Erratum of the Four Fundamentals :: Jacques Lacan

ERRATUM OF
The
Four Fundamental
Concepts of
Psycho-Analysis
Jacques Lacan
author of Écrits
erratum of
THE
FOUR FUNDAMENTAL
CONCEPTS OF
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
JACQUES LACAN
erratum of
THE
FOUR FUNDAMENTAL
CONCEPTS OF
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
Edited by
JACQUES-ALAIN MILLER
Translated from the French by
ALAN SHERIDAN
Re-edited by
PARASITIC VENTURES PRESS
r
PARASITIC VENTURES PRESS
Toronto
CONTENTS
Preface to the English-Language Edition
Editor’s Note
Parasitic Ventures Press, Toronto ON
Published in Canada in 2011.
THE UNCONSCIOUS AND REPETITION
Source text is the 1981 W.W. Norton paperback edition of Jacques Lacan’s
The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis, as edited by Jacques-Alain
Miller and translated by Alan Sheridan. This is not an authorized edition.
4 Of the Network of Signifiers
Lacan, Jacques, 1901-1981
Erratum of The four fundamental concepts of psycho-analysis / Jacques Lacan ;
Jacques-Alain Miller, editor ; Alan Sheridan, translator.
8 The Line and Light
91
Translation of: Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse, originally
published as v. 11 of the author’s Le séminaire de Jacques Lacan
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-9813263-5-1
1. Psychoanalysis. I. Miller, Jacques-Alain II. Sheridan, Alan III. Title.
IV. Title: Four fundamental concepts of psycho-analysis.
150.19’5
ISBN 978-0-9813263-5-1
42
OF THE GAZE AS Object Petit a
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
BF173.L33 2011
page vii
xi
C2010-908123-4
v
CONTENTS
TO CONCLUDE
Index
283
vi
PREFACE TO THE
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION
When the space of a lapsus no longer carries any meaning (or
interpretation), then only is one sure that one is in the unconscious. One knows.
But one has only to be aware of the fact to find oneself outside it. There is no friendship there, in that space that supports
this unconscious.
All I can do is tell the truth. No, that isn’t so—I have
missed it. There is no truth that, in passing through awareness,
does not lie.
But one runs after it all the same. …
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Our intention here was to be as unobtrusive as possible . . .
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P. V. P.
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OF THE NETWORK OF SIGNIFIERS
Try to read this chapter five, line by line, in some language
other than French. Those who do not know German should
read it in the English translation. You will find this translation
— I say this in passing — quite entertaining. You will see, for
example, that the translation of instinct for Trieb, and instinctual
for triebhaft has so many drawbacks for the translator that,
although it is maintained throughout quite uniformly — thus
basing the whole edition on a complete misunderstanding,
since Trieb and instinct have nothing in common — the discord
becomes so impossible at one point that the implications of a
sentence cannot be carried through by translating Triebhaft by
instinctual. A footnote becomes necessary — At the beginning of
the next paragraph the word Trieb . . . is much more revealing of
urgency than the word instinctual. Trieb gives you a kick in the arse,
my friends — quite different from so-called instinct. That’s how
psycho-analytic teaching is passed on!
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OF THE GAZE
No doubt, in the depths
of my eye, the picture is painted. The picture, certainly, is in my
eye. But I am not in the picture.
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INDEX
alienation, see under subject
chance, see under repetition
arbitrary, see under repetition
282
283
INDEX
INDEX
optics (geometral and perspective),
96
painting, picture, 96
Freud, S., 49
screen, 96
reversal into its opposite (Verkeh rung), vii, 96
Freud’s works:
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
(Jenseits des Lustprinzips), 49
doubt, colophon of, see under subject
drive (Trieb), 49
eye, see under gaze
gap, see under unconscious
gaze, eye, scopic field, 96
284
285
INDEX
INDEX
instinct, instinctual, 49
optics, see under gaze
painting, the picture, see under gaze
psycho-analysis,
psycho-analytic
practice, praxis, experience,
technique, treatment,
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287
INDEX
INDEX
psych-analysis­—contd.
49
network of signifiers, 49
analyst’s desire, 49
subject, 49, 96
training of analysts, training analysis, 49
screen, see under gaze
signifier,
reversal into its opposite (Verkehrung),
see under drive
288
289
INDEX
Unbewusste, see under unconscious
unconscious (Unbewusste) vii
training analysis, of analysts, see
under psycho-analysis
truth, vii
290
The Four Fundamental Concepts
of Psycho-Analysis
JACQUES LACAN
Dr. Lacan’s writings, and especially the seminars for which he has
become famous, have provoked intense controversies in French analytic
circles, requiring as they do a radical reappraisal of the legacy bequeathed by Freud. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis is
based on a year’s seminar, which is of particular importance because he
was addressing a larger, less specialized audience than ever before, among
whom he could not assume familiarity with his work. For his listeners
then, and for his readers now, he wanted “to introduce a certain coherence
into the major concepts on which psycho-analysis is based,” namely, the
unconscious, repetition, the transference, and the drive.
This particular seminar, in this particular edition, has often been used
as the basic text for Anglo-American scholars and students alike seduced
by the possibilities inherent in Lacanian psycho-analysis. In particular,
notions of the gaze and ruminations on the role of subjectivity in twodimensional representations have been adopted wholesale by spheres of
film studies, art history, and visual studies. By default, Alan Sheridan,
through this translation, has been key in the reception of Lacan in the
Anglo-American academy. Alas, particularly for visual studies, a key phrase
in this edition differs significantly from the French edition. An internet
search proves that both versions of this phrase have been quoted equally
in North American scholarly writings.
While arguments could be made as to the apt-ness of continuing to
use Sheridan’s translation as it exists – and we at Parasitic Ventures Press
considered the possibility of presenting one such – we offer, instead, this
edition, an Erratum of The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis,
to allow our readers to decide for themselves.
r
Parasitic
Ventures
Press
ISBN 978-0-9813263-5-1