From the conscious interior to an exterior unconscious : Lacan, discourse analysis, and social psychology

392 Pages·2010·1.008 MB·English

by  David Pavón Cuéllar, Danielle Carlo, Ian Parker (eds.)

FROM THE CONSCIOUS INTERIOR
TO AN EXTERIOR UNCONSCIOUS
LINES OF THE SYMBOLIC SERIES
Edited by Ian Parker
FROM THE CONSCIOUS
INTERIOR TO AN
EXTERIOR UNCONSCIOUS
Lacan, Discourse Analysis
and Social Psychology
David Pavón Cuéllar
Edited by Danielle Carlo and Ian Parker
First published in 2010 by
Karnac Books Ltd
118 Finchley Road
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2010 by David Pavón Cuéllar
The right of David Pavón Cuéllar to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-1-85575-794-3
Typeset by Vikatan Publishing Solutions (P) Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain
www.karnacbooks.com
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
PREFACE ix
ABOUT THE AUTHOR xi
INTRODUCTION
An application of Lacanian concepts to discourse
analysis in social psychology xiii
CHAPTER ONE
The symbolic and the imaginary 1
CHAPTER TWO
The signifier and the signified 19
CHAPTER THREE
Full speech and empty speech 75
v
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR
Enunciation and enunciated 89
CHAPTER FIVE
The subject as a signifier to another signifier 121
CHAPTER SIX
The unconscious as the discourse of the Other 161
CHAPTER SEVEN
The representative of the subject 211
CHAPTER EIGHT
The discourse of the master 233
CHAPTER NINE
The being of speech 277
CHAPTER TEN
The interpretation of wisdom 303
CONCLUSION 337
BIBLIOGRAPHY 343
INDEX 363
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I especially thank Ian Parker for his initiative and support. I would
also like to express my gratitude to Ksiezniczka Bieszczad, Rukmini
Bose, Danielle Carlo, Jean-Pierre Cléro, Mario Alberto Cortez
Rodríguez, José Luis García Castellano, Franz Gleiger, Eduardo
González Di Pierro, Francisco Javier and the other members of the
Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) of Mexico, Elisabeth Lage, Pia
Leighton, Mariola López Albertos, Adelio Melo, Viviana Pilar Melo
Saint-Cyr, the Psychophores of Paris, François Regnault, José Manuel
Sabucedo Cameselle, Wiola Slaska and María Luisa Vega.
vii

PREFACE
This book weaves together into a multi-layered text three strands of
work; Lacan’s contribution to a theory of language, political engage-
ment with those who aim to go beyond interpretation of the world
to changing it, and insightful review of contradictions and gaps in
studies of discourse in social psychology. It is tempting to treat these
three strands as if they were the three rings of a Borromean knot,
as if a failure to respect the linkage between them would lead to
disaster. In truth, sad to say, research in each of those three strands
of work in the English-speaking world has often been undertaken
in such a way as to hermetically seal off each strand, to treat it as if
it were independent of the other two. Attempts to connect them so
far have been faltering and uncertain, and we have had to wait for
David Pavón Cuéllar to show us how this work could be done.
Here we have a detailed review and synthesis of Lacanian concepts
which lead us through the development of a distinctive approach to
language and clarification of confluence and divergence with other
theoretical traditions. The illustrative example text which at first
glance seems to be little more than a fragment of speech becomes,
as the line of the book unfolds, a window onto the world of political
action, a world in which an ostensibly academic theory of language
ix