Lacan and the language of mania. From language gone mad to the madness of llanguage

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this contribution we discuss manic language phenomena within a Lacanian framework. Although Lacan only touches upon the phenomenon of mania on a few occasions, his seemingly scattered and scarcely elaborated comments on mania allow for the development of a coherent view of mania as a phenomenon of language. First, we situate flight of ideas as a phenomenon of the signifier rather than of signifieds, of language rather than of ideas, and propose to call this flight of signifiers. Then we comment and elaborate Lacan’s comments on mania. Lacan qualifies the manic subject as being delivered to the endless metonymy of the signifying chain; and describes manic excitation as a return to the real of language. In both these instances, Lacan situates mania within the realm of psychosis and considers mania as a form of language gone mad. Next we discuss Lacan’s notion of llanguage as a parasitic force of dysregulation and how this affects Lacan’s view on manic language. Manic language is now no longer considered an instance of language gone mad, but is rather thought to reveal something of the madness of llanguage lurking beneath the surface of language. Throughout Lacan’s sparse comments on mania the element of language is always prominent as is the question what manic language reveals about language as such.