Friday, June 8, 2012

Lacanian Terminology: Jouissance – Definition and Explanation


In Lacan's psychoanalytical theory, the term Jouissance denotates a kind of pleasure or enjoyment that is linked with sexual aspects. The concept of Jouissance is linked with Lacan's concept of desire. Lacan saw desire, as did Freud, as mental energy invested with an object and which seeks an outlet in order to achieve a low level of tension. Lacan's Jouissance, on the other hand, is linked to increased tension and the building up of desire. This is the way in which Lacan ties together enjoyment and desire and positions them both on sexual energies.    

Some additional books to help you better your understanding of Lacan's theory and terminology:
   

Lacanian Terminology: The Dialectic of Knowledge – Definition and Explanation


"The Dialectic of Knowledge" is notion my Jacques Lacan which describes the manner in which knowledge, any form of knowledge, is organized. According to Lacan knowledge is always dialectic by being organized in a set of oppositions (Lacan took this notion from thstructuralist thought). Lacan distinguishes Savoir, knowledge, and Connaissance, consciousness. Knowledge is part of the Symbolic Order while consciousness is associated with Imaginary Order. This means that there is always an inner gap in everything we know, and that all knowledge is always dis-knowledge and conscious and always also mis-conscious. 

Some additional books to help you better your understanding of Lacan's theory and terminology:
   

Lacanian Terminology: Reality Principle – Definition and Explanation


The idea of the "Reality Principle" as it was formulated by Freud was harshly objected in Lacan psychoanalytic theory. Freud described the initial contradiction between the pleasure principle which seeks gratification from previous experiences of pleasure but encounters the limitations imposed on such a gratification by the reality principle. According to Freud, the reality principle sublimates the pleasure principle by forcing it to seek indirect ways of achieving pleasure.
Lacan objected to this formulation of the reality principle. He thought the seeing "reality" and objectively given was a simplistic notion that did not correspond with the human experience. Lacan attributed reality, and the reality principle, to the symbolic order, where the subject cannot make such a clear cut distinction between imagination and reality, as Freud would have it. 

Some additional books to help you better your understanding of Lacan's theory and terminology:
   

Lacanian Terminology: Instinctual Pressure – Definition and Explanation


Instinctual pressure is of the impulses associated according to Lacan with the mirror stage. for Freud, pressure is characteristic of all impulses and is their essence. The amount of pressure can be theoretically quantified, and it the measure of pressure which determines the strength of the conflict it imposes on the subject. In relating to the mirror stage, Lacan describes aggression as an impulse which operates on the subject and can dictate his behavior. Lacan suggested that the extent of pressure operating on the subject during the mirror stage can shape the manner in which any instinctual pressure can become threatening and dangerous for the subject.

Some additional books to help you better your understanding of Lacan's theory and terminology:
   

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Lacanian Terminology: Transitivism – Definition and Explanation


Transitivism is a psychoanalytic concept suggested by Charlotte Buhler to designate a special kind of identification often observed with small children. With transitivism we identify with the other in a manner that mirrors (that is reversing) our own image. Lacan associated this reversal with the function of what he called "the mirror stage". He argued that trasivitism demonstrates the confusion between the I and the other which is a part of imaginary identification.  

Some additional books to help you better your understanding of Lacan's theory and terminology:
   

Lacanian Terminology: Hysterical Repression – Definition and Explanation


In Lacan's theory, Hysterical Repression is a repression of mental content which reemerges through hysterical symptoms. Lacan saw repression as characterizing one of the three structures of the subject (neurotic, pervertic and psychotic). While the pervertic is characterized with denial and the psychotic with rejection, the neurotic structure is associated predominantly with repression. Lacan calls Hysterical Repression "the return of the repressed" which causes hysteria like symptoms. 

Some additional books to help you better your understanding of Lacan's theory and terminology:
   

Lacanian Terminology: Displacement – Definition and Explanation


Lacan uses the term "Displacement" to a great extent along the lines of Freud's formulation of the concept. According to Freud, displacement is one of the forms in which the unconscious dissociates one issue of mental content from one thought to another by way of association. According to Freud, displacement is usually manifested in dreams but also in speech.

Lacan, being engaged with language and believing the mind to be functioning as language, compared displacement with the literary function of metonymy – a contextual relation between one signifier and another in the chain of signification (or signifying chain).

Some additional books to help you better your understanding of Lacan's theory and terminology: