Schizo-Performativity? Neurosis and Politics in Judith Butler and Flix Guattari

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Much has been written about hysteria as defined by Freud and other nineteenth-century thinkers. In this paper, hysteria and obsession are defined in strictly Lacanian terms, particularly as described in Fink 1995 Fink, Bruce. 1995. The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar] and Fink 1997 Fink, Bruce. 1997. A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]. 2. Juliet Flower MacCannell agrees that Butler writes as a hysteric (MacCannell 2000 MacCannell, Juliet Flower. 2000. The Hysteric's Gude to the Future Female Subject, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [Google Scholar]:28, 30), but bases this characterization solely on Butler's preoccupation with the hysterical question, 'Am I a man or a woman?' Anyone can ask the hysteric's question. A truly Lacanian hysteric must also exhibit a certain relationship with the big Other. 3. Fink 1995 Fink, Bruce. 1995. The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]:133. The diagnostic category 'hysteric' should not be confused with the 'discourse of the hysteric', one of Lacan's four types of social bond. The hysteric does not necessarily adopt the discourse of the hysteric, nor is it necessary to be a hysteric in order to adopt the discourse of the hysteric. 4. According to Lacan, the discourse of the hysteric is the discourse of the rebel, but because the hysteric remains in solidarity with the master, a master is exactly what the revolutionary seeks-and will find (Bracher 1994 Bracher, Mark. 1994. “'On the Psychological and Social Functions of Language: Lacan's Theory of the Four Discourses'”. In Lacanian Theory of Discourse: Subject, Structure, and Society, Edited by: Bracher, Mark, Alcorn, Marshall W., Corthell, Ronald J. and Massardier-Kenney, Franoise. 107–28. New York: New York University Press. [Google Scholar]:122, Lacan 1991 Lacan , Jacques (1991) , Le Sminaire, livre XVII: L'Envers de la psychanalyse, 1969-1970 , ed. Jacques-Alain Miller , Paris : Seuil . [Google Scholar]:239). Note that he is here speaking of the 'discourse of the hysteric' and not necessarily the hysterical subject.