"Writing is a trace in which an effect of language can be read"
— Lacan, XX, 121

NLS Congress presents

Reading “LEBER, Norbert (Vienna [1]), approved to be admitted to the NLS” the first time brought me a sort of anxious drowsiness. ‘Aren’t you happy about it?’, a colleague asked.
 
A dream – the day after:

The dreamer is in the room of his first son. He looks at his bed which is empty, the blanket is pulled back. He looks a second time, the mattress has burst open along its seam. Small dark grey particles crumble out, like a swarm, he thinks. Then, like a caption over the picture of the mattress, the word Pi-Hirte[2] appears. He asks himself, Pi-Hirte? Then, he takes disbelievingly a second look and sees the letters got an h more: Phi-Hirte. He asks himself curiously, Phi-Hirte? He first understands: Ah! Phi, from Pi to Phi [φ], this must be a Lacanian logic. Then, he takes an introspective look and the Phi-Hirte transforms into Vieh-Hirte[3]: the equivocation of Phi [fi]and Vieh [fi] in German realizes and a loud laughter breaks out in the dreamers’ body: H(a) H(a) H(a), which wakes him up.
 
“The value of the joke lies in its possibility of betting on the underlying non-sense of any use of sense, thereby calling into question any sense insofar as it is founded on a use of the signifier.” [4]
 
It is the h which brings the new nomination and thus the new meaning. One more new silly meaning. The appearance of the h in phi brought curiosity, a movement of surplus enjoyment, then, the realization from Phi(fi) to Vieh(fi) struck the body and the affect resonates through the body. H H H – in German the letter H is pronounced Ha. A staccato which fragments.
“The appeal to the meaning exerted by the signifying chain” [5] and a speaking body resonating in its well-known and ever surprising style of humor.
 
I bet on the non-sense, on this playing with letters, this eager saying around the un-sayable [l’indicible], which let the subject stay in front of the new gate like a cow(-boy) [7].

NLS Congrès présente

Lire “LEBER, Norbert (Vienne[1]), homologué membre de la NLS” pour la première fois m'a plongé dans une sorte de torpeur. Un collègue m'a demandé: « N'es-tu pas content? »
 
Un rêve, le lendemain:
Le rêveur est dans la chambre de son premier fils. Il regarde le lit vide dont la couverture est rejetée en arrière. Il regarde une seconde fois, le matelas s'est brusquement ouvert le long de la couture. De petites particules gris foncé s'en échappent, comme un essaim, pense-t-il. Puis, comme une légende sur l'image du matelas, apparaît le mot Pi-Hirte. Il se demande: Pi-Hirte[2]? Sceptique, il regarde une nouvelle fois et voit que le mot a acquis un h en plus: Phi-Hirte. Il se demande, curieux, Phi-Hirte? Il comprend d'abord: Ah! Phi, de Pi à Phi[φ], cela doit être une logique lacanienne. Puis il fait une sorte d'introspection et le Phi-Hirte se transforme en Vieh-Hirte[3]: l'équivoque entre Phi [fi] et Vieh [fi] en allemand se réalise et un grand éclat de rire s'empare du corps du rêveur, H(a) H(a) H(a), et le réveille.
 
« La valeur du trait d’esprit, […], c’est sa possibilité de jouer sur le foncier non-sens de tout usage du sens. Il est, à tout instant, possible à mettre en cause tout sens, en tant qu’il est fondé sur un usage du signifiant. [4] »
 
C'est le h qui apporte la nouvelle nomination et avec lui le nouveau sens. Encore un sens absurde. L'apparition du h dans Phi attise la curiosité, un mouvement de plus-de-jouir, puis la réalisation de Phi [fi] à Vieh [fi] percute le corps et l'affect y résonne. H H H (en allemand, la lettre h se prononce Ha, avec le h aspiré). Un staccato qui fragmente.
« […] l'appel au sens exercé par la chaîne signifiante … [5] » et un corps parlant qui résonne dans son style humoristique familier et toujours surprenant.
 
Je joue sur le non-sens dans ce jeu avec les lettres, ce dire fervent autour de l'indicible[6], qui laisse le sujet devant la nouvelle porte comme une vache [cow(-boy)]. [7]
 
Traduit par Clémentine Benard

"Writing is a trace in which an effect of language can be read"
— Lacan, XX, 121

NLS Congress presents

To be accepted as a member of the NLS involved joy for being inscribed as part of the School.  In addition, I felt a responsibility for doing something with this inscription subjectively for it to take place.  An almost immediate invitation to write something for the congress blog “The Bodily Effects of Language” reminded me again of this responsibility.  At this briefly anguishing moment, a phrase of Lacan’s from Seminar 10 came to mind which gave meaning to my experience. It reminded me that language has effects on the body and that it is regarding our use of language that allows us to use the body or not.

“As for the little boy, the poor mug, he looks down at the problematic little tap.  He vaguely suspects that something’s odd down there.  Then, he has to learn, and to his cost, that what he’s got there doesn’t exist, I mean, up against what dad’s got, what the big brothers have got, and so on.  You’re familiar with the whole initial dialectic of comparison.  Next, he will learn that not only does it not exist, but that it doesn’t want to know anything, or more precisely that it does as it pleases.  To spell it out, he will have to learn step by step, through his individual experience, to strike it off the map of his narcissism, precisely so that it can start to be useful.” [2]

From this phrase of Lacan’s, it has become clear to me that it is necessary to lose the body (not to be the body) in order to inhabit it, and to be able to use it even though it is still not a guarantee that it will let itself be used in the way that we want.  This “phallic” reading of the body didn’t disappear but became more complicated in Lacan’s later teachings, as the connection to the body has a direct relationship to “jouissance.”  It is here that my experience began many years ago as an analysand, and continues now as a member of our School.
 
Reviewed by Caroline Heanue

[1] in Spanish the title is “Es(ins)cribir” from “escriber” to write, it(in)scribes.
[2] Lacan, J. (2014).  Anxiety, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book X, Ed.  J.-A. Miller, Transl by A. Price. Polity Press, Cambridge, p.202.

"Writing is a trace in which an effect of language can be read"
— Lacan, XX, 121

NLS Congress presents

Reading “LEBER, Norbert (Vienna [1]), approved to be admitted to the NLS” the first time brought me a sort of anxious drowsiness. ‘Aren’t you happy about it?’, a colleague asked.
 
A dream – the day after:

The dreamer is in the room of his first son. He looks at his bed which is empty, the blanket is pulled back. He looks a second time, the mattress has burst open along its seam. Small dark grey particles crumble out, like a swarm, he thinks. Then, like a caption over the picture of the mattress, the word Pi-Hirte[2] appears. He asks himself, Pi-Hirte? Then, he takes disbelievingly a second look and sees the letters got an h more: Phi-Hirte. He asks himself curiously, Phi-Hirte? He first understands: Ah! Phi, from Pi to Phi [φ], this must be a Lacanian logic. Then, he takes an introspective look and the Phi-Hirte transforms into Vieh-Hirte[3]: the equivocation of Phi [fi]and Vieh [fi] in German realizes and a loud laughter breaks out in the dreamers’ body: H(a) H(a) H(a), which wakes him up.
 
“The value of the joke lies in its possibility of betting on the underlying non-sense of any use of sense, thereby calling into question any sense insofar as it is founded on a use of the signifier.” [4]
 
It is the h which brings the new nomination and thus the new meaning. One more new silly meaning. The appearance of the h in phi brought curiosity, a movement of surplus enjoyment, then, the realization from Phi(fi) to Vieh(fi) struck the body and the affect resonates through the body. H H H – in German the letter H is pronounced Ha. A staccato which fragments.
“The appeal to the meaning exerted by the signifying chain” [5] and a speaking body resonating in its well-known and ever surprising style of humor.
 
I bet on the non-sense, on this playing with letters, this eager saying around the un-sayable [l’indicible], which let the subject stay in front of the new gate like a cow(-boy) [7].

NLS Congrès présente

Lire “LEBER, Norbert (Vienne[1]), homologué membre de la NLS” pour la première fois m'a plongé dans une sorte de torpeur. Un collègue m'a demandé: « N'es-tu pas content? »
 
Un rêve, le lendemain:
Le rêveur est dans la chambre de son premier fils. Il regarde le lit vide dont la couverture est rejetée en arrière. Il regarde une seconde fois, le matelas s'est brusquement ouvert le long de la couture. De petites particules gris foncé s'en échappent, comme un essaim, pense-t-il. Puis, comme une légende sur l'image du matelas, apparaît le mot Pi-Hirte. Il se demande: Pi-Hirte[2]? Sceptique, il regarde une nouvelle fois et voit que le mot a acquis un h en plus: Phi-Hirte. Il se demande, curieux, Phi-Hirte? Il comprend d'abord: Ah! Phi, de Pi à Phi[φ], cela doit être une logique lacanienne. Puis il fait une sorte d'introspection et le Phi-Hirte se transforme en Vieh-Hirte[3]: l'équivoque entre Phi [fi] et Vieh [fi] en allemand se réalise et un grand éclat de rire s'empare du corps du rêveur, H(a) H(a) H(a), et le réveille.
 
« La valeur du trait d’esprit, […], c’est sa possibilité de jouer sur le foncier non-sens de tout usage du sens. Il est, à tout instant, possible à mettre en cause tout sens, en tant qu’il est fondé sur un usage du signifiant. [4] »
 
C'est le h qui apporte la nouvelle nomination et avec lui le nouveau sens. Encore un sens absurde. L'apparition du h dans Phi attise la curiosité, un mouvement de plus-de-jouir, puis la réalisation de Phi [fi] à Vieh [fi] percute le corps et l'affect y résonne. H H H (en allemand, la lettre h se prononce Ha, avec le h aspiré). Un staccato qui fragmente.
« […] l'appel au sens exercé par la chaîne signifiante … [5] » et un corps parlant qui résonne dans son style humoristique familier et toujours surprenant.
 
Je joue sur le non-sens dans ce jeu avec les lettres, ce dire fervent autour de l'indicible[6], qui laisse le sujet devant la nouvelle porte comme une vache [cow(-boy)]. [7]
 
Traduit par Clémentine Benard