FOREWORD: “I AM COUNTING ON THE TOURBILLON”—ON THE LATE LACAN
1. Élisabeth Roudinesco,
Jacques Lacan, trans. Barbara Bray (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997); Roudinesco,
Jacques Lacan & Co.: A History of Psychoanalysis in France, 1925–85, trans. Jeffrey Mehlman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
2. See Peter Hallward and Knox Peden, eds.,
Concept and Form, vols. 1 and 2 (London: Verso, 2012).
3. Lacan,
The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XX, On Female Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge, 1972–1973, trans. Bruce Fink (New York: Norton, 1999).
4. “L’Étourdit” has been collected in
Autres écrits (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2001), pp. 449–95. See also Alain Badiou and Barbara Cassin,
There’
s No Such Thing as a Sexual Relationship: Two Lessons on Lacan, trans. Kenneth Reinhard and Susan Spitzer (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).
5. Jacques Lacan,
The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XVII, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, trans. Russell Grigg (New York: Norton, 2007). Lacan identifies the master’s discourse, in fact, with the “other side of psychoanalysis,” its hidden backside or underside (
envers).
6. Jacques Lacan, “Monsieur A,”
Ornicar? 21–22 (Summer 1980).
7. Louis Althusser,
Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings, 1978–87, trans. G. M. Goshgarian (London: Verso, 2006).
8. Lacan identifies Marx, rather than Freud, as the inventor of the symptom in the December 10, 1974, session of Seminar XII,
RSI: “The notion of the symptom was introduced well before Freud by Marx, as the sign of what does not work in the real.”
Dit-mension is here a coinage that, echoing “dimension,” brings together saying or speech, lying, mansion, and so on.
9. Lacan, “Introduction à l’édition allemande d’un premier volume des
Écrits,”
Autres écrits (Paris: Seuil, 2001), pp. 553–59. The passage cited is found on p. 555.
10. I would like to thank Nathan Brown, Rachel Kushner, Kenneth Reinhard, and Susan Spitzer for their insight and assistance.
PREFACE
1. The expression “Lendemains qui chantent,” in the tradition of the French Left, refers to the arrival of a new society founded on bases other than those that structure our capitalist world: money, exploitation, work. The event referred to here was a forum hosted by the newspaper
Libération convened in Rennes on July 26, 2010, and oriented around the question “can we still believe in enchanted tomorrows?”
2. The French term “hygiénisme” refers to the medicalization of all areas of life, a process often undertaken by the state in the interests of public “health” and welfare.
3.
L’
argent fou is the title of a book by Alain Minc, published in 1990.
4.
Maître can also be understood as “teacher,” “mentor,” and “model.”
1. ONE MASTER, TWO ENCOUNTERS
1. Note from the French text: A fragment of this dialogue appeared in
Philosophie Magazine (September 2011) with the title “Choose Your Lacan!” It was subsequently completely revised, corrected, and expanded by the authors based on a transcription made by Martin Duru.
2. “Foyers” refers to housing establishments for foreign workers.
3. Cf. Jacques Lacan,
The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, trans. Russell Grigg (New York: Norton), 164–79.
4. Cf. ibid., 207. These remarks occurred during a question and answer session following an “impromptu” intervention by Lacan at the new university at Vincennes on December 3, 1969.
5. “FLN” refers to the Front de Libération Nationale, an organization leading the anticolonial struggles in Algeria.
6.
Grand Soir: a phrase in common use particularly in the latter half of the nineteenth century among revolutionaries to denote a sudden, total overturning of society.
2. THINKING DISORDER
1. Note from the French text: Transcription of a debate on the theme “Lacan, thirty years after” that took place at the Bib liothèque Nationale de France on October 4, 2011. Organized by Jean-Louis Graton and conducted by Christine Goémé, in partnership with France Culture and
Philosophie Magazine. Transcribed by Martin Duru and completely revised and corrected by the authors.
2. Élisabeth Roudinesco,
Lacan, envers et contre tout (Paris: Seuil, 2011).
3. Jacques Lacan,
Le séminaire: Livre XIX, … ou pire (Paris: Seuil, 2011).
4. Georges Canguilhem, “Qu’est-ce que la psychologie?,”
Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 1 (1958). This passage is referred to in Jacques Lacan,
Écrits (New York: Norton, 2006), 730.
5. Cf. Lacan’s “Introduction” to the German edition of his
Écrits, from 1973, and published in
Scilicet 5 (1975): 11–17. Lacan speaks of “metaphysics” rather than “philosophy.”
7. Cf. Lacan,
Écrits, 516.
8. RSI: Real, Symbolic, Imaginary.
RSI is the name given to Lacan’s Seminar XXII, in 1974–75.