of Speech,’ translated by Marie-Rose Logan, Representations, University of California Press, No. 3, Summer, pp. 21-39. INTRODUCTION The term ‘speech’ plays an important role in Lacanian theory and practice. It is even possible to chart the development of Lacanian psychoanalysis by tracing the uses to which Lacan puts this term. While doing that may be beyond the scope of this review, reading Michel de Certeau’s paper on Lacan’s ‘ethics of speech’ will give readers of Lacan a feel for what is at stake in this term. But, before summarizing the main points in de Certeau’s paper, I want to point out that the term ‘speech’ is used within specific philosophical contexts in Lacan. The thinkers relevant in this context include Ferdinand de Saussure, Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss, St. Augustine, and Martin Heidegger. In other words, the Lacanian notion of speech is related to a genealogy that includes structural linguistics, anthropology, theology, and philosophy. It is therefore important to know how this term is used in these areas. The term ‘speech’ is used in linguistics in the context of the opposition between langue and parole; in anthropology it occurs in the context of symbolic exchanges; in theology it refers to the act of ‘symbolic invocation;’ and, finally, in philosophy, it structures the opposition between full speech and empty speech.1 The Lacanian ethics of speech builds on all these aspects of the term. In addition to these aspects, Lacan points out that psychoanalysis is meant to be a ‘talking cure.’ What this means is that the patient can be cured only if he puts his symptoms across to the analyst, through acts of speech, in a clinical form that is known as ‘free association.’ It is therefore important for him to situate his notion of speech within the genealogy of 1 See Dylan Evans (1996,1997). ‘Speech,’ An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (London: Routledge), pp. 190-192.
  • 2. 2 this term in the history of ideas. The difference between full and empty forms of speech is important because it is used as an indicator of health and neurosis. The main problem in a neurosis is that the patient appears to be speaking in vain about somebody who resembles him without being able to become one with his speech. The moment that he is able to do so, he is deemed to have been cured. ON FREE ASSOCIATION The term ‘speech’ then has both theoretical and practical consequences to what we mean by an ‘analysis,’ or what we mean by ‘free association,’ in the clinic. An analysis basically consists of attempts made by both the patient and the analyst to make sense of what the patient says from the couch. The ‘basic rule’ involved in free- association is that the patient must say whatever appears on the surface of his mind without attempting to censor its contents. The term ‘free-association’ was an incorrect translation of the German phrase ‘freier Einfall’ by A.A. Brill. What Sigmund Freud had in mind was something akin to the emergence of ‘sudden ideas’ rather than systematic associations. Nonetheless, this term caught on. It is widely misunderstood even by analysts who are not aware of the original Freudian term in German. Freud was so excited when he stumbled upon this technique that he gave up hypnosis in its favour. The basic assumption in this method is that if the patient is willing to let go, his thoughts will lead invariably to the repressed content in his unconscious.2 These free associations also demonstrate that the unconscious is not a reservoir of instincts, but that they have a discursive structure that Lacan compared to a language. The term ‘free’ does not mean that the sequences in which ideas occur in the mind are devoid of psychic determinism. On the contrary, both the formal and substantive elements of free association play a role in interpreting the discourse of the patient.3 The main difference between the terms ‘free association’ and ‘speech’ is that the former is used mainly as a clinical term whereas the latter is imbued with philosophical associations that Lacan seeks to harness in his theory of the subject, the symptom, and the unconscious. The reason that he qualifies the term ‘speech’ with ethics relates to the fact that the unconscious does not lend itself to ontological description. In other words, it is not possible to simply differentiate between consciousness and the unconscious in ontological terms; that is because the unconscious is characterized by the pulsative function. What this means is that any attempt to inspect the contents of the unconscious leads to its sudden closure; hence the Lacanian contention that the unconscious is ‘pre-ontological.’ If the unconscious 2 See, for instance, Charles Rycroft (1995). ‘Free Association,’ A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (London: Penguin Books), pp. 59-60. 3 See Jean Laplanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis (1973, 1988) ‘Free Association (Method or Rule of),’ The Language of Psychoanalysis, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith, introduction by Daniel Lagache (London: Karnac Books), pp. 169-170.
  • 3. 3 cannot be rendered theoretically through an ontological description, then, Lacan is forced to describe it as an ‘ethical’ phenomenon. The term ethics is not used here in the sense of conventional morality, but in the sense that the ‘gap’ which constitutes the unconscious is pre-ontological; hence the term ‘ethics of speech’ in the title of Michel de Certeau’s paper.4 Since the patient’s speech is the only way of accessing the unconscious through acts of free-association, the term ‘ethics’ qualifies both speech and the structure of the unconscious that it reveals during an analysis. Lacan also uses the term ‘ethics’ in his theory of desire and the death instinct in his seminar of 1959-60.5 POETICS OF THE FREUDIAN CORPUS The first thing that Michel de Certeau notices about Lacan is that he is to be found speaking in his seminars. Moreover the rhetoric that is associated with Lacan is that of withdrawal. Lacan was also fond of founding and dissolving new schools of psychoanalysis lest they ossify into new forms of analytic orthodoxy. That is why there is something akin to a tragic comedy in his approach to his seminars. It will not be possible to understand the doctrinal elements at stake in his work unless the aesthetic and stylistic aspects of the seminar are taken into consideration. That is why the Lacanian approach to reading psychoanalysis involves a return to ‘the poetics of the Freudian corpus.’ In other words, the meaning of the analytic doctrine will remain elusive unless the reader is willing to read Freud as a literary text. Lacan’s commentaries on Freudian psychoanalysis are invariably accompanied by readings of literary texts from different traditions; that is why students of not only French but also comparative literature are fond of Lacan. Furthermore, the Lacanian approach is not to interpret literary texts using psychoanalysis but to explicate aspects of the analytic doctrine with the help of literary texts. Needless to say, this must have been extremely flattering to literary critics who had reconciled themselves to a subordinate relationship to analysts within the Freudian approach to literature and psychoanalysis. Lacan’s interest and participation in the aesthetics of surrealism is also relevant in this context. What the analysts and surrealists had in common was the aesthetics of the dream work. In other words, what they shared in common was 4 See Jacques Lacan (1973, 1979). ‘Of the Subject of Certainty,’ The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Seminar XI, translated by Alan Sheridan, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller (London: Penguin Books), pp. 29-30. For an account of psychoanalysis in the context of conventional morality and moral values, see Lewis Samuel Feuer (1955). Psychoanalysis and Ethics (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publisher) and Heinz Hartmann (1960). Psychoanalysis and Moral Values (New York: International Universities Press). 5 Jacques Lacan (1986, 1992). The Ethics of Psychoanalysis 1959-1960: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII, translated by Dennis Porter, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller (London: Routledge).
  • 4. 4 a preoccupation with the formations of the unconscious. Furthermore, they agreed that they must make whatever forays were required into the unconscious. An important spur to their creativity was precisely the question of whether an ontological description of the unconscious was possible. Both surrealist paintings and films inspired by surrealism toyed with these oneiric descriptions. THE OBSESSION WITH DREAMS The obsession with dreams and dream work is related to the Freudian contention that dreams represent the ‘royal road to the unconscious.’ Not everybody understood that dreams only show us the way to the unconscious; they were often conflated with the unconscious itself. The main theoretical problem was the need to differentiate between the structure and the function of the unconscious; and account, if possible, for both within the same theoretical description of the unconscious. A recurrent problem in theory was whether the Freudian unconscious had anything to do with the forms of creativity that characterize artists and writers; hence the surrealist experiments with automatic writing. Another important dimension was whether dreams constitute fiction or an alternate model of truth. Who was the author of a dream? What was the dreamer’s intention in dreaming? Can the author of a dream be compared to a writer in the empirical world? What were the similarities and differences? The analysis of a dream in the analytic situation is mediated by secondary representation. In other words, it is not the dream as ‘dreamt’ by the dreamer but the dream as ‘described’ by the dreamer that is subject to interpretation by the analyst. The ontological difference between the dream and its description through secondary representation then is what is at stake in the analytic clinic.6 In other words, it was the structure, function, and representations of the dream and the psychology of the dreamer that united the artist, the writer, and the analyst in their explorations of the unconscious. The preoccupation with Freudian poetics in the history of psychoanalysis then is not only a ‘return to Freud’ but a ‘return of Freud’ himself to the history of psychoanalysis from which he had been excluded in his own life (after the theoretical controversies on the discovery of the death instinct had split the analytic movement). CONCLUSION In addition to Freud, there is also the question of how psychoanalysis relates to Christ; this is the question of ‘Christian archaeology’ in Lacan’s thought. Why did Lacan dedicate his doctoral dissertation to his brother, Marc-François Lacan, who became a Benedictine monk? De Certeau points out that there are a number of 6 See Sigmund Freud (1900, 1991). ‘The Dream Work,’ translated by James Strachey and Angela Richards, The Interpretation of Dreams (London: Penguin Books), Vol. 4, Penguin Freud Library, pp. 381-651.
  • 5. 5 Benedictine elements in the Lacanian doctrine. These include Lacan’s definitions of work, speech, desire, the monk, and truth. So while it is known that Lacan was influenced by Catholicism, it is not necessarily the case that his readers are able to appreciate the Benedictine elements in it. This is one of the most important points in De Certeau’s interpretation of the Lacanian ‘ethics of speech’ in this paper. That is why, as he puts it, ‘the West has for three centuries been concerned with the question of what to do about the Other.’ Lacan’s attempt to deal with this question is mediated by the influence of Alexandre Kojève’s seminars on Hegel in Paris (which was to serve as a role model for his own) and in his readings of Aristotle, St. Paul, Sade, Kant, and Sophocles. In other words, the ethics of speech culminates in the theory of desire that is articulated in the seminar on the ethics of psychoanalysis. Another way of saying this is to point out that we cannot understand the ethics of speech unless we come to terms with the conditions of possibility of the subject acting on its desire. Hence the culmination of the ethics seminar with the Last Day of Judgement in which the subject is asked to justify whether or not he acted on his desire; and what his excuse was for giving up on his desire. The ethics of speech as represented by Michel de Certeau then is just another way of articulating the subject’s relationship between speech, desire, and the unconscious in the work of Jacques Lacan. SHIVA KUMAR SRINIVASAN