Response on Ashley Shelden's Post on Lacanian Psychoanalysis

First of all I would like to thank Ashley Sheldon for her incredibly helpful post on Lacanian psychoanalysis. After reading Ashley's post I understand it much more thoroughly. Many of the Lacanian concepts that were discussed in Ashley's post such as metonymy, signifier, symbolic, desire, and mirror image greatly affect the way in which I now view the "real world." According to Lacan, there is no signified (meaning), but only signifiers (words), which move from one to the other endlessly and constantly. Metonymy is understood as this signifier to signifier to signifier cycle, where there is no eventual signified established, or no meaning summoned. Because there are only signifiers, we exist through language or words. Without language, we would not exist. The symbolic represents the world of language, where we exist and cannot exist without. The idea of a signifier chain means that there will always be a piece missing from the puzzle. We will never be able to reach the signified, because the signifier chain persists on endlessly. Therefore, there is no stable meaning to anything, because "meaning" cannot be attained--we will never be able to reach a meaningful identity for ourselves as a result. Lacan's connection with language and desire emphasizes the fact that meaning can never be reached, because desire is used as a tool to fill the piece missing from the puzzle. Desire tries to fill the piece missing from the puzzle, or the void within us, but in a lot of ways desire can never be fully satisfied, because we can never fully obtain what we desire, or if we do, we soon become bored by it and move onto another object of desire. Therefore, desire too, keeps us running in this never-ending cycle, with no established destination. The "mirror stage" is the time when an infant sees his/her reflection in the mirror and is able to realize the fact that he/she is a solid and stable form. Therefore, the infant anticipates an identity, in response to seeing the solidity of their form in the mirror. However, the image that the infant observes in the mirror is merely an illusion, because it is only the idea of identity, and not truly identity. The mirror stage allows the infant to aspire to a sense of identity, even though identity can never be obtained. Therefore, the infant begins the endless cycle of trying to reach identity. Now that I have gained a better understanding of Lacanian psychoanalysis concepts, I feel as though my perception of the "real world" has changed. Before my understanding of Lacan, I always thought that each and every one of us has an inherent identity or uniqueness that separates one from everyone else. I thought that this identity could be obtained through friends and hobbies and activities that we enjoy as a person. However, after understanding Lacan's concepts, I now see that no one has a fixed identity, but everyone is in a constant cycle to attain an identity they will never have. I now understand the things that I once thought "identified" a person, such as friends and books and movies, not as helpful tools to reach identity, but rather as articles of desire. In this sense, the "desire" to be friends with a certain person, or the "desire" to own "Iron Man" the movie, all function as objects of desire that further thrust us into the never-ending symbolic cycle. These desirous objects will not help us find ourselves, but rather they fill a temporary void within us, and keep us bound in the cycle of always "wanting" (even though we will never fully gain anything). The things within our world serve as illusions of meaning. For instance, literature and film, do not establish a fixed meaning, but rather run around in circles spilling ideas. Everything within our "real world" is not truly real, but an illusion, because the "real" or meaning, can never be found. I really enjoyed Ashley's response, and like to think that I have a much better grasp on Lacan now than before.

Mantissa and the Psychoanalytic Theory

When I first started reading "Mantissa" I found it very representative of the psychoanalytic theory in many ways. When Dr. Delfie begins taking off her clothes and insisting that Mr. Green fondle her, in order to test his reflexes, it becomes obvious that Dr. Delfie is after much more in the attempt to reinstall Mr. Green's memory, while he suffers from amnesia. However, in the midst of Dr. Delfie's obscene behavior, Mr. Green can't help but panic and resist Dr. Delfie's perverse force over him. Mr. Green can't fully comprehend the sexual advances of Dr. Delfie, because it completely steps outside of his conscious and moral reality. Dr. Delfie states, "If you must know, Mr. Green, your memory-loss may well be partly caused by an unconscious desire to fondle unknown female bodies" (pg 21). In this sense, Dr. Delfie acknowledges the fact that the traumatic incident Mr. Green experienced before his onset of amnesia could have placed his unadmitted desires out of his consciousness and into his unconsciousness. As a result, certain desires or urges that Mr. Green once felt are repressed, and he cannot access them in his unconscious anymore. Mr. Green uses the tactic of sublimation, in which repressed information is disguised as something honorable. When Dr. Delfie makes sexual advances on Mr. Green, he completely dismisses all of it, and instead preaches that this is not correct behavior for a doctor, and what about his wife? Therefore, Mr. Green disguises his repressed sexual desires in the face of moral justice and faithfulness, even though he doesn't even remember his wife, and she is just as much a stranger to him as the doctor. Another particular quote that truly reflects the psychoanalytic theory is stated by Dr. Delfie "Now listen closely, Mr. Green. I will try to explain one last time. Memory is strongly attached to ego. Your ego has lost in a conflict with your superego, which has decided to repress it- to censor it. All Nurse and I wish to do is to enlist the aid of the third component in your psyche, the id. Your id is that flaccid member pressed against my posterior. It is potentially your best friend. And mine as your doctor. Do you understand what I am saying?" (pg 26). In light of what Dr. Delfie tells Mr. Green, she asserts that Mr. Green has lost his conscious memory or ego, because Mr. Green's conscience or superego has repressed his once conscious desires and urges, therefore, in order to restore Mr. Green's conscious desires they must get Mr. Green's id, or unconscious desires working, so that his ego restores itself and his memory comes back. Therefore, Dr. Delfie and the Nurse are trying to restore Mr. Green's unconscious sexual desires from his id by sexually provoking him. The concept of projection is also reflected here. Projection is when negative aspects of ourselves are not recognized by ourselves but projected onto another person. Mr. Green's repressed sexual desires are projected onto Dr. Delfie who fully exerts sexual desire and force. Projection acts as a defense mechanism for Mr. Green who does not want to face the painful realization that he has these sexual urges. In these particular ways, I feel as though the psychoanalytic theory can effectively evaluate this certain scene from Mantissa.