Jacque Lacan & Luce Irigaray

By: Danielle Feige & Rachel Smith

ART 508: Readings in Art Theory

Professor Marco Deyasi 03.12.09

Lacan Timeline •  Born on April 13, 1901 in Paris, France •  1920s

–  1920 begins to studied medicine. –  1926 specializes in psychiatry and become active in the surrealist movement. –  1928 he becomes interested in the study of paranoia.

•  1930s –  1932 completes doctoral thesis entitled “Paranoid Psychosis & its Relations to the Personality”, which is

adopted by the Surrealists. –  1934 marries Marie-Louise Blondin, and had 3 children between 1934 and 1940. –  1936 gives a lecture at the Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association on the Mirror Phase, but

was interrupted and not allowed to finish

•  1940s –  1940-1944 serves in a military hospital in Paris during WWII and did not publish during this time.

•  1950s –  1951 advocates the “return to Freud”. –  1953 he develops the concepts of the 3 registers of human reality of the symbolic, the imaginary and the real.

Formed the Societe Fransaise de Psychoanalyse after leaving the Societe Parisienne de Psychoanalyse. Married Sylvia Bataille and had a child.

•  1960s –  1963 he was removed from the list of training analyst of the Societe Fransiase de Psychanalyse and forms

Ecole Freudienne de Paris to write “The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis”. –  1967 introduces “the pass” where the listener or analyst decides if the patient passes.

•  1970s shifts his views from emphasizing the father to the sinthome

•  1980s –  1980 he closes his school, Ecole Freudienne de Paris after 16 years. –  1981 dies on September 9.

Lacans Influences

Like any other professional aspiring to gain notability in any field of study, Lacan borrowed ideas from those before him, modifying when necessary, to further support his studies.

•  Saussure: Borrowing Saussure's study of linguistics, Lacan is able to determine that the unconscious is structured like language.

•  Levi-Strauss: Through the study of Structural Anthropology, Lacan was able to grasp the crucial transition from nature to culture.

•  Freud: Lacan based much of his work on Freudian theories, and even called for the “return of Freud”.

Lacans Contributions to Psychoanalysis

Lacans career can be broken down into 4 stages: •  1926-1953: Working in the area of conventional psychiatric

work, which evolved to include psychoanalytic study, primarily that of the Mirror Phase. Lacan also presented his lecture series known as the Discourse of Rome, which later evolved into Ecrits.

•  1953-1963: Structural linguistics became more important to Lacan during this time in his life. He used linguistics to further elaborate and explain some Freudian studies.

•  1964-1973: Departing somewhat from his Freudian frame of study, this period marked the time when his research became known simply as Lacanian. It is during this time he placed the seat of neurosis within the Ego.

•  1974-1981: Lacan introduces The Three Registers of Human Reality.

The Three Orders of Human Reality

•  The Real exists before language, mental models, and cultural codes.

•  The Imaginary is associated with the Mirror Stage, thus it is pre-symbolic and pre-language.

•  The Symbolic is an essential feature of the human transition from nature to culture.

The Mirror Phase

•  One of Lacan’s first major contributions to Psychoanalysis.

•  The Mirror Phase usually occurs in children between 6 and 18 months.

•  Recognition of self is the first step in becoming aware of the ability to control one’s body, of awakening the Ego, and the beginning of the transition from the pre-linguistic to the linguistic stage of life.

Oedipus Complex & Oedipal Triangle

•  Oedipus Complex

•  Oedipal Triangle: the mother, the child, and the Phallus.

•  The Name-of-the-Father is bound up with the Symbolic and describes the castration of the father.

•  The Phallus is the object of desire.

Desire

•  The Other being described as an object or being other than the individual with the desire.

•  Objet (petit) a’ is the unattainable object of desire or other.

•  Jouissance is an extreme paradoxical pleasure that may be too intense or have deadly consequences.

Mary Kelly, Post-Partum Document, Introduction, 1973

Irigaray Timeline •  Born in 1932 in Belgium.

•  1950s –  1954 Degree in Philosophy and Arts –  1955 Writes doctoral thesis in Philosophy and Arts –  1956 Concours D’ Aptitude in Higher Education

•  1960s –  1961 Degree in Psychology –  1962 Diploma in Psychopathology –  1968 Doctorate in Linguistics

•  1970s –  1971 Doctorate in Philosophy and Art –  Psychoanalytical Training –  1974 expelled from Ecole Freudienne de Paris

Feminism

•  Feminism is rooted in gender inequality

•  3 Waves of Feminism

•  Types of Feminism

Monica Sjoo “God Giving Birth” Oil painting, 1969

Psychoanalytic Feminism

•  Seek to find a solution through Lacan’s ‘return to Freud’.

•  This group focuses on gender inequality as it is based in certain childhood occurrences allowing men to be masculine and women to be feminine.

•  Philosophers associated with this form of feminism include Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray.

The Gaze

•  The Gaze occurs when a person becomes the object of another beings ‘look’ or ‘gaze’.

•  The Male Gaze is a term coined by Laura Mulvey where classical Hollywood cinema allows the viewer to hold a masculine stance with the female as the object of desire.

Sylvia Sleigh-The Turkish Bath (Oil, 1973)

Écriture Féminine

•  Developed by Hélène Cixous.

•  Literally means, ‘feminine writing’.

•  This form of writing takes on female perspective and experiences to move away from the typical patriarchal system.