The Law of Desire: On Lacan's 'Kant with Sade' PDF
Preview The Law of Desire: On Lacan's 'Kant with Sade'
The Palgrave Lacan Series Series Editors Calum Neill School of Psychology and Sociology Edinburgh Napier University Edinburgh, United Kingdom Derek Hook Duquesne University Pittsburgh, USA fl Jacques Lacan is one of the most important and in uential thinkers of the fl 20thcentury.Thereachofthisin uencecontinuestogrowaswesettleinto ’ the21stcentury,theresonanceofLacansthoughtarguablyonlybeginning now to be properly felt, both in terms of its application to clinical matters and in its application to a range of human activities and interests. The Palgrave Lacan Series is a book series for the best new writing in the fi Lacanian eld, giving voice to the leading writers of a new generation of Lacanian thought. The series will comprise original monographs and the- matic, multi-authored collections. The books in the series will explore ’ aspects of Lacans theory from new perspectives and with original insights. Therewillbebooksfocusedonparticularareasoforissuesinclinicalwork. TherewillbebooksfocusedonapplyingLacaniantheorytoareasandissues beyond the clinic, to matters of society, politics, the arts and culture. Each book,whateveritsparticularconcern,willworktoexpandourunderstand- ’ ingofLacanstheoryanditsvalueinthe21stcentury. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15116 Dany Nobus The Law of Desire ’ ‘ ’ On Lacan s Kant with Sade DanyNobus DepartmentofPsychology BrunelUniversityLondon Uxbridge,UnitedKingdom ThePalgraveLacanSeries ISBN978-3-319-55274-3 ISBN978-3-319-55275-0(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-55275-0 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017943380 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,whether thewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseof illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublica- tiondoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromthe relevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthis book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedherein orforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardto jurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. Coverimage©RobertMora/AlamyStockPhoto Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland For NP Ἔρως ἀνίκατε μάχαν Acknowledgements AlthoughIneverconfessedtoitthroughtheholySacramentofPenance ’ when I was a pupil at an established Roman Catholic boys school in ’ Belgium, my interest in Sades libertine novels dates back to my teenage years. At that time, the books could only be obtained from libraries if one had received special permission from a head librarian, because they had been dutifully consigned to a closed section that was commonly ‘ ’ knownas book-hell,andingoodLacanianfashion,thefactthatastrict fl prohibition rested upon these volumes hugely in amed my desire to read them. The story of how and when I eventually worked my way ’ through Sades eroto-philosophical texts will not be of interest to any- ’ one,butwhenduringmymid-20sIhadtochooseatopicforaMasters ’ dissertation in psychoanalysis, I was involuntarily drawn to Lacans ‘ ’ Kant avec Sade, which at the time I found both fascinating and ff ’ intimidating, although for di erent reasons than Sades own works. The project was eventually published in two parts, in two consecutive ‘ ’ issues of the Belgian journal Psychoanalytische Perspektieven: D. Nobus, ‘ Moeten Wij Sade Herdenken? I. Aan gene zijde van verguizing en ’ – vergoddelijking, Psychoanalytische Perspektieven, 1993, 21, pp. 63 93; ‘ D.Nobus, MoetenWijSadeHerdenken?II.Depsychoanalysevoorhet ’ Sadiaanse universum, Psychoanalytische Perspektieven, 1994, 22, – pp. 101 132. Although none of the texts in this book is directly based upon these papers, I should nonetheless acknowledge those people who vii viii Acknowledgements supportedtheprojectatthetime,andwhoregularlyenteredintoSadean ’ and other discussions with me about one or the other aspect of Lacans text: Julien Quackelbeen, who sadly passed away in 2016, Paul Verhaeghe, Filip Geerardyn and Katrien Libbrecht. Almost 20 years after this youthful endeavour to shed some light on ‘ ’ KantwithSade,IwasinvitedbyStijnVanheule,DerekHookandCalum ’ NeilltowriteadetailedcommentaryonanessayinLacansÉcritsfortheir ’ ‘ ’ three-volumeReadersGuidetothebook. KantwithSade wasnotmyonly fi fi choice,anditde nitelywasnotmy rst,butintheendthisistheessayI ended upbeingasked to unpack and clarify. With hindsight, it would be disingenuous to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the task, and that I am ’ exceptionallygratefultotheeditorsofthisReadersGuideforassigningitto me. Yet as my work, and the associated feelings of intellectual and emo- ff tional torment, progressed, what started o as a commentary grew into a more substantial piece of work, which eventually crystallized into this ’ book. As such, Volume 3 of the Readers Guide to Écrits will include a more succinct version of it, without the background information to ’ ’ Lacans text, without the examples taken from Sades works, and without thedetailedelaborationsandthescholarly apparatusinthenotes. AsIwasworkingonthisproject,outlinesofitsargumentwerepresented atthefollowinginstitutions,whosehostsarethankedfortheirinvitations, and especially for giving me the opportunity to respond to questions and suggestionsfromtheaudience,whichhasallowedmetosharpenthetextin — variousplaces:DasUnbehagen AFreeAssociationforPsychoanalysis,at the New School University in New York, NY; the Lacanian School of PsychoanalysisinSanFrancisco,CA;theCentreforFreudianAnalysisand Research in London. I would also like to thank Nektaria Pouli, Stijn Vanheule, Junior Ingouf, Calum Neil, Derek Hook, Benjamin Ware, andanadditionalanonymousreader,forscrutinizingtheentiremanuscript andformakingnumeroussuggestionsforimprovement.Iamalsograteful fi to Élisabeth Roudinesco for con rming certain aspects of the historical ’ context of Lacans article. Finally, a special word of thanks should go to BruceFink,whoalsoreadthroughacompletedraftofthemanuscript,and ‘ ’ whosecommentsonmyinterpretationsof KantwithSade wereinvariably insightful and always constructive, despite my occasional criticism of his ’ seminaltranslationofLacanstext. Contents Introduction xiii 1 A New Ethical System 1 2 Lacan Reads Kant 9 ’ 3 Sades Kantian Maxim 17 4 Regarding the Pain of Others 29 5 Ineluctable Libertine Pleasures 37 6 The Sadean Fantasy 47 7 Surely, It Is Just a Fantasy! 65 ’ 8 Sades Practical Reason 73 9 The Law Sustains Desire 87 10 Sade Against Kant 99 ix x Contents 11 The Moral Principle of Desire 107 12 Desire and Happiness 113 13 Lacan Against Sade 123 ff ... 14 Some More E ort 131 Conclusion 141 Bibliography 149 Index 167
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