Lacan’s Most Important Idea

[@julianphilosophy]

My latest ebook can be found here: www.patreon.com/julianphilosophy

[@uv10100]

Honestly you explained it better in 9 minutes than my academy professors did over many hours.

[@luizclaudio6724]

Sheep

[@Taupe__]

I am not familiar with Lacan, but this does help me understand Gregory of Nyssa’s concept of επέκτασις. The desire for God is completely unattainable due to God’s inifinity and thus the gap and lack is always there leading to increased desire. Thank you for the video.

[@TribuneAquila]

Yes please. My object of desire is to understand Hegel, therefore my objet petit a is to only learn what is said in relation to Hegel.

[@DJWESG1]

You need marx then. Edit* specifically, look up a small book form many years ago called 'the young hegelians'. Enjoy

[@arturzathas499]

and prolong understanding him fully. perhaps you dont want to lose the desire of understanding

[@jonnyswanny4701]

@@DJWESG1what author? I’ve found many with this title

[@DJWESG1]

@@jonnyswanny4701 a guy called David Mclellan, he wrote a series of books with similar covers, the two i have are the young hegelians and karl marx, the other is called marx before marxism. i believe there was another book by another writer called marxism befor marx, though i cant for the life of me remember the writer.

[@DJWESG1]

@@jonnyswanny4701 david mclellan (i replied but it did a Houdini)

[@haopowei]

Looking forward to the next video about the Zizek, Lacan and Hegel.

[@marekgalteestaff7087]

This is consistent with what neuroscience says about how our dopaminergic system works.

[@Vooodooolicious]

Neuroscience can measure the dopamine but not the drive.

[@marekgalteestaff7087]

@@Vooodooolicious this is true, but we can assess the correlation between dopamine levels and the subjective feeling of drive

[@Vooodooolicious]

@@marekgalteestaff7087 Genuine question because I could be wrong: doesn't that fall into Cartesian mind body dualism?

[@marekgalteestaff7087]

@@Vooodooolicious Descartes, argues that there are two kinds of substances: mental and physical and the mental can exist outside of the body, although the subjective experience of a drive is not proof that you have a mind that exists independently of our body

[@Vooodooolicious]

@@marekgalteestaff7087 I meant that it seemed to be in the previous post, you were creating a split. 1. The subjective drive. 2. The objective dopamine. One ethereal and one physical. Isn't this the same as dualism? The subjective mind and the objective body.

[@ramonmartensen1529]

You're an amazing teacher.

[@philipm3173]

Elegant as always Julian

[@jeanpaulsara1074]

Yes please. More on this.

[@rosary6521]

Can you do a series on Lacan?

[@nielsvandermey]

i'm looking forward to your next video about the Zizek, Lacan and Hegel (Less than nothing)

[@midtalkpodcast]

Finnaly i got it. Thank you! Greetings from Belarus.

[@leetheman2057]

thankyou Julian brilliant concise clear

[@santiagovalenzuelaa7944]

Very well explained.

[@returntodogen]

Your suggestion for tomorrow would be great!

[@brunoholmes]

Zizek's Looking Arwy also explains it very well. Thanx, Julian.

[@jrdamien]

Where in that text does he cover it?

[@PariGarchaeo]

Excellent! Good work!

[@rohansagar722]

beautiful. This reminded me of the film "The Piano Teacher".

[@eduardox21]

Great video!

[@Suyanto231]

Starting the day with your lecture. Love from Indonesia

[@vasilisioannou5794]

Kavafis wrote a beatifull poem (one of the best greek poems ever written) about this idea. Its called Ithaka(Ιθάκη), idk if there is a good english translation

[@grimnighttime]

beautiful lecture

[@rossawilson01]

Profound and fascinating and extremely well articulated, thanks!

[@arminomicevic3838]

Žižeks introduction to Lacan isnt easy to understand (for me at least), this helps. Would love to hear more about them and Hegel from you!

[@SPACEDOUT19]

The collector = Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother, a great example, he even had a list

[@ramenisgood4u]

Great explaination, thanks!

[@philipm3173]

No one makes needlessly obfuscated ideas cogent like Mr. Medeiros

[@drobbi]

What would Lacan make of the fact that this video is horizontally flipped, hmmm?

[@debarghapaul866]

Can it be imagined like having a wall Infront which is lit everywhere, and you have 'flashlight' that creates a small dark spot on the wall at an angle, then you try to light the dark spot with your 'flashlight', which just shifts the position of dark spot, you again repeat the process, thus you find yourself in a circle?

[@LibertarianLeninistRants]

I think you painted a beautiful picture to describe it, yes.

[@DJWESG1]

This is what happens when you take lsd. Your eyes chased the 'dot', the dot is your center of vision, but you can never catch it in your center of vision. You just go around in circles.

[@AWBWAG]

So essentially what we desire is the hunt. i.e. the hunt is sweeter than the kill.

[@nguyenhs9800]

Hi Julian, I love your lecture so so much! However, I found your microphone's volume is a bit low. Would you mind to edit the sound to be a bit louder? Just my 2 cents! Please have a wonderful week!

[@TheGinglymus]

So is this also reliant on the idea from Ernest Jones aphanisis? That the ultimate loss is loss of desire rather than the object of desire?

[@bahruzsamadov8599]

Amazing, thank you. Didn't know object petit a is connected to death-drive

[@christophboon1406]

It isn't: death drive is a Freudian concept that Lacan almost never refers to, he ( Rightfully) considers it b...llshit. Forget about death drive, you don't need it to understand Freudian nor Lacanian psychoanalysis. Not only did Lacan build upon Freuds' work, he subverted it in a way it's almost unrecognisable for pur sang Freudians. Plus he cut out most of the crap, like for instance Freuds' ideas about dreamsymbols or his notion of death drive. Freud himself had doubts about the possibility of a death drive too, he struggled with it.

[@ferdinandvonwrangell1951]

I thought that his idea "a constructed fantasy through which we render reality so it becomes the real" was his most important one.. I want desperately to read all of Lacan's books but unfortunately most of them aren't translated to English..

[@DJWESG1]

It's all covered in the matrix anyway ;^)

[@christophboon1406]

Lacan didn't write books (plural), he wrote 1 book: Ecrits. He prefered oral presentations, exploring his own thoughts on the spot while talking and taking his audience on an intellectual adventure. His seminars are indeed transcribed into bookform, some are available already in English.

[@DominickDecocko]

It's just crazy how at age of 31, i woke up feeling hurt thinking about a girl i fell in love at age of 8. It's completely insane.

[@danie7kovacs]

Thank you for this video! One thing - please, please, please, turn off HDR video. Does not add anything to your content but makes whites ridiculously bright.

[@macrocosm1]

Hey Julian, could you up the volume on the videos by around 20%? I find that they often come through quite quietly.

[@LibertarianLeninistRants]

Ooooh. *Oh*. I get it now

[@robertkalinic335]

Sending in the chastity keys as recommended.

[@futures2247]

or as some might say we're driven by an unfathomably complex web of prior causes and current environmental influences both inner and outer. Meanwhile the mind makes up all sorts of narratives to try and make sense of this senseless chaos.

[@villevanttinen908]

Home alone, defend your inner child at all cost.

[@kevinfield3884]

This is why Lacan is so obscure and difficult to understand - the drive to “understand” is predicated on the incomprehensibility of his work…

[@PFAFF_]

Nice

[@grosbeak6130]

Desire can only exist as an asymptotic fantasy.

[@chengzhou8711]

You should check out the philosophy of metal gear solid

[@Someone_wrf]

Living the most important idea, that barely exists anymore, unfortunately.

[@kensears5099]

Sounds like you're simply talking about the difference between health and pathology. The "Kafka" kind of falling-in-love will be, I think familiar to most (healthy) people, that sensation of something like worship, yes, adoration, and the vivid awareness that you know yourself not to measure up to the very best of what (you think) somebody so wonderful is entitled to. Because you love that person so much you want only the very best for that person and that includes "the very best" that you are painfully aware your'e not. The "Don Giovanni" kind of desire has simply nothing to do with love, but is a narcissistic sense of entitlement (borne, of course, of an intrinsic terror of self-worthlessness) that sees all the objects of desire as "self-evidently mine" and lucky to be considered worthy of "my" attention. Is that really comparable to, say, stamp-collecting, or car-collecting? Not in any way that reflects poorly, necessarily, on the stamp or car collecting, any more than it's pathological for say, a pointillist to "collect" millions of dots into a magnificent painting. Beauty, variety, sophisticated discernment and fine distinctions, ever-deepening appreciation of the unity and diversity, these are all healthy things. But to "collect," say, women like a Don Giovanni, and of course, not really the women themselves but the momentary use of their bodies, that's of nothing like the same order as either authentic love or a collector's authentic aesthetic appreciation. It's a third thing. A pathological thing,

[@frederickanderson1860]

Adam put in deep sleep and he had what he thought the woman of his dreams. When it became flesh and bone he was deceived.

[@zlag__]

dating apps are much like the list

[@xXSironimoXx]

Julian can you actually read german? I have seen you reading something in another video and wondered.

[@eanji36]

Engage!

[@luizclaudio6724]

Pls memorise the text Reading it is killing Just be

[@Thepostmoderncynic]

First

[@grosbeak6130]

If being first on some social media platform like this is enough to make you declare that you are first here, it is time to rethink your life.

[@santiagovalenzuelaa7944]

@@grosbeak6130no, it is ok, hater.

[@grosbeak6130]

@@santiagovalenzuelaa7944 feeling kind of sensitive these days? You're hilarious. 😆 What are you 12 years old?

[@santiagovalenzuelaa7944]

@@grosbeak6130 your nickname is kindof 12 or 11 years old

[@grosbeak6130]

@@santiagovalenzuelaa7944 now you're just showing your ignorance about species of birds. Any other juvenile remarks you want to share, dimwit? 😆

[@TheWay-u1n]

What about loving your enemies enemies? Christs radiant love goes beyond white and jewish people reaching the colonized

[@TheWay-u1n]

Catigorical none imparitive

[@SPACEDOUT19]

This is also similar to me wanting some girl, i want her because i think i cant have her

[@grosbeak6130]

That's what he was saying in the video here as an example. So you've made an observation of about yourself. And?

[@whowereweagain]

Why would you think you want her because you think you can't have her? Don't think like that, don't let psychoanalysis, especially any little psychoanalyst's voices in your head tell you that you can't have something. Don't buy into that bullshit, sometimes things don't work out, don't have a bad conscience that tells you that you can't have what you want.

[@SPACEDOUT19]

@@whowereweagain well i think its probably this case - she is out of my league

[@whowereweagain]

@@SPACEDOUT19 oh that doesn't matter, desire wants what it wants, it's better not to let a little ego or a big other get in the way of that. It's better try and fail, but you may find you won't fail, or at least won't experience the shame of failure, if you don't belittle yourself. Psychoanalysis seems to push subjects into impotent resignation, that they will never be enough to get what their heart wants. why accept the unacceptable? Get some! And if you don't get the girl, you will get what kept you from getting the girl, or at least get rid of the shame and bad self consciousness that kept you from confidently trying. Even if you lose a connection or get your feelings hurt, don't let that stop the process, good things will be waiting on the other side. It is possible to grow into a league of your own Magic is real, desire is our dearest ally so don't betray it, desire moves the world just by wanting what it wants, it's agape. Don't let psychoanalysis shame or belittle you away from living your life.

[@havadatequila]

i.e., become an edge lord.

[@Yash42189]

But Freud can't really think that we Literally (and I mean literally) desire to unite with the mother? Like what would that look like? Surely he means that we desire that unity, that return to pleasure principle, which being impossible, is sublimated through other activities. Isn't Lacan's lack a kind of loss that is impossible to return by definition? Or am I miixing everything up?

[@grosbeak6130]

What would that look like? Consider watching Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

[@christophboon1406]

You're mixing up a lot indeed 😉. Keep reading and rethinking, you might get it someday. Btw I don't mean that in a negative way, I've been reading Freud and Lacan for the past 20 years now, and I still don't consider myself an expert. In case you want to be helped a little, 3 quick remarks: 1) Freud meant it literal, just like he meant castration anxiety literal. Nowadays you really need Lacan to make sense of some of the things Freud wrote, and sometimes Lacan had to do a lot of intellectual acrobatics to maintain that his goal was simply a 'retour a Freud'. In my opinion Lacan is by far the more interesting thinker, he transformed scraps of Freuds' ideas into solid concepts. Freud definitally wouldn't have been pleased with the way Lacan does his own thing with his work. He almost wouldn't recognize it as his own, and that's a good thing 😉. 2) Return to pleasure principle you say? What do you mean? The pleasure principle is simply the way human beings function as a species, there's no returning to it 'cause it's inherent to our psychic functioning. We seek to derive pleasure and avoid pain. That's the pleasure principle. 3) " Isn't Lacans' lack a kind of loss..."? No, it doesn't have anything to do with a concrete loss. The Lacanian lack is a human condition as such, we're born in this condition. Language pre exists us, we're born in language, we live in language and we die in language. Our entire universe is symbolic, which creates meaning but also comes with 'the cost' of a lack of directness in relation to the Real. We are never in touch with the real, not in a global sense (the world as Real), nor in a private sense ( the Real root of our unconscious drives).

[@lalawmpuiahmar193]

​@@christophboon1406This is so clear and precise. I've been meaning to get hold of Lacan and to implement him in my cultural studies of trauma but I'm failing on it miserably. I've read Shoshana's text on Lacan and other scholars who expertise on him but to no avail, have I learned from them. Could you perhaps recommend me some books to understand him better?