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8/17/2019 Alain Cohen - Greek Models for Postmodern Times -- Foucault and Lacan on Ethics and the Arts of Existence
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Greek Models for Postmodern Times: Foucault and Lacan on Ethics and the Arts of ExistenceAuthor(s): Alain J.-J. Cohen
Source: Dalhousie French Studies, Vol. 54, Dominique Desanti: Un Hommage (Spring 2001), pp. 105 -113
Published by: Dalhousie UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40838282Accessed: 03-09-2015 04:23 UTC
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8/17/2019 Alain Cohen - Greek Models for Postmodern Times -- Foucault and Lacan on Ethics and the Arts of Existence
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GreekModels forPostmodern imes:
Foucault
and Lacan
on
Ethics
and
the Artsof Existence
Alain J.-J.Cohen
A
s
Freud id to
Œdipus,
many
French hinkers f the nineteenth nd twentieth
/
I
centuries
moderns
r
postmoderns)
ave
gravitated
o theGreekswhenever
hey
found hemselves
thically
onflicted,
n
the nterest f
reflecting pon
fundamental
questions regarding
morality,
thics and the
sovereign
good.
Did
the
Greeks
exhaust hese
questions?
For
Plato,
to kalon
kat'agathon
led to the
Truth.
Plato's
dramatic nterweave f theproblematics eferringo the True,the Good and the
Beautiful ave
resonated
hroughout
he
history
f
philosophy
and have
challenged
all
subsequent
hinkers o
construct
arallel systems-
r unified ield
theories of
philosophy.
During
he
Enlightenment,
ant
came theclosestto
answering
lato's
challenge
in
a new nterweavehat
ddressed hese
same
questions.
The First
Critique
ddresses
Truth
hrough
ure
Reason. His
Second
Critique
ddresses he
Good
through
ractical
Reason,
while
questions
bout
Estheticsre the
focusof the
Critique
f
Judgment.
n
the
twilight
f the
ndustrial
ge
(or
is it
the dawnof
the
modern/postmodern
ge?)
thinkers
ppeared
o
agonize
about
ethics,
perhaps
aided
by
Nietzsche's
profound
deconstruction f
morals and
ethics. Has
the
Postmodern
Age,
instead,
given up
altogether
pon questions
of
Ethics,
the
Good and the Arts
f
Existence?
Or, if,
as
Lyotard sserts n La conditionpostmoderne, he greataccounts Christ,Marx,
Freud,
t
al.)
have now
been
deconstructednd
delegitimized,
s it
not well
worth
wondering
bout
the new
problematizations
f ethics
that
hold
currency
n
our
postmodern
aradigms?
Sartre
and
the
Metaphysics
of
the
Ethical
Double
Bind
Sartre
an be
situated t
the
hresholdf
the
modern
nd
postmodern
ge.
His
research
on
the
autonomous
thical
ubject
s
riveting
n
the
attentionhat
he focuses
on hard-
edged
hoices,
those
haunted
y
a
double
bind
damned
f
you
do,
damned f
you
don't.
The
end
of
Being
and
Nothingness
s
unforgettable,
s
Sartre
announces
another
pus:
La liberté en se prenant lle-mêmepour fin, échappera--elle à toutesituation ?
Ou,
au
contraire,
emeurera-t-elle
ituée?
Ou
se
situera-t-elle
d'autant
lus précisément
t
individuellement
u'elle
se
projettera
avantage
dans
l'angoisse
comme
liberté
en
condition
et
qu'elle
revendiquera
davantage
sa
responsabilité,
titre
d'existant
par
qui
le
monde
vient
à
l'être?
(1943a:732)
The
above
thrust
makes t
apparent
hat,
until
the
very
nd of
Sartre's
research,
questions
f
ontology
were
hierarchically
rivileged,
while
questions
of
ethics
were,
instead,
derivative rom
is
ontological
concerns
nd
thus
pparently
ostponable,
in
Sartre's
ystem.
artre
eaves it
unstated,
uthe
does
think
hat
n
ethics
could be
logically
deduced
just
as
with
Spinoza)
from n
existential
ntology.
This
silence
may
seem
strange,
iven
that
Existentialism
s a
philosophy
dwells so
much
uponthe nterweave f being nd doing. n theheyday fExistentialism,I amthesum
of
my
choices
became an
intellectual
nd
psychological
paradigm,
long
with
the
notion
f
Sartrean
bad
faith,
r
the
paradoxical
aste for
he
cas-limite
xacerbated
by
dread
vis-à-vis
reedomn
a
world
evoidof
transcendental
alues.
Dalhousie
French
Studies
54
(2001)
-
105-
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8/17/2019 Alain Cohen - Greek Models for Postmodern Times -- Foucault and Lacan on Ethics and the Arts of Existence
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106
Alain J.-J.
ohen
OrestePucciani was wont to suggest that Beauvoir' Pour une morale de
l'ambiguïté might
well have
provided
n inchoative
answerto
Sartre's
explicitly
stated
romise
f an ethics t
the
very
nd
of
Being
nd
Nothingness.
Sartre's
notes
in the
posthumous
ahiers
pour
une
morale make even
more
manifest
is intention
to
complement
n examination
f an
Existentialist
henomenology
with
a treatise
on Existentialist
thics.
Actually,
artre's laboration
upon
ethics does
take
place,
albeit
elsewhere,
n the
stage,
another
f
his favorite
errains,
hrough
dramatic
fictionrather
han
in
philosophical
writings.
The theatre
ransforms
deas
into
persons,
and demonstrates
oncretely
hat existence
must ndeed
precede
ssence,
underscored
ucciani
320).
Ethical
conflicts re
envisioned
n
systematic
mises-en-scène
t
the heart
of
many
of Sartre's
egendary lays.
In Les
mouches,1
for
nstance,
Sartre's
Orestes
faces an Existentialist double bind, illustrated
by
his incapacity to avoid
choices
ultimatelyempered
y
remorse
nd
guilt
emblematized
y
the
antique
nd
modern)
ggressively
nd
annoyingly
adistic
liesor Eumenides.
here s
no
way
out
of thisdouble
bind.
There s no
catharsisfor he
Existentialist
ero/antihero
Cohen
1999).
Besides
showcasing
Orestes as its
morally
conflicted
nd
psychologically
fragmented
haracter,
es
mouches s a
play
about man's
freedom
n conflict
with he
impotence
nd
omnipotence
f
the
gods
(Pucciani 320).
The
play
also
manifests
several
postmodern
eatures
n its combination
f reduxversions
f Homeric
egends,
such as
iEschylus's
umenides nd
Euripides'
Iphigenia
mong
heTauri.
The virtuosoExistentialist
ramaturgyeplays
fragments
f Greek
egend
and
tragedy,
t the
core of which rests the case
of Electra's
passivity
and Orestes's
hesitantmurderofClytemnestrand her over Egysthus)nrevenge or hemurder f
Orestes'sfather
Agamemnon).
hus,
the
haunting
Greek
maginary mpowers
artre
to focus new
uponquestions
f conflict nd
moral
choice,
in
an
interweave
etween
a
priori
freedom nd
contingent
acticity
nd, moreover,
n
a
necessarily
hermetic
reference
o
the German
ccupation
f France
in
itself
compelling
ituation).
In
thus
focusing,
Sartre esorts o an
illustration,
hrough
dramatic
fiction,
of the
unavoidable moral
questions,
albeit
posed contemporaneously
n
philosophical
terms.
Therein ies Sartre's ecret f
creativity.
n
a Moebius
flow
accompanied
by
suspensions
nd
parentheses, hilosophical questions
need
the
exemplum
f
fiction
while fiction eads back to
philosophical nquiry.
Foucault: /Esthetics of Ethics
It is fascinating o note that both Lacan and Foucault,among other intellectual
figures
f
the econd
half f the wentieth
entury,
esorted
s well to the
Greeks when
addressing uestions
f a modern
or
post/modern)
thics,
lthough
heir hoices
were
varied
nd
divergently
motivated.
n
L'usage
des
plaisirs,
Foucault
acknowledges
thathe
is
not
Hellenist,
ut
he marvels t
the
Greeks,
t
the fact hat
exuality
was
so
homogeneous
hat erms uch as
hetero-, omo-,
or
bisexuality
were bsent
from
their
vocabulary
187-89),
and that he
appetite
draws
o those who are
beautiful,
whatever heir ex
(192-95).
Foucault
s
impressed
y
a culture hat
stylizes
the
aesthetic
ttitude f
existence,
n
thatGreek
rotics
re interwovenwith
an ethics
defined s an art nd
technè f
existence,
nstead
f
being
defined
y
prowess
derived
from exual
repression.
As a
result,
rotics
do
not need to
produce
ny
prescriptive
codification f sexual
acts and
practices92-93,
138).
Foucault
electsfrom he
moral
elaborationsnd treatises andeddownby theGreek raditionnd revisits specially
Plato's
Symposiumalong
with few
other
exts,
s we
shall
discuss).
1. The
play
was
originally roduced
by
Charles
Dullin,
June
3,
1943.
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Foucault
and Lacan
1
07
Sexualitys at the heart f Foucault' discussionaboutethics, n the sameway
that he
nescapable
dilemmas
nd
paradoxes
oncerning
hoice,
and the constitutive
double bindfor consciousness-in-the-world
emained
t the heart
f Sartre's thical
paradigms.
n
L'usage
des
plaisirs,
Foucault ntertwines
masterfully)
reek rotics
and ethics.
This
consequential
move
has to be
perceived
n the
larger
context
of
Foucault'
philosophy.
Earlier,
n
Discipline
and
Punish,
Foucault
suggests
vast
studies
n the
micro-physics
f
power,
hus
perhaps alteringprevious
models
of
power
hat had
currency
rom
Aristotle o Marx. We
may
recall Foucault'
earlier
memorable econstruction
f
power:
The
study
of the
micro-physics
f
power presupposes
that
the
power
exercised n
the
body
s
conceivednot s a
property,
ut as
a
strategy,
...]
that ne shoulddeciphernita network f relations, onstantlyn tension,
in
activity,
rather han a
privilege
that one
might possess.
[...] [T]his
power
s
exercised ather han
possessed;
t is not a
privilege, cquired
r
preserved,
f the dominant
lass,
but
the overall
effect
f
its
strategic
positions.
(1979:26-27)
This shift in
the definition and elaboration of
power
has
far-reaching
consequences.
Foucault'
(postmodern)
otion of
power
s that of an interdefined
network f
unstable
relations,
wherein
power
s
exercisedrather han
possessed
(26-27).
Relations
of
power,
Foucault
laborates,
re not
localized,
nor are
they
univocal. As
Foucault's remarkable
nterpreter,
eleuze,
highlights punctually,
Foucault'
original concepts
deconstruct he traditional
ostulates
concerning
he
philosophy of power which had theretoforeeen held postulatesof property,
localization,
subordination,
ssence or
attribute,
nd
modality
(power-in-action
through
he
use of
violence or
ideology)
(25-29).
It
is
upon
Foucault's formidable
thesis
about
the
micro-physics
f
power,
and
power's
capillarity
not
unlike
Deleuze' s
rhizomatic
etworks)
hat oucault s
able to
question exuality
fter he
fact.
Thus,
nstead
of
dealing
with
general
macro-theoriesbout
power,
or those
of
political
power
nd the
state,
Foucault
s
able to
research
hreemicro-domains f
everyday
life
dietetics,
economics
(in
the
etymological
sense of home
economics ),
and erotics
from
which much
more
precise
theories
of
power
are
subsequently
xtrapolated.
It
s in this
frame
f mind
hatwe
may
apprehend
oucault's
turning
o the
study
of
Greek
erotics.
Foucault
focuses
upon
a
single
question:
how did
sexuality
problematizetself ntheGreek andtheGreco-Romanpisteme,n contradistinction
to the
way
sexuality
roblematized
tself
n
the Christian
pistemel
In
other
words,
what
re the
genealogy
and
prehistory
hat
account for such
profound
thical
and
epistemic
shifts,
given
that the
traditional hristian
oncerns for
sin,
the
flesh,
renunciation,
nd
purity
ame
to be
dominant
thical
paradigms,
whereas those
concernswere
not
present
n the
preceding
Greek/Greco-Roman
pistemel)
Foucault
deconstructs he
traditional
pposition
of
a Greek
exteriority
ersus
a
Christian
interiority:
What
s called
Christian
nteriority
s a
particular
mode
of
relationship
with
oneself,
comprising precise
forms
of
attention,
concern,
decipherment,
verbalization,
onfession.
...]
[T]he
exteriority
f
the
ancient
morality
mplies
the
elaboration f
self,
lbeit n
a
differentorm
63).
Attheextreme, oucault haracterizes reekmorality s a stylizationof theaesthetic ttitude f existence
(106).
Highlighting,
although
not
exclusively,
Diotima's
well-known
uestions
bout
the
ontology
f
love
itself n
Plato's
Republic
(or
the
winged
charioteer
ominating
his
rebel steeds
as
metaphor
or
the
soul's
struggle
with
tself n
the
Phaedrus),
Foucault
chisels
his
vision of
the
recursive
dominant
moral
and ethical
tension
for the
Greeks:
the
opposition
between
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108
Alain J.-J. ohen
aphrodisia (thedangerousppetites hatmakeus run ut of control) nd enkrateia
(mastery,
nd the
necessity
thereof)
236).
This
ubiquitous
ension is sometimes
delicate,
sometimes
hard-edged
nd
inexorable. Since
aphrodisia
are
always
dangerous,
he
ttempts
f
enkrateia o
dominate
leasures
nd wishes mustnever
be
allowed to
stop.
With
respect
o
erotics nd
power,
here
s
a
striking nalogy
with
Foucault*
earliermemorable
econstructionf inter-defined
ower
s the terrain f
constantly
enegotiated
nterrelations.
Nevertheless,
he
similarity
n
the
struggle
etween nkrateia
nd
aphrodisia
as
an
unstable nterrelationn
perpetual enegotiation,
s
well,
ed Foucault nto
another
directionn The
Use
of
Pleasure.
In
that
work,
he studies he
Greek rotic
courtship
between
the erastes and the
eromenos the
object
of love
at
an
age
of
transition so
desirable,yet
whose honor is so
fragile 196),
and who
should
neither e effeminateordebauched.Meanwhile,he overknows thatthe
mastery
f
aphrodisia
derives
rom he
mastery
f the
elf,
nd,
furthermore,
hat he
mastery
f
others
erives rom his
ame
mastery
f
the self.
Ethics
nd
politics
re
intertwinedor
hemoral
ubject
t times
reconfigured
nd
overlayed
s a
political ubject
s well. The
various
possible
interweaves f
mastery
and
appetites
fashion
vast
spectrum
f
ethics
proposals throughout
he immense
Greek
nd
Greco-Roman
pisteme.
o
sketch
n
broad
strokes,
t
may
be said that
for
Plato
(427-347 B.C.),
the
search for
truth,
hrough
o kalon
kat'agathon,
is a
perpetual
light,
higher
and
higher,
towards
dealities,
whereas for his
disciple
Aristotle
384-322
B.C.)
it is a
question
f
precision
cquired
s a result
of
a
long
practice,
o hit
he
right arget,
he
middle
path,
he fabled
golden
mean.
Aristotleroposes mixture frisk nd cautionregardinghe nterweave f this
constant
tension
(the
virtue
of
courage
between
the
extremes of
temerity
nd
cowardice).
Epicurus
c.
341-270
B.C.),
along
with
his
(Epicurean)
successors,
stresses
he ame
precision
when
peaking
bout
geometry
f
pleasure
nd
pain,
the
art f a
balancebetween
hem,
nd the
searchfor
he
right
dosage
of
aphrodisia.
By
contrast,
heother
Greek
toics
e.g.
Diogenes
Laertius,
lutarch)
nd the ater
Greco-
Roman
Stoics
(e.g.
Cicero,
Seneca,
Marcus
Aurelius)
dvocate
greater
aution and
prefer
self-removal from
the theatre
of
passions
because
aphrodisia
are
acknowledged
s
too
dangerous,
nd
mastery
means
earning
o
shelter neself from
them.
Several
extensions f
Foucault's
research n ethics
may
be
presented.
We shall
limit
urselves o
a brief
ketch
f four uch
prolongations.1. Foucault'selaboration ouldbe questioned orprivilegingPlato rather han
Aristotle
mong
his
Greek
models. If
the
reversiblefears
those
of
excess versus
passivity)
lead to a
lifelong
struggle
of our
enkrateia,
through
emperance
nd
moderation,
oucault
may
have
paid
more
attention o
the
specifics
of
Aristotle's
Nichomachean
thics,
wherehe
would
have found
more
ffinity
or
philosophy
of
desire
nd
action,
f
prudence
phronesis)
nd
moderation
sophrosune),
of
character
and
wisdom.
Lacan
paraphrases
uperbly:
Ethics for
Aristotle s a
science of
character,
he
building
of
character,
he
dynamics
f
habits and of
action with
relation o
habits,
raining,
ducation
10).
2.
As
suggested
bove,
Foucault's allusions to
Epicurus
ould also be
probed
o
shed more
ight
upon
the
complexity
f
Epicurus'
lassification f
desires,
and the
complexdosageofpassionsinvolved n theregulationnd thedistribution f vicesandvirtuesnthe
geometry
f
pleasure.
Passions
would
only
be studied
gain
n
their
geometry
n
Descartes'
masterpiece,
raitédes
passions,
of
1646.)
To
extensions
1
and 2 it
may
be
responded
hat
preserved
exts
of
Epicurus
re
very
imited
nd,
moreover,
hat
Foucault s
less interestedn
the
complexity
of
Greek
hought
bout ethics
than he is in
the
genealogy
of
a
certain
ouci de
soi
and
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Foucault and Lacan
1
09
inquiétudeabout erotics ndsexuality and thequestionof its transposition ome
the Christian
pistemic
hift.
3.
The reference
o Kant
s
an
equallydisturbing
acuna
n
Foucault*
debate
on
ethical models
n his work n ethics. It is of course a
question
of the Kant
of the
second
Kritikwherein he
practical
moral
udgment
s delineated
s
synthetic
priori
not
transcendent,
ot
hardwired,
ut
lso not
ust
derived rom
xperience),
in
a
problematization
f moral
maxims
in
interrelationwith
the
categorical
imperative.
ivenFoucault'
ease of references
o
Kant
elsewhere,
t
may
be that
he
did not want
o be drawn nto
the mmenseKantian
pparatus
nd
ose
sight
of the
other
ebate,
mentioned
bove. This
response
n itself s not
satisfactory,
nsofar s
Kant's
problematics
have
definitively econfigured
he
question
of
ethics in the
Western radition.4. Another
rolongued
xtensionof Foucault' researchwould be
particularly
enriching
ithreference
o
psychoanalysis.
he same
response
as
in 3
that,
albeit
not s in a full
dialogue
with
psychoanalysis,
ome of these
questions
re
present
n
volume of
The
History f Sexuality,
r
thatFoucault
may
have
preferred
ot
being
drawn
nto he
mmense
sychoanalytic
ield,
method nd
apparatus,
he
better
o deal
directly
with the Greeks
may
not stand as well as the
objection regarding
he
Kantian acuna. Far from
eing
anachronistic,
detour
hrough sychoanalysis
may
complement
he
Greek models. We cannot
read the Greeks
with
transparency,
pretending
hat he
psychoanalyticpparatus
which lluminates
he twentieth
entury
has not
reconfigured
ll our
conceptual
pprehensions.
If
we take it
as axiomatic that the
moral
subject enjoys
a
moral
autonomy,
without hich thicaldebates are no longer pertinent,tmayno longerbe possible
to
engage
he
question
f
ethicswithout full
measure f
the debate bout ntentions.
Intentions,
oreover,
re now
haunted
overdetermined)
y
unconsciousmotivation.
Such
a debate
annot e
short-circuited.
Lacan.
Ethics,
and
Affect
Between
Eschylus
and
Euripides,
acan
proposes
a shrewd
eading
of
Sophocles'
s
Antigone
c
441
B.C.)
in
L'éthique
de la
psychanalyse,
his
legendary
1959-60
seminar
published
a
quarter-century
ater).
The
title
may
be
understood
s
an
illuminating
hiasma for
he
ethics f
psychoanalysis
s
just
as much t
stake s the
psychoanalysis
of
ethics in
pointing
out the
mmense
uestions
ddressed
herein
by
Lacan
through
Antigone.
Already
in
1905,
almost
at the
origins
of
psychoanalysis,Freud iscusseshis owndoublebind, n the ntroductiono Dora's
case
history.
He
is
equally
conflicted
y
the
need to
respect
his
patient's
secrets,
conveyed
uring
he sessions'
privacy,
nd
by
the demands f
science,
inasmuch s
an
account f
Dora's
case
wouldbe
helpful
o others n
their
uffering.
As we
know,
reud
esolves his
dilemma or
psychoanalytic
istory y
altering
the
patient's
ircumstanceso that
hecase
history
otbe
read as a
roman-à-clef.
or
the
psychoanalyst
ho has
to
suspend
moral
udgment
and
disbelief)
oncerning
he
analysand's
accounts,
questions
of
ethics are
paramount
n
myriad
ways.
The
patient's
account
does not
preclude
he
analyst
from
feeling
all
the
gamut
of
emotions,
ranging
from
pity
and fear
and
its
possible
subsequent
atharsis)
in
reaction
o such
accounts, ut, ather,
uch
udgments
nd
reactions
re to be
occulted,
and
anamorposed,
the
better
to
become
therapeutic
o the
patient when thepsychoanalystater ntervenes t a
propitious
moment. n
striving
orthe difficult
suspension
of
(moral)
judgment,
the
psychoanalyst's
well-known
floating
attention
s of
extreme
pertinence.
Streams of
writings
bout the
analyst's
a-
symmetric
counter-transference,
pposed
to the
analysand's
transference,
ave
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110
Alain
J.-J.
ohen
called attention o this delicate operation not to mention the analyst's own
possibility
f
attack
y
the
Eumenides'
fury
or
are
they
his
own
Eumenides?).
Lacan too
drawsfrom
he Greeks
and
Kant
(as
well as
Goethe and
Hegel).
However,
he
means to
highlight
he
specificity
f
psychoanalytic
heory
with
regard
to
ethical
reflection. iven
thatdesire
nd
action,
desire nd
fantasy,
esire nd the
ideal,
desire
nd the
aw,
desire
nd the
unconscious,
re all
by
definition nterwoven
with
thics,
acan thus
nterrogates
n
Antigone
he
significant
etaphor
t the heart
of the
representation
f
that enowned
ragedy,
where he antinomies f
pleasure
nd
the
sovereigngood
seem
exponentially
xpressed.
Or,
we
might ay,
he
privileges
Antigone
s the
tragedy
hatmakes
manifest,
eyond
he traditional
quilibrium
f
the
pleasure
principle
with the
reality
principle,
theirown
triangulation
with the
Death
drive.
Lacan points t first o thetraditional iews ofethical onflictn
tragedy,
hatof
a conflict
between
qually
valorized
sovereign
goods,
and the
ensuing
paralyzing
position,
r double
bind,
bothfor he
tragic
nteractant
nd for he
spectator.
On
the
one
handCreon
refuses o
permit
funeral or he
dead
Polynices,
because
Polynices
was a traitor o the
aws of his
city,
while
Antigone
does want o
bury
her brother
because he is
her brother. acan
even refines
upon
the
lacuna
in
the
scholarly
interpretation
f the
play:
Creon
represents
he aws
of the
city
nd dentifies
hemwith he decrees
f
the
gods, yet]
t
cannot e
denied that
Antigone
s after
ll concernedwith
the
chthonian
aws,
the aws of
the earth.
...] [I]t
is for the sake of
her
brotherwho
has
descended nto
the
subterranean orld that she resists
Creon' order,nthenameofthemostradically hthonian f relations hat
are
blood relations.n
brief,
he is in
the
position
to
place
the Dike of
the
gods
on her
ide.
(276-77)
However,
sychoanalysis
oes not
need to
repeat
new the
formidableessons
of
the
classics.
Lacan's
lesson
reconfiguresltogether
he
reading
f
the
play.
In
his
final
mad
abandonment
confronted
y
the
deathsof his
son,
his
wife,
and that of
Antigone),
reon's
tragic
estinymay
elicitthe
expected ity
for
the
other)
nd fear
(for
oneself).
But
Antigone
licits neither
ity
nor
fear,
acan
states
categorically.
From
the
beginning,
ntigone
nowsno
hesitation.
he wants o
die,
condemned o
a
cruel
punishment,
hat f
being
buried live in
a tomb.
he is relentlessn
the desire
for
death,
which
unfolds rom
he
beginning
o theend of
the
play.
This is not theùbris characteristicfCreon),butrather ntigone'sate (tragic
flaw).
The
splendor
l'éclat)
of
Antigonemay
be beholden
o the effect f
beauty
on
desire : it
reverses all
tragic
expectations
and
assumptions.
For
Lacan's
redefinition
f
catharsis,
catharsis s
the
beauty
effect. What
the
spectator's
catharsis
waits
n
her
ong
defiance f
the
aws,
her
ought-after
ondemnation
n
full
recognition
of the
criminality
of her
act,
and her
magnificent
final
lamentation,
s
that he
does not
yield
about)
her
desire.Lacan
alludes to one of his
earlier
writings
boutSade and
Sadean
crime,
o remind s: It is
not for
nothing
that
crime s
one
boundary
f
our
exploration
f
desire,
r
that
t s
on thebasis of a
crime
that
reud
ttempted
o reconstruct
he
genealogy
f the aw
(260).
Lacan
is,
of
course,
referring
o the
Œdipal
structure,
o the
dialectics of
the
castration
principle,
and to the murder f Laios in
this
Œdipal
structure. acan's
legendaryR Schema givesa glimpse f thepostmoderneconstructedubject, plit
and
fragmented
nto
decentered-effect.n
my
nalysis
f
the
R
Schema,
pointed
out how for
Lacan the
complex quadrangle
f
the
Real, i.e.,
the
Moebius
strip
(formed
y
linking
M
to
m,
and to
I),
provides
he means for
figuring
he
axis of
desire,M-i,
i.e.,
signifiers
f
mother
n
relation
o
signifiers
f
image )
and the
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axis of identity,-m, i.e., the Ideal of the moi in relation o moi ) (1996). The
flow
of the Moebius
strip
consists
in
this circulation f desire
nto
identity
nd
identity
nto desire.
The
R
Schema
may
be
complex,
but t
helps figure
he relation
of affect nd
identity.
Whom-I-desireransformsho-I-am
ust
as much s who-I-am
ffectswhom-
I-desire. n its
origin,
he
nfant's esirefor mother s
thwarted
y
the
aw,
by
the
interventionf the
symbolic
third,
r the
Œdipus
and the
symbolic
order.
Thus,
all
future esires recathect
omething
r other from his
original transgression.
The
crime
n
the
symbolic
order
i.e.,
gainst
Laios)
constructs nd
structures
he
law
of
desire. For
Lacan,
the
psychoanalytic heory
f
jouissance
accounts for the fact
that
we are not
only
dealing
with he
question
of a
given pleasure
principle
nd its
equilibrium
ith another
given realityprinciplebut,instead,with sex and death.There s thereforen element hat s
transgressive
nd criminal t the root of all
desire.This s
thedesire
which s made
hyperbolic
n
dramatic
iction,
nd a
fortiori
in
tragedy.
t is
this
systematically
ustained
ransgressive ower
hat
ccounts for
the
éclat of
Antigone's
character. She
pushes
to
the
limit
the realization of
something
hat
might
e called the
pure
nd
simple
desire f death
s such
282).
The
lessons for
psychoanalysis
hatLacan
extrapolates
rom
he
play Antigone
interrelatehe notion
f desire
nd
betrayal.They
wereknown
by every
Lacanian of
my
generation.
hey
took the form f
three
propositions
nd
an addendum
orollary
which
merit
uoting
t
length:
First,
the
only
thing
one can
be
guilty
of is
giving ground
elative to
one's
desire.
Second,
the
definition
f a
hero:
someone who
may
be
betrayedwith mpunity. hird, his is something hat not everyonecan
achieve;
t
constituteshe
difference
etween he
ordinary
man and a
hero,
and
it
is,
therefore,
ore
mysterious
han one
might
hink.
The
betrayal
that
almost
always
occurs
for the
ordinary
man
sends him
back to
the
service f
the
goods,
but with
he
proviso
thathe will
never
gain
find
that
actor
which
estores
sense
of
direction o
that
ervice.
...]
[F]ourth:
There s
no
other
good
than
that
which
may
serve to
pay
the
price
for
access to
desire
given
that
desire s
understood ere s
the
metonymy
f
our
being.
321)
Antigone
s the
heroine.
She is
betrayed,
f
course,
by everyone,
because
she
never
yields
n
her
desire o
die.
Greek
heroes
re all
betrayed.
ther
betrayals
nclude
Moses's dyingbefore ettingothePromised and,Socrates'sbeinggivenhemlock;
Christ's
crucifixion.
erhaps
we
need
such
heroes
to
give
us a
taste of
ideality,
inasmuch s
these
heroes
emind s
of
how
muchwe
have
compromised
nd
yielded
n
our
own
desire,
ll
for he
sake
of
goods.
Perhaps
that
deality
corresponds
o
the
inestimable
rice
of
access
to
(the
to-be-betrayed)
esire. n
reinterpreting
he
fabled
cathartic
ffect,
acan'
s
virtuoso
eading
f
Antigone
istills an
apprehension
f
the
formidable
nd
contagious
beauty
of
Antigone
herself
as
a
transsubstantiated
reminder
f the
art
of
existence.
Note on
the
Postmodern
The
place
of
psychoanalysis
in
modernism
a
modernism
onceived as
both
a
historical
ccurrencen
early
twentieth
entury,
nd a
conceptual
onstruct
hat still
sought systems, great accounts or T. O. E's (theories of
everything)--is
interrelated
ith
he
avatars
of
the
postmodern
ffect.
sychoanalysis,
one of
the
most
ophisticated
nd
comprehensive
odels
ever
offeredn
the
fieldsof
cognition
(epistemology),
affect
emotion
system),
action
and
motivation
pragmatics)
and
aesthetics,
may
very
well
be
the last
creation
of
modernism.
However,
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112
Alain J.-J. ohen
psychoanalysiss not ust another peculative ystemwherewe wouldoppose Freud
to
Spinoza
or
Kant).
Freud
quotes liberally
from he
history
of
philosophical
systems,
ut his is
not
another
peculative hilosophical
ystem.
His is of a different
type.
The
psychoanalytic
ebates re anchored
n
a
bipolarity:
hat f the clinical
(the
narrativesf
pain
and
suffering)
nd that
of
the theoretical. reud'sfamous
narrative
case
studies,
on
hysteria,
phobia,
obsession,
paranoia,
narcissism and
depression
and Lacan'
exegesis
of them interrelate ith the construction
f a
sophisticated
odelof themind.
This model
of
the mind onstitutes ne
of the
most
complex
yntheses
f
modernity:
he
trichotomy
f
the
id/ego/superego
upon
which
Lacan
superimposes
heReal/the
maginary/theymbolic,
nd the
language-model
s
an
alternative for the
biology-model),
and
is intertwinedwith a rhetoric of
conflicting
rives, r with ts
highlighting
f the Unconscious.n fact, t is thisvery
complexity
hat makes it so
powerful
n
the discourse of
a
fragmenting
post-
modernity.
yotardmay
be
right
bout
he
nd
of
the
great
ccounts,
but the
split
and
fragmented
ostmodern
ubjectrepresented
s an
algorithm,
n
the
complexity
addressed
y
Lacan'
R
Schema,
may
well
correspond
o whatBaudrillard escribes
as the
Age
of theSimulacral.
I
suggest
hat
acan'
reading
f
the effect
f
the beautiful
n
Antigone
may
be
considered s an
inquiry egarding othing
ess thanthe
place
of affect
n
ethics.
In
what mounts o a
treatise
n
aesthetics,
amisch
n
Le
jugement
e
Pans,
also
returns
to
the
Greeks nd examines ll the
myriad spects,
motivations nd
consequences
f
Paris'
judgment,aught
etween he hree
oddesses,
s well as
caught
etween
reud
(and desire) ndKant thesublime nd thebeautiful). rappedn a truedouble bind
(perhaps
n
a
triple
bind?),
his
ultimate hoice of
Aphrodite
in
her
éclat,
in
her
terrifying
eauty,
utwas it a
choice ?)
provoked
he modelof all
wars. Was it not
the
modelfor ll
futurethics nd aesthetics?
Postface
For
Dominique
Desanti,
nd
n
memory
f
Oreste
.
Pucciani,
le
Fennec :
Je
ne me
souviens
pas
(affectivement)
'un
autrefois
où
je
ne
connaissais
as
Dominique
Desanti,
même i
je
sais
objectivement ue
déjà
en
1968,
c'est Oreste
Pucciani
qui
nous avait
présentés
à
Hollywood,
t
que
nous nous sommesrevus en
compagnie
de
Michel
Foucault,
e
FrançoiseGilot,
de
Jonas
alk à
La
Jolla,
de bien
d'autres,à Paris tailleurs. e même
u'avec
OrestePucciani,
'ai toujours
oûté
avec
Dominique
au
plaisir
esthético-éthique
e
«
refaire e monde
»
dans
chacune de nos conversations. Parisienne mais
globe-trotter,
intellectuelle t
écrivain, nclassable,
Dominiqueprise
e détail hic
et
nunc de la
chronique
autant
que
les envolées
philosophiques.
Dominique
t Jean-Toussaint
Touky),
es
«
Chats
»
de Saint-Germain
ou de la rue
Clauzel,
configurent
n vaste bestiaire
qui
auraitfait es
délicesde La Fontaine
selon
Louis
Marin,
e
plus
brillant es
penseurs
de
l'Âge Classique).
Dans
l'entregent
ù
rayonnent
es
«
Chats
»,
Oreste tait
e
«
Fennec
»,
Jacques
e
«
Cheval
»,
et ainsi
de
suite
pour
maints
amis,
dans une
rigoureuse
ndexicalité
qui
excluait
l'arbitraire. ourmoi-même n avait essayé « Hérisson», mais sans
trop
de conviction. Au Grand
iècle,
La
Fontaine, Descartes,
Pascal,
inter lio
s,
auraient té les aficionadosdu
salon des Chats. De
même,
Diderot t les
Encyclopédistes
uraient
ompté parmi
es habitués
au
siècle
des Lumières. ant
de ce
que
«
le
siècle
nous aura
appris
»
est
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Foucault
and Lacan 113
passé par 'éthiquedudialogueet par e dialoguede l'éthique dont
nous rendons i
hommage
Dominique
Desanti.
University
f California,
an
Diego
WORKS CITED
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l'ambiguïté.
aris
Gallimard,
952.
Cohen,
Alain J.-J.
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