Lacanian Discourse Research Articles

Psicanálise e neurociências: um mapa dos debates

Este artigo pretende apresentar um mapa panorâmico dos debates em torno da relação e da possível articulação entre a psicanálise e as neurociências. No campo psicanalítico são identificados três grupos principais, definidos a partir de seus pressupostos: (1) hibridação, (2) isolamento e (3) interlocução. O primeiro grupo entende ser necessária a construção de um campo híbrido, já que as neurociências poderiam fornecer à psicanálise fundamentos e instrumentos metodológicos e conceituais mais sólidos sobre o funcionamento psíquico. Esta proposta vem sendo desenvolvida com a fundação da neuropsicanálise. Já o segundo grupo, marcado fortemente pelo discurso lacaniano, é refratário a qualquer forma de articulação, por considerá-las todas epistemologicamente inviáveis, resultando necessariamente em uma submissão da psicanálise aos ditames cientificistas atuais. Por fim, o terceiro grupo entende ser a interlocução, sem a hierarquização dos modelos em jogo, fonte fértil para a formulação de novas hipóteses teóricas e para a revisão do edifício conceitual da psicanálise.

In the World of Language but not of It

This paper examines the possibility of facilitating and maintaining the tension of dialogue between Lacanian psychoanalysis and discourse psychology. In the context of contemporary debates surrounding the discursive position of the speaking subject, Lacanian psychoanalysis and discourse psychology both attend to a project congruent with the analysis of socially articulated ways of producing knowledge, the ethical situation of the subject in context of the demands of interested others, and the configuration of subject position with reference to socially discrete linguistic acts. Despite these similarities, the understanding of the constituting nature of speech differs dramatically under these accounts. As we seek to clarify the similarities and differences between Lacanian discourse analysis and discourse psychology, we aim at illuminating the possibility of how an encounter with Lacan may further discourse psychology’s theorization of the human subject as the subject of speech.

Apprenticing Teachers Reading: The Cultural Significance of Juvenile Melodrama

This article presents a study that reveals the educational significance of melodrama as a moral aesthetic, specifically in relation to work with literacies around identity in the teacher education classroom. Using methods of Lacanian discourse analysis and genre analysis, it unmasks the way two-award winning juvenile historical fictions depend on melodrama to instigate their narrative appeal. It unravels the skein of melodrama’s particularity and complicated affective potential for teachers who want to work in liberating ways with youth fiction in the classroom.

Discourse for the Holy Grail in Old French Romance by Ben Ramm (review)

REVIEWS111 chronicle, the Historia Brhtonum (143), vastly simplifies and in fact runs counter ro the commonly accepted critical view that one must go back to Arthur's absence in the earlier works ofGildas and Bede to understand the origins ofthe legend and, less commonly, back to the Arthurian references in the uncertainly dated Gododdin as well. Specialists may find similar small lapses throughout, though it must be admitted that the minor slips do not seriously detract from Ortenberg's otherwise thoughtprovoking meditation on how and why the medieval remains with us even today. MICHAEL N. SALDA University ofSouthern Mississippi ben ramm, Discoursefor the Holy Grail in Old French Romance. Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2007. Pp. 182. isbn: 1-84384-109-6. $85. Anyone interested in the application of psychoanalytic theory to literature, and especially Old French literature, will be excited to learn ofBen Ramm's newly released book: A Discoursefor the Holy Grail in Old French Romance. This slim yet dense volume on the Grail legend offers a very different appreciation of the Grail. The influence ofRamm's dissertation director, Sarah Kay, is notable, especially with the attention devoted to the theories ofZizek (Sarah Kay, Zizek:A CriticalIntroduction, Oxford: Polity Press, 2003) as well as those ofLacan and Freud. Ramm's work is inspired by Brigitte Cazelle's The Unholy Grail(Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996; reviewed by David Fowler in Arthuriana 7.2, 1997: 138-40) and Helen Adolfs Visio Pads, Holy City and Grail (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP i960) both ofwhich examine the 'social milieu' ofthe texts, the Crusades and medieval Flanders, respectively, in their analyses ofthe Grail. These provocative views inspired Ramm to consider that the Grail serves not, as Pauphilet suggested almost a century ago, as a symbol ofGod's presence, but as a symbol of 'doubt and high anxiety' (4). As Ramm states, '...the Grail becomes the marker ofontological and epistemological anxiety, deep-rooted in those who embark upon its Quest, and for whom the Grail does not represent an epiphanic, holistic or organic. . .experience ofplenitude and fulfillment, but is a symbol of ideological fracture, uncertainly and impossibility' (4). The four chapterswhich form the body ofthis study examine how certain aspects of the Grail narratives 'can be aligned with one of Lacan's discourse mathemes' (15). As Ramm elaborates: 'The principal intention of this book is to show how the discourse of the Grail constructed by the Old French literary texts is, by turns, a discourse of the Master, then of the University, of the Hysteric and finally of the Analyst—and yet is never fully any one of these' (14-15). The central text upon which Ramm imposes this theory are the Perlesvaus and La Queste del Saint Graal, with occasional reference to Chretien's Conte du Graal and Robort de Boron's Le Roman de TEstoire dou Graal. A good portion ofthe introductory chapter focuses on an explanation ofLacan's four discourses—the discourse of the Master, the University, the Hysteric, and the Analyst—in order to prepare the reader for the application ofthe theory to the selected texts. Included is an explanation of the Lacanian algebra employed ro represent the "2ARTHURIANA interactions of these discourses. Quotations from Zizek are frequently offered as elucidation ofLacanian thought. Chapter one, 'This is not the One: Identity, Abjection and méconnaissance in the Perlesvaus,' examines how Lacan's discourse of the Master might be identified in the Perlesvaus. Ramm contends that the Master's discourse is that of the narrative itself which seeks (unsuccessfully) toerectidentitybutsucceeds onlyin generatingaproductwhich isboth excess and lack, or fantasy. Chapter two, 'Fallingout with God: The Discursive Inconsistency ofLa QuestedelSaint Graal,'explores thenotionsofchivalrydelineated in thetext ofthe prose Queste—the'earthly and spiritual facets of chivalry' (63). Ramm reads the narrative in terms of the Lacanian discourse ofthe University, citing Mark Bracher as he suggests that 'the earthly and celestial facets of chivalry might be considered as two opposing systems of knowledge and...this knowledge. . .articulates the tyrannical discourse ofthe Queste inwhich, as in the discourse of the University, "individuals are to act, think, and desire only in ways that function to enact, reproduce, or extend The System"' (64). He considers this discourse especially in...

His master’s voice: H.L.A. Hart and Lacanian discourse theory

H.L.A. Hart’s jurisprudence seems antithetical to Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis. Professor Schroeder argues that, in fact, Hart’s concept of law has surprising similarities to Lacan’s ‘discourse of the Master’. Both reject a command theory of law: subjects do not obey law out of fear. Moreover, both insist that the authority of law is completely independent from its content.

Obscuring difference through shaping debate: A Lacanian view of planning for diversity

Lacanian theory posits that human subjectivity implicitly seeks to overlook contradiction, difference and ambiguity to fulfil aspirations for a harmonious and complete world. Planning traditionally relies on this “social” desire for its effectiveness in shaping policy frames, or ideological perspectives, from which to strategically orientate urban policy towards the future. This may sit at odds with the conceptualization of the postmodern city as constituted by spaces of difference and diversity. Lacanian discourse theory will be used to examine how the beliefs of the planning profession are shaped and then implemented in our urban environments. The implications of addressing diversity as both a fundamental planning reality underlying many of our urban environments and as a major planning ideal, exemplified by multiculturalism, will be explored in this context and found to be of concern without revision to established institutional planning practices and wider societal expectations of urban management.

His Master's Voice: H.L.A. Hart and Lacanian Discourse Theory

The jurisprudence of H.L.A. Hart might seem completely antithetical to the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. Hart works within the analytic school that dominates Anglo-American philosophy departments. Lacan works within an alternate tradition variously called speculative philosophy or critical theory more likely in this country to be banished to comparative literature departments. In this Article, Prof. Schroeder shows why this apparent conflict between Hart and Lacan is an over-simplification. Hart's account of positive law has surprising similarities to Lacan's account of law as the of the Master. Accordingly, anyone seeking to develop a psychoanalytically sophisticated critical theory of law should return to Hart. Moreover, legal positivists should not lightly dismiss psychoanalysis. From a speculative position, Hart's concept of law is too narrow. He describes only one aspect of legal experience: obedience to the law, and perhaps, only obedience by those officials who apply and enforce the law. He omits from the concept of law most of what legal actors actually do - the creation of law by legislators, the analysis of law by policy oriented scholars, and the critique of law by those subjected to its power. Perhaps, most importantly, Hart's concept of law does not include the practice of law by lawyers. Lacan, in contrast, thought that law could not be reduced to the single master's discourse but includes at least three other discourses which I argue correspond to legislation, some aspects of judging, legal scholarship, legal counseling, and the representation of clients. Lacan's analysis, therefore, supplements and complements Hart's.

Authorial Voice and Agency in Film Making

The aspiring film-maker is in a highly competitive environment where it is very easy to be seduced by narcissistic identification with the rewards of the media industries and become devastated by the failure to develop the skills and competencies which enable a ‘speakability’ within this environment. It is precisely through an understanding of authorship as the psychoanalytic performance of discourse that we can liberate students from the tyranny of the demand to be original and bring them into the expression of the experiential. Film-students as filmmakers need an understanding of their own psychic investments and those of their collaborators so that they can liberate each other from traumatic artistic silence and enable each other to find the unique artistic signifiers that articulate their desires. I look at Lacanian discourse theory to understand how we as educators may help them to achieve this.

Can Lawyers Be Cured?: Nietzsche's Theory of Eternal Recurrence and the Lacanian Death Drive

Perhaps Nietzsche's strangest idea is recurrence. Indeed, it is so strange that, despite its centrality in his works, some of Nietzsche's modern interpreters - most notably Alexander Nehemas - distance themselves from a literal interpretation of the doctrine. Rather than a cosmology, it becomes a mere thought experiment. This may be necessary if one wants to defend Nietzscheanism single coherent philosophy. It does, however, fly in the face of much of Nietzsche's language. In this Article, Schroeder offers some thoughts based on Lacanian psychoanalysis on both the concept of eternal recurrence well the reactions of modern day Nietzscheans toward it. She suggests, among other things, that eternal recurrence looks forward to Lacan's concept of drive: the abandonment of desire, understood the pursuit of a teleological goal, in favor of circular, iterative activity. Surprisingly, in psychoanalysis drive brings cure - relief from the unbearable pressures of desire. Does this suggest why eternal recurrence held so much fascination for a man locked in a losing battle with psychosis? From this she asks whether the concept of eternal recurrence has any relevance to the practice of law? Can lawyers be cured? This Article first explores accounts of eternal recurrence and the case for treating it a thought experiment, or theory of human nature, opposed to a cosmology, or theory of nature. Prof. Schroeder then suggests a few interpretations of eternal recurrence drawn from Lacanian theory. First, one simplistic version of the theory of eternal recurrence is an example of the masculine sexuated position - an attempt to deny the split or negativity that constitutes subjectivity that Nietzsche recognizes elsewhere in his work. Second, the presumption adopted by some Nietzscheans that one can both claim to reject a literal interpretation of eternal recurrence while simultaneously using it as though it might be true for certain purposes reflects the psychoanalytic strategy known the fetishist split. Third, Prof. Schroeder offers a more sophisticated interpretation of eternal recurrence, comparing it to Lacan's concept of drive. She then turns to an analysis of legal practice based on Lacanian discourse theory. She asks whether an attorney can cure herself from the unhappiness and resentment caused by desire by adopting a theory of eternal recurrence and still successfully engage in the practice of law.

Do paradigma freudiano ao paradigma lacaniano

A intenção desse trabalho e anunciar a transformação do paradigma presente no pensamento psicanalítico, ao nos deslocarmos no discurso freudiano para o lacaniano. Isso se realiza pela indagação da economia da metáfora nesse discurso, que não funciona exatamente da mesma maneira, indicando então a existência de uma descontinuidade na linguagem psicanalítica na passagem de Freud para Lacan. Essa descontinuidade, no entanto, se escreve num fundo de continuidade, em decorrência da exigência teórica inaugurada pela psicanálise em que o sentido é dissolvido para lhe reconduzir à demanda que lhe é inerente.

A Compendium of Lacanian terms

Jacques Lacan (1901-81) was one of the most original and controversial thinkers of the post-war period. His ideas had a profound effect on the intellectual movements of his time and his work is of continuing importance to a wide range of disciplines: psychoanaytic theory and practice, literary criticism, critical social theory, linguistics, cinemma, art criticism and political science. This title aims to give a clear and helpful exposition on some 40 key terms. Each entry outlines the idea, locating it within Lacanian discourse, and the evolution of the term within the development of Lacan's ideas. A list of references is provided at the end of each entry.

The Hysterical Attorney: The Legal Advocate Within Lacanian Discourse Theory

In this essay, I apply Jacques Lacan'sfour discourses to the legal profession. A lawyer –i.e. a legal expert – engages in the Master'sdiscourse when he writes the law; he engages in theUniversity discourse when he interprets or attempts tojustify the law. In contrast, an attorney – i.e. a legal advisor – engages in the Analyst'sdiscourse when she counsel's her client; she engagesin the Hysteric's discourse when she represents herclient. From a Lacanian perspective, the two lawyer'sdiscourses are masculine, while the two attorney'sdiscourses are feminine. I divergefrom Lacan's view that the Analyst's is the mostradical discourse. The insight gained throughanalysis can only challenge and change the law iftranslated through the Hysteric's discourse. Consequently, despite dominant sexual stereotypes tothe contrary, to be an effective advocate should takeon a radically hysteric femininity.

Memórias do Cárcere: Between History and Imagination

Mem6rias do Cdrcere (1953) by Graciliano Ramos adds an important marker to the topology of au- tobiography, for the memoirs show the author's conscious manipulation of facts to transform them into a be- lievable narrative account which calls for the reader's imagination in the recreation of his life in prison. A Lacanian discourse analysis reveals the strategies employed by Graciliano Ramos in avoiding the pitfalls in- herent in autobiographical writing as he construes a believable narrative, which offers a powerful alternative to the official version of history.

Headaches or Headless: Who Is Poet Enough?

Psychoanalysis has long cited poetry as the expressive vehicle for unconscious production. This article addresses the sexual politics of psychoanalyses conjoining of poetry and the “feminine.” The argument of this text is that the coupling of the “feminine” and the poetic in Lacanian discourse is a metaphorical double cross which most often leaves “woman” at a loss for words.

Lacan's theory of the four discourses∗

(1988). Lacan's theory of the four discourses. Prose Studies: Vol. 11, Lacanian Discourse, pp. 32-49.