How James Joyce Made his Name by Roberto Harari

Author:Roberto Harari [Harari, Roberto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-59051-659-1
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2013-03-26T04:00:00+00:00

Lacan would admit that, if he had been an entomologist, he would have liked to present the world with, say, “Lacan’s tarantula.” It is not a matter of vanity; such names are quite common in medicine (as in “Koch bacillus” or “Alzheimer’s”). Just as we might therefore refer to “Lacan’s knot,” we can also talk of a “Lacanian psychosis,” as we shall see. In both cases, Lacan does not specify what is at stake in applying a proper name to a knot or a psychosis, but he shows us this through what he does. Likewise, Lacan teaches that Joyce was able to make his name travel: he first made himself a name and then put it into circulation far beyond his own “neighborhood,” by introducing a new signifier.

Nevertheless, Lacan appears not to ascribe the least importance to the knot made up of five elements, while he gives greater significance to the psychosis associated with it. We will now examine this psychosis, as, among other peculiarities, it entails a constellation that cannot be located within established diagnostic limits. It resembles a paranoiac delusion and was diagnosed as such; but Lacan claims that the classical categories cannot account for it, and thus gives it a new name.

The “Lacanian psychosis” is characterized as a case of imposed speech. In what way does this connect with Seminar 23? Due to the fact that the patient in question is spoken to by voices. “They speak to him”: let us note this formula, which as we know constitutes a good diagnostic criterion for distinguishing between neurosis and psychosis. The patient does not know where these voices come from; he can only say that they are not his. There is clearly no sense of it being a “voice of consciousness,” as the subject has no knowledge of—has foreclosed—his place in enunciation. But Lacan comments perceptively—like Freud in his ability to grasp essential questions—that this man is “canny” insofar as he sees that these words that are so disturbing and ungovernable derive from the Other. Of course, something must have taken place to allow him to formulate a structural condition in this way. If we recall Freud’s text Mourning and Melancholia, we might note a similar kind of argument here. We can paraphrase the melancholiac’s discourse as follows: “I am excrement, I am worthless, I upset everybody, I don’t know how anyone could love me. I am an egotist and a miser, so I do not deserve to live.” In short, the melancholic lays claim without modesty to having perpetrated the worst of the world’s disasters. And with his usual brilliance Freud, when confronted with this, does not contradict the speaker but confirms his utterance. Is there not a truth being spoken here, one applicable to everybody? Freud’s conclusion is that to attain such an overwhelming degree of honesty, the subject must have fallen ill. For we all think of ourselves as having good intentions, acting for the good of our neighbors and so on; and crimes are

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