Chapter 3 Notes

← CHAPTER 3: Philosophy of Psychoanalysis or I in a structured relation with others • C cannot be understood just by relations with other individuals but that the inner characteristics of C must be understood within the context of the relation b/w A + B • Ex. long ago, couldn’t wait to jump to marriage – now postpone jumping o 50% marriages fail o failure of married couples impacts on yourself • use psychoanalysis ← ←

A. Introductory Remarks 1/ Freud • introduced a radical change in treatment of patients • medicine related to patients in a very specific way • before look at ‘I’ – treat human as an object that can speak • Freud changes this: his method is listening to a speaking subject • Before Freud: o mental illness: illness of the body o had to find something in the body o hypothesis: too high BP, therefore cut a vein to leave out some BP o lobotomies o inoculated with malaria o when they reduce mentally ill to a body.

2/ Descartes, Philosophy of Psychoanalysis • started modern philosophy • made sharp distinction b/w body and consciousness • Consciousness: characterized by thinking o Descartes: thinking of thoughts that you are aware of  “I know the thought I have”  “if I do not know it, it is not a thought” o another theater: thinking goes on but we are not aware of it  it shows itself but outside of conscious control o Freud studied the visible effects of the thinking of which we are not aware- “unconscious” (reveals what is not seen)  appears in form of denial, dream, slips of tongue, forgetting, jokes o  DENIAL  Freud had a dream – with a bossy female figure  Who is that person in your dream? – mom?  denial: naming of what you do not want to name  intellectually acknowledging the fact but emotionally refusing to accept the implications  if I represent and know that my mom is bossy, I should take my distance  def: unconscious process in which you label the fact but you are unable to name up the fact  ex. boasting  I am so happy that I had not had my convulsions for three months  Freud: patient feels something

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unconscious feels as though something is coming • consciousness looks around and sees nothing • unconscious sees more than conscious  consciousness is like the dean’s office – no clue what goes in the dormitories  there is thinking going on, but it is outside of consciousness o  DREAMS  dream of daughter of Freud – she is sick  she dreams of someone eating ice cream & strawberries – her favorite foods  dream: expression of a wish that is satisfied, but it is satisfied during the day  we express unreachable wishes in our dreams  some of these wishes we are not yet aware of! o  SLIPS OF THE TONGUE  Freud: boasting of poor German poet, wants to do as if he is an important person because he is related to Rochet? (wealthy bankers)  but he has mis-speech/slip of the tongue: I am familiaronaire (familiar and millionaire) with Rochet  consciously, poet wanted to say that I am successful because I know Rochet  but unconscious told the truth  when I see Rochet, he treats me as any millionaire treats me – looks down on me  slip of the tongue: wanted to say he was on familiar tongues, not that he was treated by Rochet as millionaires treat everyone else!  conscious thinking is not the only thought that occurs  “merit goods”  wrote “married goods”

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 “organism”  “orgasm”  when it is a mispeech – it socially acceptable o  FORGETTING  Freud  Means you forgot me  cry of lady: indicates that she understood that being forgotten that I am not on the top of your priorities  if you forget to prepare for an exam, etc., unconscious forgets what it is not interested in o  JOKES  way of talking about what is forbidden  mostly about sexuality  Freud: makes a general conclusion  sexuality is an ever-present force in human beings  that force is not just a biological/anatomical/chemical force, it is also a psychological phenomena because in sexuality, we discover our finitude? ( we cannot be everything )  mentally ill fantasize they are both male and female  indicates difference – other can be ‘other’ than myself  realize my dependence on the other – something that is not easy to accept has many dimensions Descartes: We have conscious thoughts Freud argues: we have unconscious thinking ex. cocktail parties o conscious statement: nice to see you

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o conscious gesture: I cannot run faster away from you o in contacts with people, we have double communication: conscious & unconscious communication ex. difference in how we see smile of Ms. Clinton & Ms. Palin o Clinton: has suffered a lot- any smile is an effort  unconscious message about she carries life body: characterized as spatial extension o in W. medicine, body discovered by people like Versalius  W. medicine based on study of dead body  dead body can be treated as parts, where some parts can be replaced. o Chinese medicine  totally different  emperor couldn’t be seen but needed to be treated  let a curtain fall b/w doctor and emperor  made a hole to feel the pulse  diagnose on basis of just feeling the pulse  claim that they feel not the dead body but the live body  live body: body with nrg & nrg fields  if nrg is blocked in muscle – nrg makes muscles constantly move  then, in a crisis mode  make that stored nrg disappear so that nrg can throw back as it is now  last step: stimulated growth of soft tissue b/w the vertebrae so that it doesn’t friction the nerve system

 help body heal itself  work with immune system human beings as body & consciousness: too limited view

• • 2nd part of psychoanalysis: part of who we are is not known to ourselves • expresses itself in denials, slips of tongue, forgetting – these phenomena are more directly visible to the other and thus unconscious aspects of ourselves are often more visible to the other than to ourselves 3rd point: many dimensions of ourselves that we do not know express themselves in language like misspech, slips of tongue, denials and thus, a new definition of human being emerges = it is not that human beings are rational beings; human beings are speaking beings and it is that aspect that Freud in psychoanalysis really understands because only tool for profession I speaking and listening – that radical change in medical towards patients that was created by Freud; instead of looking, you listen and thus allow patient to speak for himself. 2/ Phenomena of DEPRESSION • sign of our time • predominant mental illness changes by __________ • 16/17 C: predominant illness: Melancholia o connected with social habits of that time o ex. primogeniture : 1st son inherits everything o success of capitalism • Vergote o Cultural Melancholia  exemplified by great poets  ex. British literature  Keats • aware of time passing

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q: what is the meaning of life? o A good meal but after the meal is gone, what do you have?  Every good thing disappears in the past  is there something with permanent meaning?  Freud argued that cultural melancholics were nostalgic, that they cannot accept the finitude of death- they aspire to something that is not available to mankind  Vergote disagrees with Freud & says that human psyche is precisely torn b/w things that disappear in past and the aspiration for something permanent that is not an illusion  it is a challenge for every human being to live with attention  everything disappears in the past and we want something more permanent  solution for CM  use language to create a beautiful poem which then is felt to have permanent value  Keats: a thing of beauty is a jewel forever  Vergote: lesson that cultural melancholics give us is that as human beings, we all have the challenge of trying to find a meaning that goes beyond the disappearance of all experience into the past o Depressive person does not have linguistic skill of cultural melancholics when faced with the same challenge of CM to translate experiences that disappear in past into something beautiful that has permanent meaning. o Mourning  Similar to depression  Nothing is worthwhile  no interest in things they sometimes have no energy to do normal things  loses interest in the world because the loved one has died/left the world  mourning person is constantly in his/her mind with the dead, loved one  depressed person has no one who died – depressed person is therefore not present with someone who was lost

depressed person misses something that other person has  mystery of mourning: mourning person is present in all the details of past living together  _______________________________________* ***  when mourning is successful, person reenters life rich with characteristics of dead one  dead one is now permanently present in enriched character of mourner  depressed person has no loved one who is dead. has no loved one that they try to mourn. No loved on from whom they can bottle an admire characteristic from which they can enter more enriched in life, through which life gets meaning again o Psychotic Melancholia  accuse themselves beyond rational reasons  they feel guilty that a child died even if it died from illness  seem to enjoy self-accusation  combination of self-accusation and lack of shame is a curious phenomena  in psychiatry, teachers have difficulty to find a patient to show to an audience of students  most mentally ill patients are uncomfortable  Vergote is puzzled by that combination of selfaccusation and lack of shame leading to them looking to any opportunity to accuse themselves!  Vergote’s psychoanalytic argument: if they accuse themselves are enjoy the self-accusation, but have no shame – must be that they accuse someone else by accusation of themselves  argument becomes the psychotic melancholic accuses a hated pattern with whom they have identified  children become themselves with identification with parents 

here we can refer to master-slave dialectic, slave is in need of giving a sense of worth to him or himself and does it by idealizing a master, identifying with a master even though they might be very angry at that master – similarly, psychotic melancholics identify with parent  hence, they feel they are the hated parent and they have joy in criticizing the hate d parent even if it is ______  interpreted as an overstrong, misdirected superego  depressed person is not accusing him or himself  depressed person is also not enjoying talking about him or herself to others – on the contrary, they are bothered by presence of others obvious phenomena of depressed person: COMPLAIN that they have no energy, cannot do what they want to do, self-accusation leads to diagnosing melancholic a defected superego, complaint indicates something of a problem in a totally different area to complain means, acc to Vergote  to confess that you are less than what you want to be  confess that in your own eyes you do not give up to your ideal  depressive person has some difficulties with that crucial aspect of being human: to have an ideal ego or an ego ideal  depressive person is deficient in the ideal Vergote asks why is it that there is something defective in the conception of own ideal in depressive?  we build our ideals by idealizing and identifying with our parents  children feel very little compared to parents - thus idealize and identify with parents  overidealize parents  use two ideals of father and mother to correct the two great ideas and create as it were an ideal for ourselves 

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what we discovered in Douglass: capability of criticizing the idealized parent is as crucial for you as it was for Douglass  what is added in psychoanalytic theory? If you have 2, it is less dangerous to criticize  challenge emerges if two parents have totally different values; hence one parent cannot be used easily to relativize other . all deal with death and how we deal with death basic reason for possibility of depression child creates own identity where not everything of mother and not everything of father is combined – combination is relativizing the ideal that the mother and the father represent extreme where that becomes very difficult for the child enormous conflict b/w mother and father that is not just a conflict, also deals with infidelity of family confronted with two opposing, condescending attitudes, child is normally not capable of doing that work. Instead it will identify positively with one (say mother) and negatively with the other (father). But emotional life is such that even if you identify negatively you cannot leave out the one you identify negatively with. As a consequence, this child creates an identity by gluing together the two ideals thereby creating a super ideal Construction of own ideal is not relativized by comparison of 2 because comparison is not realistically possible. Gluing of two ideals (idealized mother/idealized father – could not combine or relativize b/c of big conflict)  becomes super ideal Such children hence are super-achievers until something occurs in their lives and that thing that occurs makes them choose b/w this part or this part. when the child later in life is forced to choose b/w either half of its ideal, what happens with the super ideal? o super ideal is destroyed o hence, from then on, that person does not have an ideal that can give meaning to everyday life o aka depression ex. Suppose you have a generous mother & a stingy/hard working father. o work at world bank – help poor people o event occurs- disagree with superior with program in Africa 

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o atm, person feels that to do good, must contradict my superior but anyone who has realism needs that if you oppose your superior, cannot be promoted! o atm, whatever the person chooses leads to the destruction of half of the ideal. Hence, life makes no sense. From then on, the person does not have an ideal from where to give meaning to everyday life. Characteristics of a Depressed person • in context of theory of Vergote • Apathy o depressed person is apathetic o nothing interests/delights them o we must have something to value the events as they disappear o cultural melancholic does it by artistic language o normal person does it by the help of an internalized ideal o ex. studying for midterm  give meaning to that challenge (graduating) o you give meaning with reference to ideal you have of yourself o if your ideal is destroyed, you have no place from where to give meaning to even simple things in life o love to sleep all the time during the day, but suffer from insomnia o to sleep – complicated, psychological experience  to be able to sleep – be able to put outside of you all your emotional investments and allow your emotions to fall back on yourself  Vergote: effort similar to dying, giving up everything  therefore, we should expect that sleeping is a great achievement and insomnia is a burden  we are able to sleep because we normally have good relations with our ideal ego (work hard, try to be fair, try to have friends), we live according to our ideal ego. When we sleep, we can then be warmly received by our ideal ego. Fear of death is not overwhelming us.  Situation with depressed person?  What is the relation b/w depressed person and his ideal ego?

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They have an ideal ego that is destroyed – antagonistic relation with ideal ego. Ideal ego is not capable of dealing with the fear of death that is provoked by the activity required to sleep. Hence, they fall asleep during the day but they are insomniacs at night.

Inactive neglect personal care: malnourished, do not dress decently all these activities are promoted by pride in ideal ego. No pride in ideal ego because ideal ego is destroyed. Contrary to melancholic persons, depressed persons want to be alone, annoyed by presence of others. We want to be respected by others, value their recognition. Hence, presence of another is a form of appeal to show our best side. And depressed people have no best ‘side.’ Hence, the presence of the other is the occasion for shame. Acc to Vergote, depressed person has something deficient in their ideal ego. Whenever they see somebody, they complain. o To complain – frequent psychic activity o depressed complains about him or herself. o In that symptom, Vergote sees the heart of depression. o in the complaint, depressed person confesses that they are less than what they want to be. o hence, they point to the fact that they feel that as a human being, they are less than what they want to be. But in complaining, confess to something even more tragic. They confess that they want to hold on to the impossible ideal. They are not capable of changing their ideal. o ability to change your ideal and still be satisfied by it. It is that capability that depressed person is lacking. Depressed person is in the extreme – it is because it is a super ideal. If the person was in the extreme positive situation, he has already diminished the ideals. That person is already from childhood ___ - in process of diminishing _____. This is a strategy not in the extreme. o In the reality, because we are in between, there are parts of our ideal that we are able to work with and there are other parts that we are more paralyzed in changing.

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Speaks from the point of view of indefinite present o Future is blocked o past is not seen as having latent possibility o time passes without differentiation o this connects the concept of ideal self with the experience of time. o to be able to live with an ideal of yourself, it is necessary to see the future as a possibility to realize your ideal. o with an ideal, you can look back on your past and notice where you failed and where you succeeded. Without an ideal, time is just indifferent facts. o discovery of a new ideal allows one to see a future and to experience a past. • Do not accuse themselves, rather they see themselves as a victim of fatality o Ex. lady said: I had choices, if only I had married the other one. o depressed person experiences him/herself as powerless o they do not argue that “I could have done something” argue that “somebody else could have done something for me” “that man would have been more successful and provided a bigger income” o secretly hope that someone will save them. o depressed person in his complaint maintains a negative distance towards his illness and has a secret desire to be saved. o counselor must allow depressed person to see that salvation will come by working on their own/ideal o counselor in listening can provide the recognition necessary from depressed person to accept the change in perspective –salvation not from others, but from myself. • Does not complain about rottenness of human condition (not Sartre, human condition is absurd). Rather, depressed person feels that his or her life is struck by a fatal past. o IT is their journey that is leading to the feeling of depression C. General theory of mental illness: Next section in psychoanalysis: SCHIZOPHRENIA aka PSYCHOSIS • Theory of psychosis/schizo

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Theory: Developed a lot by means of study of one case: Judge Schreber – lawyer who in an early age was selected to be the head of the 2nd most important court in Germany under Bismarck o socially very highly regarded o found that appointment such an honor that he wanted to prove himself worthy to that nomination o most of the judges with whom he would be the head – were 20/30 years older than him o as a consequence, he overworked himself and became mentally ill o had been ill – decade earlier  ran for Parliament against Bismarck  ultimately lost  first mental breakdown o went to Dr. Flexie? o Wife of Judge Schreber impressed by Dr. – gave husband back! o 2nd illness  Flexie started to realize that he couldn’t cure Schreber- thus shipped him off to a state hospital where he stayed for several years  during his stay, took notes. 7 years later, he improved and Flexie wrote a book on his mental illness. – helped psychiatric understand hallucinations of schizo o curious habits  every morning, every 15 minutes, necessary to stand naked in front of mirror with female ornaments to convince himself that he was becoming a woman  whenever there were forces stopping his transformation into women, started to make noises with his stomach  doctors argued he was crazy and should stay in hospital o in every country, to be someone permanently in asylum- need a specific law to apply to.  In Germany, law that husband (father) was responsible for finances of home.  argument: as he needed female ornaments, spend all family resources on female ornaments. Thus, he was not able to perform the paternal function under German law.

Judge Schreber said: yes I need FO but they are cheap ornaments and actually they are less expensive than what other men use for recreation (tobacco, beer). Hence, my need for FO is not more expensive than other men for their recreation.  Judges said good argument, go home~ o symptoms prominent in Judge Schreber  accused his doctor (Dr. Flexie) as trying to commit sole murder on him  talked amusingly about his doctor  ___________________  narcissism  megalomania Challenge: not application of idea • what is puzzling you in life? o Saw a movie, read a book, poem o Puzzled by what you see around yourself o Articulate puzzle you have • Must have some answers to your own puzzle • Articulate what it is you do not understand in that puzzle • Looking to ideas in the course that can clarify the remaining puzzle • Not possible to completely understand – but you can have superficial/intelligent/very intelligent approaches 

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Freedom is the ability to think!

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Schizophrenia • Symptoms of Dr. Schreber continued… • totally different ways in interpreting symptoms • US and Western World strongly divided in how to interpret – 2 points of view – biological, lack of dopamine in brain OR psychological? o great problem: purely biological? Purely psychological? • Lack of Energy • 5th symptom of Dr. Schreber o felt that everyday for about 15 minutes he had to stand naked from waist on in order to confirm that he was becoming a woman

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o at first, resisted idea and then later fully embraced idea and thought he was becoming a woman in order to marry god and create a world where he would marry the patron saint o read in his own newspaper: his own obituary  took it seriously  this is an indication that my hope to return to mankind is excluded o his wife was with him but after several days, decided to visit her father  while she was goes, shreber thought she was dead  invented a new concept: that she was a fleetingly improvised person  when she is in my presence, she looks like a human being; when she goes, she disappears from my consciousness o many experiences of bodily integration  after he ate bread, stomach taken away, and bread filled his thighs o had to complete sentences  “ I have to __________ “  as the voices wanted him to complete them  I have to accept that I am stupid – precisely opposite of what he thinks about himself o many words have special meaning  poison=food  reward=punishment o some reflections on voluptuousness and the moral domain  moral domains for voluptuousness does not exist  God demands that I imagine myself as man and woman in one person and having intercourse with myself and achieving some sort of sexual excitement VER EECKE SUMMARIZES: o Many symptoms o BIOLOGICAL APPROACH: biologically oriented psychiatrist will listen to the patient- 2 totally different patients  biologist says pay attention to Detail that statistically occurs most frequently

if it is with the eyes, something is wrong with area of brain that controls brain  hence, biology looks at the symptoms as isolated symptoms where statistical frequencies indicates where in the brain there might be a problem  in the meantime, we do not know enough about the brain but the program is put forward  hence, you must do something physical in order to help those patients, thus there is a port report about how to deal with schizophrenics and they are honest and say that our recommendations are medication because we don’t have much research on psychology __________________________________________ Symptoms as a totality o Freud:  Draws attention to one fact  story told by Schreiber changes over time  in the beginning, he is indignant about idea that he is becoming a woman  towards the end, he embraces the idea and makes it part of his grandiosity  curiously enough, says Freud, in the process of changing his story, he becomes better  so good that he is asking to leave the hospital  asks a legal question: is my hospitalization permanent or temporary?  Judge says: permanent  asks his own lawyer to appeal  lawyer loses the case  Schreiber appeals himself and wins the case  Recovers himself- becomes a better lawyer  Schreiber: how do we have to interpret this system of delirious ideas?  Biological approach looks at it as a symptom of illness – something that has to be cured – something that has to be removed  medication is supposed to suppress such stupid ideas  Freud, on the contrary, discover that these delirious ideas allow the patient to become better 

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o delirium: attempt to solve an unsolvable problem for the patient  Freud: delirium, crazy ideas of schizophrenic is not the illness to be eliminated – it is the highest creative act of that person  It is that by which they keep themselves psychologically alive o Freudian recommendation: opposite of biological recommendation  Bio: give them medication so they stop believing these crazy ideas  Freud: listen to their ideas because in those ideas, you can have the secret to their great creative effort to give meaning to their lives o depressed person is so depressed – cannot sleep  no psychological interest in their dreams  cannot even do psychological work o tides are turning from purely biological to psychiatric Psychological Approach o Interprets delirious ideas as the highest intellectual effort of that person to deal with an unsolvable problem in himself o Freud had the challenge o if you listen to Schreber’s symptoms: his unsolvable problem is: o 1) not comfortable with his own sexual identity o 2) Dutch poet: each one of us are gods, sitting on a throne in the depth of our own heart waiting to be discovered by the others  we all have a little bit of grandiosity  we need to contain it o basic problem: not being comfortable with own sexual identity and Freud then combines accepting ones own sexual identity with giving up grandiosity because if you accept that you are a man not a woman, you are accepting that you are not everything. o problem Judge Schreber must have been dealing with is inability to be comfortable with his own sexual identity o Freud makes a two-quick? Conclusion  looking to basement of our unconscious  hypothesized that Schreber was afraid of his own homosexual tendencies to such a degree that he is willing to believe that he is becoming a woman

everyone has hetero/homosexual feelings – bisexual feelings o translate into a sentence:  I (a man) love another (man).  Homosexuality o Judge Schreber not able to construvely dealing with feeling and needs to deny it.  To deny this sentence (I love another): way to deny feelings of homosexuality  therefore, Freud proposes something radically different instead of an infinite # - only 4 kinds  one more Freudian thought: Freud says that the challenge of Judge Schreber who cannot accept his homosexual tendencies is that he must do 2 contradictory things at the same time: first deny it and he must also justify it  deny and justify at the same time- not logically possible  if something is logically impossible for us, what do we do?  what cannot be solved logically in reality we try to solve illogically in fantasy  by dreaming of walking with 4 boys to make one who rejected you jealous, we feel good.  delirious ideas are precisely ideas that are capable in imagination to solve logically impossible challenge of refusing/denying/justifying homosexual feelings at the same time  there are 4 methods because you can deny in the sentence, the verb, subject, object or whole sentence  1) deny verb  LOVE another man  says Freud: one of the symptoms, delirious ideas of Schreber: Dr. Flexie is trying to commit sole murder then have you proven that you love Flexie or that you are rightfully hating?  Freud says in creating the delusion that Dr. Flexie tries to commit sole murder, he denies that there is love with Dr. Flexie instead there is hate  this strategy is called PARANOIA 

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in creating the fantasy that Dr. Flexie is trying to commit sole murder, he now has justified the denial of his love for Dr. Flexie but how can he justify having homosexual fantasies? if you believe that Dr. Flexie is trying to commit sole murder on you, should you forget about him or watch him all the time?

2 Studies • Tienari o from Finland o 1st 20 years: look to all the hospital records in Finland o told all women that were admitted in hospital with diagnosis of psychosis o 2nd step: look to civil records to see which of these women had children o families divided into 3 groups  normal  conflictual  chaotic o biological predisposition is nothing more than a predisposition o listen again o 2nd study: Finland: free prenatal care  when mothers came to prenatal care ctr, they asked “are you happy with the pregnancy?”  received 3 answers:  I am very happy.  It is mistimed, but I am happy.  I am unhappy • Myhrman

← ← Look to a possible psychological explanation of symptoms of Schizophrenia, then a conceptualization of the development of the challenge ← 1) Freud’s idea – you do not have to look to the details, look to the whole system and over time the delusions changed • delusion tries to find a solution o I, a man love another man. • 1) Deny object

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o you cannot just deny, you must justify it in disguised form. o to justify and deny it is impossible in reality o logical contradiction o patient creates a fantasy that justifies hatred o ex. if you feel that Dr. Flexie is committing sole murder on you, you would have feelings of hatred o next Q: how is fantasy of sole murder at the same time justified the satisfaction of homosexual interest in Dr. Flexie? o PARANOIA: nerve 2) ex. pastor makes unacceptable sexual advances to him; don’t accuse me for loving sister of pastor – but this is inappropriate love o 1st strategy: denial of lesbian emotions o how is this person by that fantasy capable of justifying lesbian relationship?  By 1 move, she fears that every morning, she has to go to sister of pastor to complain about pastor  strategy called Erotomania 3) ______________ ex. capable of denying that there is homosexual lesbian love. o how does she justify her lesbian love? by spying on her female love – aka JEALOUSY o everybody has libido – and if somebody says they love nobody, it really means I love nobody but myself. next idea of Freud: what does it mean to love? o If you love a boy/girl, do you evaluate them realistically, looking down on them, or exaggerating their good characteristics? o young kids these days: exaggerate o therefore, interpret statement: I love nobody but myself, what will Schreiber do about himself?  Exaggerate his good characteristics and that becomes megalomania  redraw his loving investment in others

Freudian conclusion: diminish the other person and indeed Schreieber talks about other ppl as fleetingly improvised – they are not real people what did Hegel teach you about being a self-consciousness? o are you a self-consciousness by sitting at your desk in your room? Or are you becoming a self-consciousness in a fight for recognition with others? Symptoms: paranoia, erotomania, jealously, megalomania practical consequence o _______________________ 

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likes Freudian explanation but thinks I can do better his reflection by a factual observation if we look at all the symptoms, Freud argues that there are only 4 possible categories looking at Judge Schreiber, there are 2 categories of symptoms that Freud has not talked about and therefore, has not given an explanation for ______________________.? Freud has not explained phenomena of language o Language phenomena Philosophically, challenge for Lacan o Two kinds of symptoms that Freud has not addressed o Lacan must choose which one of two is most fundamental o gamble of Lacan: opt for the symptom of language as the crucial symptom of Judge Schreiber o in general, Lacan would say that mental illness is a defective relation to language o and Lacan, in all his megalomania, has some humility and says the 3 great works of Freud are works that pay exquisite attention to language of patients or to language of every person when they dream o claim that language is central phenomena fits with whole picture with conception of psychoanalysis

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Lacan’s views of Judge Schreiber concentrating on idea that language is the central phenomena language makes no demands on them o in trying to let patient relate to language so that he/she is capable of saying that I am not a thief, even though I steal o Lacan: totally different relation to language o analyze symptom of voices  voices & Judge Schreiber  Judge Schreiber hears the beginning of the sentence  he feels that he has to complete that sentence or else God will punish him with death  he must complete sentence acc. To what he thinks voices want  must try to understand desires/wishes of other  hears that I must resign myself to being stupid  sentence that he must complete not about whatever – it is about the SELF ?!?!?!  Judge Schreiber is forced to say about himself that he is stupid  what he says about himself is the opposite of what he believes  Lacan calls this self-alienation  transform yourself against desire of another  process that is deeply ingrained in all human beings  psychoanalytic approach  develop a strategy that is not successful for you  go to early years of your childhood!  Lacan theory will be this strategy that we discovered in Judge Schreiber at age 50

we will take a look that in human dvlp there is not a period in which that strategy is not the normal strategy of the child Lacan starts by means of a statement that is generally accepted by psychoanalysts and psychologists – there does not exist something like a baby  Baby alone is dead  baby is alive only in a joint unit between child and mother (maternal figure)  child contrary to baby animals cannot do anything  human baby is born too premature before the muscles/nervous system is developed  human babies start to develop some awareness  when something is unacceptable in the reality and we cannot do anything about it, what is the human solution? • We go in the domain of fantasy of imagination  what can child do in fantasy to deal with unacceptability of being totally dependent on mother? • Child imagines that mother is omnipotent • Absence of omnipotence : danger for child.  If mother is omnipotent, and she doesn’t care about me? • Then child gives more importance than it has- it is everything that the mother could want.  In order to survive, children has to develop 2 fantasies • With these 2 fantasies: completely secure and accept to live in their bodies • they are self-secure and behave as his/her majesty, the baby.  As child develops and grow older, the non presence immediately of mother when there is something hurting makes the child question the fantasies they have created. 

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Doubting omnipotence of mother is too frightening, we are left to doubting • simplistic way of translating: start to question whether they are loveable for mother. If they are loveable for mother and mother is omnipotent, would be there immediately. Child starts to doubt lovability in eyes of mother. How can child find a strategy to deal with that anxious question? diff. families 1) mother like that child is active even if that means putting child in sink and water splashing! 2) mother like that child is perfectly dressed even if that means don’t touch anything 2 years later – what can you expect? • 1) active child • 2) nicely clean child hence, says Lacan, in response to asking am I still lovable for the mother? Child has a solution [clever]. Look to what the mother might want and then they apply it to themselves even if that is not what they want. Psychic strategy of Schreiber remained strategy of 2 yrs. Old child mental illness: lack of correction of original childish issue that was necessary to develop self-confidence • that correction normally occurs when instead of 2, there are 3 that are normally referred to as Oedipal situation

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argument: by the time the child is 3, able to differentiate b/w different figures, mother/father before it fuses them. Once it is capable of differentiating them, child is interested in 3rd – mostly father but father can be dead and have an influence therefore, Lacan calls it the name of the father. If mother is interested in father, it means I am not enough for her. This is called narcissistic wound. Instead of believing that I am everything for mother, I must now realize that I am not everything Children do not like to get that msg. first attempt of child: try to interrupt relation b/w mother and father strategy: look to father with signals of mother and try to figure out what it is in the father that is of such interest to the mother at that point, identify with a mark in the father that becomes the first signifier which they organize their desire 6 yrs: girl goes back to mother (preoedipal: thought to be omnipotent) • must make sure that it is a postoedipal mother characterized by not being everything • Lacanian theory of human development 1) mark = signifier 2) work 3) patience 4) future if they do not have it now, they have a temper tantrum child creates itself as an ideal ego those who create narcissistic wound create an ego ideal one more important argument: • intellectual mother/father

Freud argues that people who have character difficulties have difficulty with sexuality • Sexuality confronts us with not being everything • sexual satisfaction demands that one accepts being submitted to desire of other • I am therefore not an autonomous human being. Idea of bodily disintegration  Argument: after your bf drops you, is it the case that you have a lot of energy or not?  Disappointment in ones ideal has impact in way we experience our body  Radical destruction of our ideal ego/ego ideal destroys the psychic experience of a unified body 

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SUMMARY FROM LAST TIME… Dual relationship • ideal ego: conception of ego • dvlp of self worth • subjective position #1 Big change happens with introduction of 3rd aka Triangle • no longer a dual relationship • narcissistic wound • ideal ego is challenged • subjective position #2 • creates an ego-ideal (something you want to be, but you are aware you are not; hence, tension in yourself. Tension allows you to accept imperfections, patience, and allows you to work) o different from ideal-ego • identification with signifier • symbolic order Lacan • technical term used to refer to this part of child development & that influence permanently on us – imaginary

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Most difficult to understand most puzzling dimension if you are in S#1 and you are in dual relations – you have not the opportunity to understand metaphors if you are S#2 (triangle), capability to understand and use metaphors schizo people cannot understand metaphors first test to distinguish mentally ill from schizo – give them proverbs metaphor: great puzzle need a psychological structure in order to understand metaphors Linguistic Metaphor o metaphor – using a word; you mean it and you don’t mean it at the same time and the listener understands it when child is in S2 – identifies I = ego-ideal (wants everything now) but it used to be that I was an ideal-ego o as ideal-ego, child has patience, willing to work, looks to future therefore, I of child has changed 1) I in pos S 1 not same as I in pos 2 2) I = I o child is still same child child is different yet same at the same time has made the psychological moves required parallel to/identical to the linguistic measures move from S1  S2 provides the psychological underpinnings for the linguistic metaphor application o granddaughter o move away from dual position to triangular position o absence of triangular --> dvlp of psychotic structure which often leads to breakdown that expresses itself in schizo depression o Vergote: background world of our fantasies in which we are sticking to overidealized images for ourselves to give meaning to our lives o going to S2 allows child to accept a narcisstic wound o all children, including ourselves, resist these narcisstic wounds, message that introduces the NW

o NW can be accepted a little bit but we resist a deep narcistic wound o hence we are all confronted with possibility of depression if circumstances are such that our exaggerated image of ourselves that makes us satisfied with ourselves is challenged by circumstances that we are o coming to college is such an external circumstance that challenges in general our ideal of ourselves ← ←

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1) Human development - there is a conflictual element • maternal/paternal figure both have a function o child needs to feel that it is proverbially the apple in the eye of the mother, needs to be fed narcisstically – basis for security of self o corrected with introduction of father • as a result of introduction of 3rd – narcisttic wound – you are not everything to your mother – you have to find your own way • theme of course = I am not an automonous individual o I become myself between the relation b/w others o relation of mother-child, triangular relationship that invites narcisstic wound • U.S. – idea of autonomy o In current US family law – family is not automatically requested to live up to his function o Ex. Mary Ann Glendon  Transformation of divorce laws in US  US thinks that both mother & father were equally autonomous figures who could take care of themselves  hence, they allowed great flexibility to negotiate terms of divorce before the judge  disastrous results: Dr. Patrick

← What do you do with ego/id/etc? ← All tell important story – Vergote ← Engelhard – builds a bridge to our everyday way of living, “lived experience” Take it from world of intellectual think from your own life most medicated in post-secondary education  depression & anxiety go from extraordinary  ordinary at Georgetown we’ve all experienced depression & anxiety – through support, we are balanced again imagine you are a river – tributaries coming into the river • if it flows the right way, water does not overflow • if a huge amount of water coming from tributary, water overflows its banks  problem • you must look at the many tributaries in your life ← talk about essence of VALUES • values in your life, and what drives your life • what happens when value is disrupted • values hold us up ← choices you make move you closer? To values ← when we find ourselves in opposition to our values --> crisis ← enter into relationships determining who are we? What do we want to be? ← it is hard for us to ask for help

← I’d rather suffer than say to someone that I cannot manage this on my own. ← hero: first person not to recognize a problem, first person to do something. ← you have to step up, share your feelings ← ← master-slave dialectic • there are certain times in our life we can become enslaved. • are there things in your life that control you? • none of us want to feel like we are being controlled • always a search to make sense out of something • stress comes at you – and can give way to anxiety & depression • is tehre 1 thing in my life that if i were to stop doing it - it would add positive value to my life? • what's stopping us? • Powerful what holds us from values we construct, actions we take. • What is sense of really knowing “I”? ← How do we begin to shift and move towards personal growth? • Vergote – melancholia, state of mourning, not connecting ← Look back, things that have occurred – things you have no control over. ← When we are super anxious/worried - we are locked in future. ← how do i live my life right now that allow me to move to where I want to be? ← Even though there are things that I wish I didn’t do, I can choose now, so that I don’t live with regret. ← Have a goal and you do everything you can do to achieve it – you ultimately will. ← depressed - powerlessness.