How to Read Lacan - Slavoj Zizek

"How to Read Lacan" is from the "How to Read" series, where "Each author has selected ten or so short extracts from a writer's work and look at them in detail as a way of revealing their central ideas and thereby opening doors onto a whole world of thought." The expert Guide in this case is Slavoj Zizek, and he uses an introduction and seven chapters, each of which focus on an idea by Lacan. It is my first exposure to Lacan, and to Zizek too in the process, both of whom, I stumbled upon reading a review by Deepthi Kumara Gunarathne, which he wrote for the collector's edition of K.K. Saman Kumara's "සර්පයකු හා සටන් වැද".

In the introduction, Zizek highlights Lacan's stance of "Return to Freud".   Zizek warns us that this as "not understand this return as a return to what Freud said, but to the core of the Freudian revolution of which Frued himself was not fully aware". He further elaborates a fundamental view of Lacan, which I copy in verbatim, "In Lacan's view, pathological formations like neuroses, psychosis and perversions have the dignity of fundamental philosophical attitude towards reality - When I suffer obsessional neurosis, this 'illusion' colours my entire relationship to reality and defines the global structure of my personality.... for Lacan, the goal of psychoanalytic treatment is not the patient's well being, successful social life or personal fulfillment, but to bring the patient to confront the elementary coordinates and deadlocks of his or her desire"  Zizek explains that such imaginary symbols such as "triad of imaginary, symbols and Real", are implicitly present in Freud even if  Freud didn't understand them as such.

The first chapter is titled "Empty Gestures and Performatives: Lacan confronts the CIA plot". Here he elaborates on how the idea of the Big Other works on the subject, a properly virtual, insubstantial subjective presupposition. Zizek explains the notion of empty gestues - gestures or offers that are meant to be rejected, yet, if not made amount to a breach in the code of behaviour. Another interesting insight is the irreducible gap between the enunciated  content, and the act of human speech; what is implied, what is told and what is not told outright for the path of normalcy to continue.

The Second Chapter titled, "The Interpassive Subject: Lacan turns a Prayer Wheel", begins by analysing such norms as chorus singing in Greek Tragedies, Hired Weepers at deaths and Canned Laughter on TV comedies,  and what that is meant to do, for the audience. This discussion then progresses to various actions that we make ourselves endure, since we belong to a community. There is a very powerful passage here about religion , which I copy in verbatim:
"With regard to religion, we no longer 'really believe', we just follow (various) religious rituals and behaviours as part of a respect for the 'lifestyle' of the community we belong to (non-believing Jews may obey kosher rules 'out-of-respect for tradition'). 'I do not really believe in it. It is just part of my culture' seems to be the predominant mode of the displaced belief, characteristic of our times.'Culture' is the name for all those things we practice without really believing in them, without taking them quite , seriously. This is why we dismiss fundamentalist believers as 'barbarians', as anti-cultural, as a threat to culture - they dare to take their beliefs seriously."

In the chapter titled "To Fantasy: Lacan with eyes wide shut", Zizek begins with an analysis of what man desire and how is is structured by the "decentralised" Big Other -  "the subject desires only in so far as it experiences the Other itself as desiring, as the site of an unfathomable desire, as if an opaque desire is emanating from him or her. Not only does the other address me with an enigmatic desire, it also confronts me with the fact that I myself do not know what I really desire, with the enigma of my own desire." For Lacan, fantasy provides an answer to the enigma of the Other's  desire. Here Zizek describes in detail how fantasy can best be explained using sexual intimacy, since that is the domain in "which we get closest to the intimacy of another human being, totally exposing ourselves to him or her." The mismatch of fantasy is how it is something to dream of, but what one usually flees from at the point of its realisation.

Chapter 4: Troubles with the Past: Lacan as a viewer of  Alien
Here Lacan introduces the Lamella, an imaginary organ which gives body to Libido, something similar to Freud's 'partial' object and which Zizek draws comparison with the Grin of the Cheshire cat, which survives its' disappearance."The Lamella inhabits the intersection of the Imaginary and the Real."  This chapter in particular, appears to be a relatively challenging Read.

Chapter Five is titled "Ego ideal and Super Ego: Lacan as a viewer of Casablanca". Here, Zizek speaks of one of the most important concepts that Lacan introduced - "jouissance" -translators of Lacan often leave it in French in order to render palpable its excessive, properly traumatic character. In this chapter Zizek discusses three of Frued's important terms - ideal ego, ego-ideal and superego. Zizek then goes on to elaborate how Lacan introduced these terms.
Ideal Ego- The way I would like to be; the way I would like others to see me.
Ego Ideal- The Agency  whose gaze I try to impress with my ego image, the Big Other who watches over me and impels me to give my best.
Super Ego- Is the same agency in its vengeful, sadistic, punishing aspect.
The rest of the chapter is dedicated to describing this, with such examples of Kutrz of Apocalypse Now, A Few Good Men and Vice President Dick Cheney's admission, that 'a lot of what needs to be done have, will have to be done quietly without any discussion', when fighting terrorism.

The Primary concept in chapter six that although God is Dead, he apperas alive for all practical purposes. ( i.e. God is Dead, But he doesn't know it). Lacan's premise was that "the true formula of atheism is not God is dead - the true formula of atheism is that God is unconscious" Zizek uses Dostoevsky's short story "Bobok". to explain. Zizek, moves forward from this primary concept to explain what tolerance really amount to. "Tolerance coincides with its opposite: my duty to be tolerant towards the other effectively means that I should not get too close to him,  not intrude into his/her space - in short, that I should respect his / her intolerance towards my over-proximity. This is what is more and more emerging as the central 'human right' in late-capitalist society"

The last chapter in this book is titled "The Perverse Subject of  Politics: Lacan as a Reader of Mohammad Bouyeri". The primary question discussed here is "Somebody has to do the dirty job, so let's do it! It is easy to do a noble thing for one's country, even to sacrifice one's life for it - it is much more difficult to commit a crime for one's country." Under this premise, the essay elaborates on the the Nazi executions and the Islamist extremist Bouyeri's killing in Amsterdam.

This book which is sure to make an impression on the interested reader,  not only discusses the views of Lacan and Zizek, but even Freud, as it discusses how Freud's theories, although not applicable in its' original form, serve to inspire and serve as a foundation for thinkers interested in  psychology. Further I have taken the trouble of writing this rather long essay ( which I doubt even a handful will read ), as an effort in grasping the core essence of this book, for this is the kind of book that a reader will return to, as a reference over time. Another point to note is that, I found Zizek much more comprehensible than our local thinkers who are influenced by Lacan, Zizek etc. I've been reading Gunaratne's "ඇසිඩ් වැස්ස", in which I found several of the concepts discussed in this book, usually adopted to a local context. Yet, there are digressions, use of Sinhalese terms not much in use, and ideas at times not expressed as clearly as a reader wishes, which can deter the reader. In that sense this book is rather "readable" albeit it is hardly everyone's cup of tea. I will not recommend this to anyone who is not even slightly intrigued by one's own mind, and the teachings' of Lacan and Zizek, not to mention Frued. For those who are interested, this book could very well serve as a launching pad for understanding other philosophies from these thinkers.