NEWSLETTER 06/2022

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ASREEP

18 juin – Lausanne

Conférence de clôture du séminaire annuel

d’introduction à la psychanalyse d’orientation lacanienne

Quels excès dans l’amour ?

avec Marie-Hélène Brousse

Heure : 18h30 à 20h00

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TUCHÉ
« Le sujet est heureux(…) tout heur lui est bon
pour ce qui le maintient, soit pour qu'il se répète »
— Télévision, Autres écrits, 526

"FIXATION"

What Fixes, What Repeats

Joanne Conway

What of fixation?

As Alexandre Stevens points out in his argument for the NLS Congress, Lacan in Seminar XI will fix repetition as one of the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis.

But what of fixation? Well only in his later teaching will Lacan wrestle with that concept while Freud, says Stevens, uses this term in a “rather discreet way”, but how?

For psychoanalysis, fixation accounts for the fact that we are marked by childhood experiences from which we “retain […] an attachment to greater or lesser extents, to archaic modes of satisfaction, types of object and of relationship.” These fixations of which the subject knows nothing insofar as they are unconscious, are the source of repetitions. These determining fixations may however make their presence very manifest via repetition, in the various rituals, symptoms and acts of the subject.

Freud makes no explanation per se of fixation but utilises it in a highly descriptive way throughout his work, particularly in relation to the aetiology of neurosis. In the Three Essays fixation is linked to the theory of the libido and the persistence of archaic sexual traits where the subject seeks out particular forms of activity or remains attached to certain properties of an object whose history can be traced to some moment in the sexual life of the child. This gains extension in the theory of libidinal stages which of course includes the drives as he elaborated them there.

Later in Beyond the Pleasure Principle Freud asserts a fixation to trauma, where libidinal satisfactions are no longer sufficient to explain this traumatic element that persists. Here Freud will assert the existence of the compulsion to repeat, to which we shall return later, together with Lacan.

The Freudian Unconscious and Ours

It struck me however upon re-reading Freud’s texts, particularly the metapsychology papers on Repression and The Unconscious from 1915, that in fact fixation is at the very core or rather cause, of his concept of the unconscious.
(…)

Fixation beyond Inertia

Rik Loose

In Seminar XI Lacan indicates that the drive is neither organic nor a myth but rather that it is a fiction in the Benthamite sense of the word. (1) It is interesting to note that he refers to Jeremy Bentham. With this reference he indicates that the drive is a construction, a fiction, that nevertheless indicates that something there ex-sists as for Lacan Bentham’s fictions are situated in the domain of the relationship between language and the real, between what IS and what EX-SISTS. He calls this drive a montage and not a model because a model is, essentially, a imaginarization of the real as a scientific attempt to approach the latter. Before he deconstructs this drive, he refers to Beyond the Pleasure-Principle where Freud writes that the drive is a manifestation of inertia in organic life, and he says that this idea of inertia could be linked to fixation. But, according to Lacan, doing so, would be a mistake.(2) From Seminar XI onwards the relationship between fixation and inertia begins to shift.

(…)

References
^{^[1]} Lacan J. (1964-1965), The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, New York: Norton, p. 163.

^{^[2]} Ibid., p. 162.

Fixation and Murder of Passion

Maria-Theresia Müllner

“… that each stage in the development of psychosexuality affords a possibility of 'fixation’ and thus of a dispositional point. People who have not freed themselves completely from the stage of narcissism–who, that is to say, have at that point a fixation which may operate as a disposition to a later illness–are exposed to the danger that some unusually intense wave of libido, finding no other outlet, may lead to a sexualization of their social instincts and so undo the sublimations which they had achieved in the course of their development. This result may be produced by anything that causes the libido to flow backwards (i.e. that causes a ‘regression’): whether, on the one hand, the libido becomes collaterally reinforced […] on the other hand, there is a general intensification of the libido, so that it becomes too powerful to find an outlet along the channels which are already open to it, and consequently burst through its banks at the weakest spot.” (1)

In 1911, Freud was already thinking about what would remain a clinical and current phenomenon. Freud’s text could offer a way of interpreting this phenomenon.
(…)

READ MORE →

References
[1] Freud, S. (1911). Psycho-Analytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia, III The Mechanism of Paranoia, in: Volume XII, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, J. Strachey (ed.), Hogarth Press: London, pp.61-62.

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Warsaw Circle

11-12 June – Warsaw

19th Study – Days and Clinical Conversations

with Anna Aromi

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TUCHÉ
« Le sujet est heureux(…) tout heur lui est bon
pour ce qui le maintient, soit pour qu'il se répète »
— Télévision, Autres écrits, 526

SAVOIR Y FAIRE – KNOW HOW

Essaimmusic

Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff

The New York Times style editors noted a resurgence of ambient music : “Your Most-Played Song of 2020 is … White Noise ?” (1) Has the disturbance in the sense of temporality, the real of time, affected our pandemic aural sensibilities ? Enough with narrative music. Mid-20th century experiments with repetition and noise locate the origins of ambient. These two concepts emerged together to confront classical harmony. Background becomes foreground, signal becomes noise.

Arnold Schoenberg who taught John Cage (2) said, “Even variation is a form of repetition.” Cage pushed the use of repetition further, “I try over and over to begin all over again.” Brian Eno inverted Schoenberg by stating, “Repetition is a form of change.” They challenged the binary of repetition and change. In a 1974 interview, Cage spoke of “the demilitarization of language.” (3) In his book, Silence, he quotes from his audience : “Relax, there are no symbols here to confuse you. Enjoy Yourself !” (4) The crisis of representation in art was set on the battleground of the symbolic. Cage demonstrated an effort, that is now ubiquitous, to disrupt the power of master signifiers through noise and contingency.

Where are we left after the ‘cagey fantasy’, “no symbols here” ? His answer was clear : Enjoy Yourself ! Lacan captured the same phrase, calling it the superego. There is jouissance of a body enjoying itself. It is a distinct modality of repetition, a series of ones that fail to establish a chord progression, founding a practice of discord.
(…)

Références
^{^[1]} Beery Z., “Your Most-Played Song of 2020 is … White Noise ?”, The New York Times, December 24, 2020.

^{^[2]} John Cage was a post-war avant-garde American composer, author, and theorist. His legacy continues to influence experimental, electronic, and ambient music today. Cage’s most cited work is 4’33’’ from 1952, which framed silence as a field of contingent noise.

^{^[3]} Cage J., “On ‘Empty Words’ and the Demilitarization of Language,” Radio interview, August 8, 1974.

^{^[4]} Cage J., “In This Day,” Silence: Lectures and Writings, 50th Anniversary Edition, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2012), 94-95.

Photo credit : Liz Sullivan.

Aucune idée

Bruno de Halleux

C’est le titre d’une pièce de théâtre mise en scène par Christoph Marthaler, un dramaturge de Lausanne. Elle est programmée à Bruxelles au Kunst Festival Des Arts, c’est une chance.

Après la longue ovation du public, je me suis demandé ce qui m’avait tant séduit dans ce spectacle étrange, inventif, musical, chanté et hors sens.

La scène est réduite à un entre-sol aux multiples portes. Deux acteurs ne cessent d’y entrer et d’en sortir sans qu’on ne sache où est le dehors ou le dedans. Les problèmes sont ordinaires, une panne d’un radiateur, une avalanche de courrier publicitaire, une coupure d’électricité, un voisin qui se plaint du bruit fait par les deux protagonistes et beaucoup d’autres choses.

Ce qui est moins ordinaire, c’est le traitement de ces moments quotidiens. Le traitement de la langue, à force de répétition, de déplacements, de torsions, d’inversions, de déformations et d’altérations, se transforme littéralement en une lalangue dont le plaisir surgit dans la sonorité même de la phrase, dans la matière même du mot.
(…)

CONTINUEZ À LIRE →

Fixation and Repetition – with Littoral

Hamutal Shapira

Micha Ullman is a highly regarded Israeli artist. His sculptures are exhibited around the world, best known for his “Empty Library” (Bebelplatz, Berlin, 1995). (1) Many of his artworks are subterranean involving digging. They are dug in such a way that you can sometimes pass by the sculpture, leaving it unnoticed.

Ullman, being asked about this repetition says: “I’ve been attracted to digging for decades.. It is about the void, that doesn’t let go of me. This emptiness of the hole, the more you deepen it, the more space you get, the more sky. This fascinates me!… and all this, happens on the wall of the hole, the boundary, the ‘in between’. This is a border-line condition”. He continues: “My first diggings were as a child joining my father. He ran away from Berlin in 1933 and arriving in Palestine, wanted to become an agriculturist, “to work the land”.

He dug pits in order to turn kurkar (2)into more fertile soil, so things will grow”. (3)
(…)

References
(1)”Empty Library” – a sculpture where Ullman dug a large subterranean room which is lined with empty white bookshelves, approximating the volume of the 20,000 books burned on that site on May 10, 1933.
(2) Kurkar is a rock unique to the coastal region of the Levant and can be found along the shores of the Mediterranean, from Turkey to Sinai.
(3) “Making existence from void”, (2022), Conversation with Micha Ullman, by Hamutal Shapira, giepnls.com

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ICLO-NLS

10 June – Dublin

Seminar

Fixation: A Bone in Psychoanalysis

with Alan Rowan

Time: 7 pm local time

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11 June – Dublin

Seminar

Repetition: from Freud to Lacan

with Alan Rowan

Time: 11 am local time

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TUCHÉ
« Le sujet est heureux(…) tout heur lui est bon
pour ce qui le maintient, soit pour qu'il se répète »
— Télévision, Autres écrits, 526

« J’indique tout de suite que le trait unaire est ce dont se marque la répétition comme telle. La répétition ne fonde aucun tous, ni n’identifie rien, parce que tautologiquement, si je puis dire, il ne peut pas y en avoir de première. »

– Lacan J., Le Séminaire, livre xix, … ou pire (1971),
texte établi par J.-A. Miller, Paris, Seuil,
coll. Champ Freudien, 2011, p. 167.

"I shall say right away that the unary trait is what repetition as such is marked by. Repetition doesn't ground any all, nor does it identify anything, because tautologically, so to speak, there cannot be a first of them."

– Lacan J., The Seminar, book xix, … or Worse (1972),
ed. J.-A. Miller, trans. A.R. Price, Cambridge,
Polity Press, 2018, p. 146.

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TUCHÉ
« Le sujet est heureux(…) tout heur lui est bon
pour ce qui le maintient, soit pour qu'il se répète »
— Télévision, Autres écrits, 526

Work in Progress

Retour sur la métaphore (2)

Bernard Lecoeur

La métaphore

Après avoir considéré la répétition au travers des liens entretenus avec la demande et le désir, j'en viens maintenant à prendre en compte ceux qui la lient au corps et au symptôme. Pour penser ces liens, il est indispensable de faire un retour sur la métaphore.
En guise d'introduction, je vais prendre appui sur un court passage d'un texte de Jacques-Alain Miller où sont posés les termes du rapport entre la répétition, le symptôme et le corps, rapport envisagé à partir de la jouissance et non plus à partir du signifiant et du trait.
“Il y a une métaphore de la jouissance du corps ; cette métaphore fait événement, fait cet événement que Freud appelle la fixation. Ça suppose l’action du signifiant, comme toute métaphore, mais [ici, c’est] un signifiant qui opère hors-sens." (1)
Cette métaphore de la jouissance, J.-A. Miller la rapporte à une jouissance marquante du corps, matière même du symptôme. Cela fait événement pour le sujet, dit-il ; il ne s’agit pas d’une commémoration ou d’un anniversaire, mais d’un événement qui dure, qui se prolonge et constitue une expérience actuelle attachée à la répétition d'une jouissance première. Tout cela suppose une approche de la métaphore qui mérite d'être reprise.

Comment se présente la métaphore chez Lacan ?

Une substitution de signifiants

Le vers de Victor Hugo “Sa gerbe n'était point avare ni haineuse” en donne le modèle. Une substitution de signifiants engendre une signification nouvelle, celle-ci relevant du domaine plus général de la signification phallique. C'est par son lest dans le champ sémantique que la signification phallique assure la tenue d'une métaphore, qu'elle lui évite de se défaire comme les mailles d'un tricot. Mais c'est aussi un principe d'arrêt qui désigne un lieu, qui localise, "au point précis où le sens se produit dans le non-sens" (2). Ce point précis est remarquable : c'est celui d'une certaine fixité, d'une persistance qu'illustre ce que Lacan appelle un point de capiton. Ici, il n'est nullement besoin d'insister sur le fait que la métaphore renvoie à proprement parler au transport, au déplacement voire au changement. Dans sa Poétique, Aristote, tout comme les maîtres de la pédagogie rhétorique, rappelle combien métaphora concerne ce qui circule dans la cité. Dans ses derniers séminaires, Lacan se fait aristotélicien et reprend l'examen de la métaphore en la reconsidérant à partir de la question de son mouvement, de sa fécondité, de sa puissance dynamique.

Une topologie de la métaphore

Dans le séminaire RSI, Lacan réexamine le statut de la substitution et de la métaphore.
(…)

CONTINUEZ À LIRE →

Références
^{^[1]} Miller J.-A. “Lire un symptôme”, Mental n° 26, juin 2011, 56.

^{^[2]} Lacan J., “L'instance de la lettre dans l'inconscient ou la raison depuis Freud” (mai 1957), Écrits, Paris, Seuil, 1966, 508.

The Navel of the Dream, Fixation and Repetition

Shlomo Lieber

English translation: Dan Shalit Kenig

Irma’s Injection dream, the opening dream in ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’, is not only a specimen dream (1), nor is it only the dream through which Freud discovered, as he reports, “the secret of dreams”; it also contains something else, another secret, the secret of all secrets, I would say it is an encapsulated secret; and the name of that secret is “the navel of the dream”.
The Irma’s character in the dream encompasses two more women (to the very least): Irma’s best friend, whom Freud preferred, as patient, over Irma, and Freud’s wife. As he compares Irma to those two other feminine characters, who “have been recalcitrant to treatment” (2), too, Freud stops suddenly but still comments that "I had a feeling that the interpretation of this part of the dream was not carried far enough to make it possible to follow the whole of its concealed meaning” (3). But He is not referring here to whatever else might have been said to expose the ostensibly “full” meaning but to his following statement: "If I had pursued my comparison between the three women, it would have taken me far afield. There is at least one spot in every dream at which it is unplumbable – a navel, as it were, that is its point of contact with the unknown" (4) A more fine-tuned translation reveals that we are not speaking of the unknown here, but of the German Unerkannten, i.e., that which cannot entirely be known or identified (…)

References
^{^[1]} Freud S., "The interpretation of Dreams" (1900), S.E., V, p. 96.

^{^[2]} Ibid., p. 110

^{^[3]} Ibid., p. 111.

^{^[4]} Ibid.

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