The How to Read series provides a context and an explanation that will facilitate and enrich your understanding of texts vital to the canon. These books use excerpts from the major texts to explain essential topics, such as Jacques Lacan's core ideas about enjoyment, which re-created our concept of psychoanalysis.
Slavoj 沤i啪ek is a Slovene sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic.
He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). He received a Doctor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and studied psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII with Jacques-Alain Miller and Fran莽ois Regnault. In 1990 he was a candidate with the party Liberal Democracy of Slovenia for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia (an auxiliary institution, abolished in 1992).
Since 2005, 沤i啪ek has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
沤i啪ek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pa铆s he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."
Slavoj 沤i啪ek - Slovenian psychoanalytic philosopher, cultural critic and all around Marxist bad boy. You might not agree with his philosophy or politics but one thing is certain - he has the uncanny ability to explain difficult theories and concepts in vivid, comprehensible language.
Since one of my own areas of interest in Jungian psychology, I thought it wise to gain at least a basic understanding of another major theorist in the world of psychoanalysis - Jacques Lacan. To this end I tried reading an introductory text but had no luck since technical, obscure language filled the pages right from the first chapter. So I tried this introduction by Slavoj 沤i啪ek. Bingo! I enjoyed reading the entire book and now I have at least a modest grasp of the great French analyst鈥檚 thinking. To share some of the flavor of Slavoj 沤i啪ek鈥檚 instruction on how to read Lacan, here are several quotes from the book coupled with my comments:
鈥淟acan started his 鈥榬eturn to Freud鈥� with the linguistic reading of the entire psychoanalytic edifice, encapsulated by what is perhaps his single best-known formula: 鈥楾he unconscious is structured as a language.鈥� The predominant perception of the unconscious is that it is the domain of irrational drives, something opposed to the rational conscious self. For Lacan, this notion of the unconscious belongs to the Romantic philosophy of life and has nothing to do with Freud.鈥� ---------- To illustrate this point, Slavoj 沤i啪ek gives the example of how there was a factory worker accused of stealing every evening when he left the factory. Night after night, the guards would very carefully check the wheelbarrow he was pushing to make sure he wasn鈥檛 hiding anything belonging to the factory. But then one night the guards finally got the point 鈥� he was stealing wheelbarrows. 鈥淭his is the first thing to bear in mind about the way the unconscious works according to Lacan; it is not hidden in the wheelbarrow, it is the wheelbarrow itself.鈥�
鈥淔or Lacan, psychoanalysis at its most fundamental is not a theory and technique of treating psychic disturbances but a theory and practice that confronts individuals with the most radical dimension of human existence. It does not show an individual the way to accommodate him- or herself to the demands of social reality; instead it explains how something like 鈥榬eality鈥� constitutes itself in the first place." ---------- Perhaps this is why nowadays Lacan is encountered more in academic departments of philosophy, linguistics and literature rather than actual clinical practice: his theory isn鈥檛 about curing sickness or improving people鈥檚 ability to function in society; rather, his psychoanalytic framework can provide a more penetrating approach to the ways in which we construct the building blocks of our perception and understanding of the world.
鈥淔or Lacan, the goal of psychoanalytic treatment is not the patient鈥檚 well-being, successful social life or personal fulfillment, but to bring the patient to confront the elementary coordinates and deadlocks of his or her desires.鈥� ---------- This statement gives a hint that Lacan is not overly optimistic about the human capacity to have all our desires satisfied 鈥� at best, we reach a more complete awareness of the structure of our psyche and why our dissatisfaction is a very human reality.
鈥淚n order to unlock the secret treasures of Freud, Lacan enlisted a motely tribe of theories, some from the linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure, through Claude Levi-Strauss鈥檚 structural anthropology, up to mathematical set theory and the philosophies of Plant, Kant, Hegel and Heidegger." ----------- Slavoj lets us know right in his introduction that he will not delve into the details of linguistics or anthropological theory as it is used in psychoanalytic treatment. He takes a different tact, linking a passage from Lacan to areas we are all more familiar, such as film and current day politics. This is the beauty of this introduction 鈥� you learn a good bit about Lacanian theory and have fun along with way.
鈥淚t is clear that none of these versions (of toilets) can be accounted for in purely utilitarian terms: a certain ideological perception of how the subject should relate to the unpleasant excrement that comes from within the body is clearly discernible in it." ---------- Here Slavoj is talking about the difference between a French toilet, an American toilet and a German toilet and how each culture betrays its ideology and vision of life with their respective design of this bathroom gadget.
鈥淲hen a judge speaks, there is in a way more truth in his words than in thee direct reality of the person of that judge; if one limits oneself to what one sees, one simply misses the point. . . . What is missed by the cynic who believes only his eyes is the efficiency of the symbolic fiction, the way this fiction structures reality.鈥� ----------- Slavoj 沤i啪ek provides a lucid explanation of how a society and nation鈥檚 legal institution with its body of law forms this 鈥榚ffective symbolic fiction鈥� to make sure the judge鈥檚 words have much more punch than simply those pronounced by a single individual. The author also ties in this example with Lacan鈥檚 psychoanalytic theory.
A terrific summary of Zizek's reading of Lacan. It could be more appropriately called "How to Read Zizek's Reading of Lacan" than simply "How to Read Lacan". An impressive number of his examples are familiar from his other works, especially The Parallax View. Having Zizek's Lacan illustrations published in one book makes it a lot easier to make sense of his reading of Lacan.
There is just this one "but". Zizek does not really read Lacan. Rather, he uses his reading of Lacan to read something else, notably films or novels, which he in turn uses to illustrate something else, such as the conservatives' wrongheaded response to some problem in society. Actually the book should be called "How to Read Zizek's Reading of Lacan to Read X". X refers to the Kubrick film "Eyes Wide Shut" or the Ridley Scott film "Alien" etc.
Even if more limited in scope than its title suggests, "How to Read Lacan" is good enough to be more than just good enough.
H枚r ich nochmal von irgendwem die Floskel 鈥瀌as ist ja interessant鈥�, ist hier zappenduster!
Ich wei脽 jetzt warum ich so viele B眉cher runterlade und abspeichere! Der gro脽e Andere liest f眉r mich 馃槈.
Wenn ein Geschenk f眉r die geliebte Person meine Liebe symbolisieren soll, dann mu脽 es nutzlos sein, 眉berfl眉ssig in seiner F眉lle听鈥� nur auf diese Weise, wenn der Gebrauchswert aufgehoben ist, kann es meine Liebe symbolisieren. Find ich gut. Dann tust immer die 鈥瀢elke Rose der Trostlosigkeit鈥� von Umberto Ecos 鈥濪ie Insel des vorigen Tages鈥�. 脺brigens find ich Herrn Han hierzu pr盲ziser, der statt Liebe das/den Eros einsetzt.
Mein pers枚nlicher Stolperstein: die Angst andere zu bel盲stigen ist Toleranz der Intoleranz des Anderen vor dem Anderen. Wenn ich jetzt konsequent bin und keine Toleranz f眉r Intoleranz aufbringe, muss ich bel盲stigen?! 馃樀鈥嶐煉煓� Zur Erkl盲rung folgendes Zitat: 鈥濱m vorherrschenden Gebrauch des Begriffs 禄Bel盲stigung芦 verschiebt sich diese elementare Bedeutung jedoch kaum wahrnehmbar zur Verurteilung jeglicher exzessiven N盲he eines realen menschlichen Wesens mit seinen Begierden, 脛ngsten und L眉sten. Zwei Themen bestimmen die gegenw盲rtige liberale tolerante Haltung gegen眉ber anderen: Respekt und Offenheit f眉r die Andersheit und zwanghafte Angst vor Bel盲stigung. Der andere ist in Ordnung, insofern seine Anwesenheit nicht aufdringlich ist, insoweit der andere nicht wirklich anders ist. Toleranz stimmt mit ihrem Gegenteil 眉berein: Meine Pflicht, dem anderen gegen眉ber tolerant zu sein, bedeutet gewisserma脽en, da脽 ich ihm nicht zu nahe komme, nicht in seinen Raum eindringe听鈥� kurz, da脽 ich seine Intoleranz gegen眉ber meiner zu gro脽en N盲he respektieren sollte. Das ist es, was sich mehr und mehr als das zentrale 禄Menschenrecht芦 in der sp盲tkapitalistischen Gesellschaft abzeichnet: das Recht, nicht bel盲stigt zu werden, das hei脽t in sicherer Distanz zum anderen gehalten zu werden鈥�.
Klosch眉ssel Vergleiche ziehen bei mir sowieso.
Das Fundamentalisten einen authentischen Glauben haben, durch den andere pseudogl盲ubige und Atheisten sich bedroht f眉hlen, hab ich schon immer gesagt. Danke Zizek f眉r die Best盲tigung!
Ja und die Sache mit dem Cyberspace konnte ich bei Herrn Han schon nicht ganz mitgehen.
脺ber das idealisierte SpiegelIch hab ich kapiert warum mir Verhalten vieler Menschen suspekt ist. Ich kenne so etwas wie das IdealIch nicht. Zumindest nicht in der Form, dass es mich interessiert wie andere mich sehen sollen. Oder der gro脽e Andere versteckt es vor mir und verkloppt mich damit in meinen Tr盲umen 馃槵.
F眉r Lacan ist die Psychoanalyse auf ihrer grundlegendsten Ebene keine Theorie und Technik der Behandlung psychischer St枚rungen, sondern eine Theorie und Praxis, die die Individuen mit der radikalsten Dimension der menschlichen Existenz konfrontiert. Moah! Konfrontation mit der radikalsten Dimension der menschlichen Existenz鈥� immer mitten in die Fresse rein鈥�. Jap passt馃憤馃槵
It does not merely enable a human being to accept the repressed truth about him- or herself; it explains how the dimension of truth emerges in human reality.
It is a testament to my sloth and stupidity that I reaped so much from this text as well as Z's other primer . Telling, how much 沤i啪ek utilizes the Bard here, as opposed to his "typical" Hitchcock. (anyone want to ponder the skeletons in Dakota Johnson's baggage claim?). No, Shakespeare is placed beside Stalin, while the "true" defendants in these proceeding are the Bush (41) Administration --and their circle of disaster. Honestly, Lacan remains as impenetrable as ever, but I found both a vitality and a questioning spirit which both humbles and cleanses. That last sentence wasn't intended to be so Jesuit, it must be the Imaginary and the Symbolic at cross purposes.
This is a pleasurable book to read about Lacan, but it does not even begin to give the reader what it purports to offer, namely instruction on how to read (or understand) Lacan. Like all of Zizek's writing on Lacan, it does not actually do a very good job communicating what Lacan is really all about. Rather, we're getting Zizek-on-Lacan with a pretty heavy emphasis on Zizek. For readers new to Lacan, the book as a whole should be taken with a grain of salt.
This can function as a great first book on Lacan if the novice reader understands that this is not really a Lacan primer. It's more to whet the appetite and see if you're interesting in getting more into this stuff. Zizek does a fantastic job of showing just how intensely fascinating Lacan's work can be, and incorporates it into a whole host of modern pop cultural and political contexts. It's all great, but eventually it becomes clear that Zizek is more interested in incorporating Lacan into these different things than just explaining to the reader the real fundamentals of Lacan (incidentally, it's likely that Lacan himself would've supported Zizek's technique.)
But it's a fun read that can serve as a real "gateway drug" into further study of Lacan. If you're intrigued by this book and want to learn the real basics in a clear way, read Lionel Bailly's Lacan: A Beginner's Guide.
a maddening book and a sort of baptism by fire, because (a) it's not a lacan 101 introductory work, (b) the structure and the examples are somewhat chaotic, frequently reading like stream-of-consciousness and not necessarily being explicitly tied together, which is why the ideal reader of this book is a lacan 'initiate', (c) it's not always clear where lacan's thought stops and 啪i啪ek's own takes over, especially in examples of political nature. still, here are the takeaways:
EMPTY GESTURES AND PERFORMATIVES
- nil-value symbolic (phatic) exchanges with only symbolic worth - declarative/symbolic dimension of gestures, appearances, forms, possessions (everything a repository of meaning -> everything is 'texts'?) - the "excess" (superflous, too earnest, too eager) gesture is upsetting - paranoiac stance is itself the destructive plot it's fighting (a self-fulfilling prophecy - "the unconscious is not hidden inside the wheelbarrow, it is the wheelbarrow itself" (a rough metonimic equivalence between: unconscious = language = the Other = symbolic order = superego)
THE INTERPASSIVE SUBJECT: LACAN TURNS A PRAYER WHEEL
- letting a thing do one's work instead of him (e.g. watermill, prayer wheel, hegel's Idea realizing itself in history) -> letting a thing do one's emotional work instead of him (e.g. canned laughter, hired mourners, movies hoarded on a VCR) - false activity = nil-value activity (neurotic's compulsions, calvinist hoarding) intended to sustain the unmoving Other's fixity - 'symbolic registration' of things with the virtual Other ("oops!", talking to ourselves, etc.) - "culture" = practice without beliefs ('does the work for us'); "barbarians" = anti-cultural because they dare to believe - 'persona' (drag queen, unconstrained internet presence) manifests itself most freely in explicitly FICTIVE environments - persona also 'does the work for us' - authority figure perceived as weak still afforded respect because of the FICTION standing behind him (we believe 'their words' and not 'our eyes') - empiricism is blind to this truth - gap between direct psychological identity and my symbolic identity, the symbolic narrativein which i live, is 'symbolic castration' - 'phallus' = the 'donned', 'attached', sticking-out part conferring power, but that one can never fully identify with - hysteria = subject's questioning of his symbolic title - hysteric cannot distinguish between his 'true' desire and what others see and desire in him; in this he intuits the truth that all desire is caused by, and filtered through, the other - 'hedonistic asceticism' = cultural pheomenon, think yuppie culture, milk without fat, minorities without scary otherness, etc.
FANTASY; EYES WIDE SHUT
- neighbour is monstrous; no equal enjoyment possible, so laws create equal prohibitions - being too closely exposed to the othr/his desire/the fulfillment of our fantasy (freud: rape) is TRAUMATIC - character of fantasy is intersubjective, like desire is always connected to the other (i.e. freud's daughter eating strawberry cake to be admired) - fantasy sustains and enables all relationships, institutions, sexual acts, etc. ("fictional character of truth") which would be TRAUMATIC without it - art can unite the discord of mutually overlapping fantasies (think surrealism) - 'aphanisis' = the 'fantastical' truth at the centre of all human experience is inacessible; when we get too close to it, to symbolic integration, we disintegrate, get eclipsed by the signifier 鈥� and that's why we must conceive of ourselves always relationally, vis-脿-vis something else (cf. structuralism) 鈥撎� - this happens to a hysteric after symbolic castration - the fact that all reality is seen through fantasy means that an escape into reality can be an escape from the unsymbolizable, phantasmagoric, visceral, traumatic Real (paradoxically considering the name, present in dreams)听
TROUBLES WITH THE REAL: LACAN AS听 A VIEWER OF ALIEN (* least comprehensible chapter, some concepts read like prose poems)
- melancholic not mourning LOST object; he has it but has lost his desire for it - what makes me sad is the awareness that i'm going to lose the desire for what i now desire or have - 'objet petit a' (object-cause of desire) = a constitutive lack, the 'unfinishedness' of the human being -> primordial inscription of ourselves into the field of the big Other that takes various shapes based on our inner states -> we project into an other something that does not really exist there, the thing that would make us whole -> no matter how close i get to he object of my desire, it seems to be no closer, and that's because the CAUSE of the desire (objet petit a) is unknown to me - retroactive traumatization of scenes, elevating of scenes into traumatic Reals, to help one cope with an impasse in his symbolic universe - 'Real' = that which is unsymbolizable, 'raw core' (dreams too)
EGO-IDEAL AND SUPEREGO: LACAN AS A VIEWER OF CASABLANCA
- 'jouissance' = superego's imperative of enjoyment - 'ideal ego' (cf. imaginary) = what I want to be + how I want others to see me - 'ego-ideal' (cf. symbolic) = the Other i obey and try to impress - 'superego' (cf. real) = the Other in its controlling, sadistic, punishing aspect - case study of the 3陆 seconds did they/didn't they shot in 'casablanca': ego-ideal being properly satisfied that they didn't fuck in the eyes of the big Other, i can indulge my fantasy that they did (superego; but this doesn't imply a division in the Other or harm to it, because...) - BOTH sides are necessary; what seems like perverse by-products are actually inherent built-in transgressions of the system - we set the 'proper order of things' (ego-ideal; american values) by committing undercover obscenities (superego; prison torture) 鈥� if we become cognizant of the fact that thus the 'order' is blasphemed and becomes a mockery of itself, well, too bad!
'GOD IS DEAD, BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW IT': LACAN PLAYS WITH BOBOK
- 'traditionalism' allows space for healthy rebellion, but 'permisiveness' sets one up to be spectrally plagued by absent prohibitions, and is therefore more oppressive - "if god doesn't exist, then everything is prohibited", that is, enjoyment is sabotaged by the superego's prohibitions - true formula of materialism isn't "god is dead" but "god is unconscious" (there is nothing magical about money or commodities 鈥� but THEY don't know it!) - once we publicly believed and privately transgressed; now we publicly transgress but privately (via unconscious injunctions) believe - where religious authors (e.g. dostoyevsky in 'bobok') construct a godless universe, it is often just a projection of religion's own underside (which is the injuction to TRANSGRESS, whereas in 'truly' godless universes the injuction is that of HAUNTING REPROACH) - psychoanalysis allows one not to enjoy, relieves one of the pressure to do so - aside: link between judaism and psychoanalysis (terrifying Other, external traumatic encounter) - aside: kierkegaard's central opposition in western spirituality is between socrates (inner journey of remembrance) and christ (shock of external encounter) - aside: cyberspace as gnostic: no body, "freed" self
PERVERSE SUBJECT; BOUYERI
- sadist (whether sexual or political) pretends to be realizing some objective, externally imposed, necessity -> "i am the instrument-object of another's will" - political sadist's excuse: "what horrible things i had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders"; murder as necessity for society's progress - modern (islamic) fundamentalism's special 'regime of truth' -> what separates Truth from Lie is death, i.e. the truthful subject's readiness and wish to die - "purest" appearance isn't putting up a deceptive screen to conceal a transgression (= to appear good) but feigning that there is a transgression to conceal (= appear bad on purpose) - per lacan, in mimicry i don't imitate the image i want to fit into, but those features of the image that seem to indicate that there is some hidden reality behind (illusion of 'depth', 'texture', organicity?) - aside: ironically, secular humanists espouse belief while religious fundamentalists (but i'd argue all fundamentalists, i.e. some new atheists) espouse knowledge
Ler Lacan n茫o 茅 uma tarefa f谩cil, mas Zizek faz uma boa introdu莽茫o ao pensamento lacaniano. Recorrendo essencialmente ao cinema e 脿 literatura, Zizek faz uma aplica莽茫o pr谩tica dos conceitos de Lacan. Para quem tem uma no莽茫o do pensamento de Pierre Daco, Freud, Carl Jung, talvez seja mais f谩cil dispensar a leitura esta introdu莽茫o , mas 茅 sempre enriquecedor conhecer a vis茫o de Zizek sobre este assunto (que,ali谩s, ele domina muito bem). Uma viagem aos arqu茅tipos da condi莽茫o humana.
The book is divided in seven chapters each of which start with a text from Lacan and then dwell upon the concept it contains. We are given the notions (in no particular order here) of the big Other, the small Other, fantasy, perversity, the unconsciousness of God, intersubjectivity, the other as an unknown behind the wall of language, et cetera. Zizek's extrapolation of Lacan's view of psychoanalysis as a method of reading ends at finding a Lacanian method of reading everything. Zizek also mentions the uncanny solidarity between pshychoanalysis and marxism - the proof of which is in the redoubtable merging of Lacanian pshychoanalysis and Marxian dialectical materialism as is apparent in works of Zizek, Badiou, and to some extent in all new Communists.
This book might help you less in readings of Lacan and more in readings of Zizek and Badiou. Zizek's effervescent intelligence finds it tough to stick to the premise of the book. But you don't get anything new of Zizek in it either. If you've already been reading Zizek you might find some of his examples repeated here (like the one that pounds on the difference between German, French and English toilets heaps of ideological tidbits a la - admittedly - Claude Levi-Strauss)
The little benefit of reading this is bound to be lost if one doesn't go on to read, in reasonably quite time, a seminar paper of Lacan's. I'm going there soon.
I got nothing from this. Slavoj simply didn't know how else to justify publishing thoughts on his political climate or his take on the movie Alien, why yes, Lacan and Alien in the same sentence, ground-breaking. This isn't a book on how to read Lacan, this is a booklet on how Slavoj reads Lacan, his own recipe that he moulded into his own para-psychoanalytic babble.
There is no recipe on how to read Lacan and anyone who tries to claim otherwise is just talking through their hat. Lacan's system of thought has always been much too undefined even to himself, for someone else to come along and pretend they got him figured out. According to Slavoj:
鈥淔or Lacan, the goal of psychoanalytic treatment is not the patient鈥檚 well-being, successful social life or personal fulfilment, but to bring the patient to confront the elementary coordinates and deadlocks of his or her desires.鈥�
This is Slavoj talking through his own arrogance instead of psychoanalysing himself out of it.
To this reader, what stands out most upon reading Lacan's case-studies, is that through his psychoanalytic treatment, he exhibits almost an uninhibited desire to study.
And for that, there is no recipe. One simply has to read, be confused and frustrated, read some more and more until things start to come together. It's a fabulous feeling. Almost as good as... what was it again.... confronting the deadlocks of one's desires.
Truly 鈥� regardless of what this might say on the cover 鈥� this is a book about Zizek. That's OK, Zizek is a Lacanian, so we're getting to Lacan through the filter of Zizek (should have been titled 'How Zizek Reads Lacan'). Anyway, for most readers - those not hoping to walk away with a thorough understanding of Lacan's philosophy - that won't really matter. In fact, it'll be a bonus, Zizek is fun, clear and observable and Lacan is boring, difficult and obscure. Also, to this reader, Zizek takes the best of Lacan and leaves out the rest. He takes our deepest held assumptions and beliefs and turns them upside down. He picks apart some of the underlying structures that govern our reality and deflates them with a maniacal grin.
Is this philosophy? By definition only. It's more of a wry reevaluation of the world. From the CIA, the Nuremberg trials and the shapes of European toilet bowls, Zizek asks us to ponder what's going on under the surface. Or 鈥� more accurately perhaps 鈥� What's going on in the subconscious. As he discusses in the introduction, there's certainly been a lot of Freud bashing going on in the past fifty years, and it might take the ultimate contrarian in philosophy today to put that trend to rights. Lacanian or not, any thinking person would enjoy this book. Just don't expect to come out with less questions when you put it down. Looking forward to reading some more Zizek in the future.
What's great about Zizek is also the answer to the question people always ask about critical theory ("that's interesting and all but what do I do with it?"). Zizek is the master of practical illustration and application of theory. He doesn't stop at showing you where the water is or what conditions of epistemic knowledge make it possible for said water to be constituted as such, or whatever; rather, he points to the water, leads you to the water, helps you understand the possible consequences of being made to drink the water might be, and then he shows you how to build your own goddamn pond where water tastes like rainbows and gets you birthday-style drunk. Which is the point of theory in the first place: how can we make the world one big happy birthday party at the drunk pond? Don't be fooled by the title of this book (Lacan is only a background figure throughout) because Zizek could have written it without mentioning Lacanian principles even once. This book is about getting you to the mindset where you understand what is at stake in the world today socially, politically, and interpersonally. It teaches you how to unthink and unlearn, and then it leads you to the traumatic moment of your first thought where now you may learn, all over again, how to think.
Read this for a second time before giving it to a friend and found myself wanting to lower it by a star so I did. Still enjoyed it quite a bit overall, but now that I have a little more Lacan under my belt I felt a little less enthralled by Zizek's treatment of his themes and concepts. Ironically, or perhaps completely logically, Zizek seems to be using Lacan in a bit of a fast and loose manner much like Lacan has been accused of using Freud similarly. Harold Bloom I suppose would approve but it rubbed me a bit as self-aggrandizement this go around. Or maybe I'm just feeling grumpy...
The great Slavoj Zizek, the sage of Lubjana, writing about something he knows inside and out. It's illuminating, engaging, vibrant and complex.
A lot of what's in here has really made sense of some of my own observations about life and human psychology come into clearer focus. I'm going to refer back to it again and again.
Part of what I really appreciate about Zizek's writing is that he is master of the accessible, anecdotal pop culture reference to illustrate what term or insight Lacan has to offer.
It isn't always easy but Zizek makes it worth your while as a reader.
Muy a su estilo, Zizek nos ense帽a unas lecciones introductorias al pensamiento Lacaniano, a trav茅s de las referencias a la cultura (pop o no), pel铆culas, acontecimientos, teatro, literatura... los conceptos b谩sicos del psicoan谩lisis lacaniano se van desplegando y m谩s o menos entendiendo: el Otro, el fantasma, la pulsi贸n, la perversi贸n... Sobre todo me confirma lo que algunas veces hab铆a pensado: a veces uno lee y dice "驴C贸mo no le entend铆 antes?", pero es que antes no estabas suficientemente embebido para entender alguna cosa.
i love that this is basically lacan for dummies because i have a small brain and short attention span which makes it hard for me to understand psychoanalysis normally. enjoyed how zizek relates various cultural phenonema to direct quotes from lacan...the part about eyes wide shut is particularly fun to read. maybe now i understand enough of the basics to read ecrits