The Delirium of Clinical Perfection

Abstract

One might suppose that anyone with an interest in Lacanian theory who is simultaneously undertaking an analysis of the work of Duras would be overjoyed to find that, as it turns out, her 'method' and her 'object' do actually meet in such precisely congruent terms. She might just as well, however, especially if she is a feminist, be a bit disturbed by it, as Duras seems to have been. The manner of her telling suggests a kind of defense, a squaring off against Lacan's traumatizingly clinical gaze, an isolation (in the psychoanalytical sense) of the precise hour, place, and reference to clinical perfection. The scene thus geometrized stands unattached to anything else, separated off by a delirious fade. And so we are left wondering what it was that Lacan said, what he asked, what he wanted from Duras. In 'Hommage fait a Marguerite Duras du ravissement de Lol V. Stein,' Jacques Lacan fortunately writes some of the things he must have said in the basement bar.