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Jacques Lacan Modern European Thinkers Series Editors: Anne Beech and David Castle Over the past few decades, Anglo-American social science and humanities have experienced an unprecedented interrogation, revision and strengthening of their methodologies and theoretical underpinnings through the influence of highly innovative scholarship from continental Europe. In the fields of philosophy, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, critical theory and beyond, the works of a succession of pioneering writers have had revolutionary effects on Anglo- American academia. However, much of this work is extremely challenging, and some is hard or impossible to obtain in English translation. This series provides clear and concise introductions to the ideas and work of key European thinkers. As well as being comprehensive, accessible introductory texts, the titles in the Modern European Thinkers series retain Pluto’s characteristic radical political slant, and critically evaluate leading theorists in terms of their contribution to genuinely radical and progressive intellectual endeavour. And while the series does explore the leading lights, it also looks beyond the big names that have dominated theoretical debates to highlight the contribution of extremely important but less well-known figures. Also available: Hannah Arendt André Gorz Finn Bowring Conrad Lodziak and Jeremy Tatman Alain Badiou Félix Guattari Jason Barker Gary Genosko Georges Bataille Jürgen Habermas Benjamin Noys Luke Goode Jean Baudrillard Bruno Latour Mike Gane Graham Harman Walter Benjamin Herbert Marcuse Esther Leslie Malcolm Miles Pierre Bourdieu Guy Hocquenghem Jeremy F. Lane Bill Marshall Gilles Deleuze Slavoj Zˇiˇzek John Marks Ian Parker Jacques Lacan A Critical Introduction Martin Murray First published 2016 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Martin Murray 2016 The right of Martin Murray to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 1595 9 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 1590 4 Paperback ISBN 978 1 7837 1723 1 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1725 5 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1724 8 EPUB eBook This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Text design by Melanie Patrick Simultaneously printed in the European Union and United States of America Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 Stopping and Starting 1 2 Sweet and Sour 7 3 Sense and Nonsense 29 4 Man and Window 36 5 I and I 73 6 Fight and Flight 126 7 Word and Wish 157 8 Ending and Beginning 186 Notes 189 Bibliography of Works by Lacan 200 General Bibliography 202 Index 206 I always speak the truth. Not the whole truth, because there’s no way to say it all. Lacan I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction. Bataille Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people who, in one way or another, have helped me write this text: Sara Barrett, Emma Bell, Geoffrey Bennington, Rachel Bowlby, Carolyn Burdett, Scott Davidson, Mark Dubois, John Dudley, Merl Fluin, Roddy Gallacher, Jim Grant, Claire Hodgson, Anne Hogan, Martin Jenkins, Angela Joyce, Valli Kohon, Vicky Lebeau, Michael Morris, Kathryn Murray, Sheila Murray, Sue Pike, Inge Pretorius, Rena Proud, Jacqueline Rose, Viqui Rosenberg, Kate Soper, Barry Stocker, Jenny Stoker, Gillian Tunstall, Will Viney, Wendy Wheeler, Peter Wilson, Andrew Wright, Jessica Yakeley and Marie Zaphirou-Woods. Special thanks are extended to five people who have been particularly generous with their time, advice, ideas and support, namely Anne Beech, Sira Dermen, Mary Fitzgerald, David Hansen-Miller and Bill Murray. Finally, this book is for the two people who have, during its writing, most engaged with me in the matter which psychoanalysis is primarily or significantly about, namely love. It is therefore dedicated to Teresa Fitzgerald and Miles Murray. 1 Stopping and Starting About This book is ‘about’ Jacques Lacan. Perhaps this is obvious or straightforward. Yet the fact that the word ‘about’ is included in the first sentence of this introduction in inverted commas (or ‘scare quotes’) indicates something else. It indicates that what Lacan was ‘about’ isn’t obvious and that showing and addressing this might not be straightforward. Thus the inverted commas indicate a problem. Yet they also indicate a solution to that problem. Both the problem and the solution are outlined below. Here is the problem: it is difficult to say (because it is difficult to know) what Lacan was ‘about’. This is most obviously true of his pronounce- ments: his essays, papers, talks, seminars and books. He spoke or wrote in riddles. Quite often, he contradicted himself. It’s a challenge to write about him clearly, simply and accurately because it’s difficult to understand what he meant. To make things worse, he didn’t want to be understood – at least some of the time. For various reasons, it is hard to know what he was ‘about’ intellectually. Lacan was also personally difficult. He sometimes seemed mad or even pernicious and he often seemed obscure. Yet this didn’t seem to bother him. Indeed, his eccentric behaviour seemed willed. It’s thus hard to discern what his intentions were. Why did he act as he did? These questions indicate another reason for the inverted commas around the word ‘about’ above. The question ‘what was Lacan ‘about?’ doesn’t just mean ‘what did his ideas mean?’ It also means: ‘what was he up to?’ Thus in trying to discern what Lacan was ‘about’ one has to grapple both with what he said and meant and with what he did and why he did it. How might one begin to do this? There is a way; in fact there is more than one way.