Initially, Lacan proposed that the mirror stage was part of an infant's development from 6 to 18 months, as outlined at the Fourteenth International Psychoanalytical Congress at Marienbad in 1936. By the early 1950s, Lacan's concept of the mirror stage had evolved: he no longer considered the mirror stage as a moment in the life of the infant, but as representing a permanent structure of subjectivity, or as the paradigm of "Imaginary order". This evolution in Lacan's thinking becomes clear in his later essay titled "The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire".
The centrality of Lacanian psychoanalysis to psychoanalytic film theory requires observation of a third distinction, one that separates Freudian psycho- analysis from Lacan, and that is the difference
between science and metaphysics.
Although I would argue that Freud’s discovery is better understood as one that involves conceptual
innovation rather than empirical discovery (see Cioffi 1969; Allen 1997b), it has traditionally been construed as an empirical discovery of hitherto unrecognized causal processes that govern mental life. Freudian psycho- analysis is considered to be a science of the mind that uncovers and explains these causal processes. The cogency of Freudian psychoanalysis and its application to film theory can be judged on the grounds of whether or not the phenomena explained through psychoanalysis bear the requisite hallmarks of irrationality, and where cinema is ascribed causal effects, the cogency of this ascription may be judged by reference to the behavior of actual spectators. However, Lacan recasts Freud’s psychological theory of unconscious agency as a philosophical theory that describes the essential or constitutive paradox of self-representation. Laca- nian theory is given an aura of empirical legitimacy by borrowing the language of psychological (and linguistic) theory, but because it is a metaphysical theory it is actually immune from empirical confirmation or refutation and cannot be used to justify or support causal hypotheses. Lacan’s theory has its roots in the philosophy of Hegel, but its metaphysical foundations are perhaps best displayed by comparing Lacanian themes to the ideas of Sartre, who was hostile to and repudiated psychoanalytic theory. For Sartre, human self-consciousness is defined by a perpetual struggle between being-for-itself (pour-soi), expressing absolute freedom, nonfixity, mobility, transformation, and change, and being-in-itself (en-soi), expressing fixity, thing- hood, and stasis. In bad faith, the for-itself defines itself as an entity, but while Sartre condemns this as inauthentic, he offers no way out of the dilemma or paradox of self-representation. When I represent myself to another being-for- itself by expressing my desire for them, I necessarily misrepresent myself, for I am fixed in the look of the other as a being-in-itself. The perpetual process of self-alienation that defines the condition of consciousness and the relationship of self to the other is stabilized for Sartre only by the gaze of a third person who stands for the social order as whole, bestows an apparent equivalence between self and other, and gives the illusion of commonality and community. (1)
between science and metaphysics.
Although I would argue that Freud’s discovery is better understood as one that involves conceptual
innovation rather than empirical discovery (see Cioffi 1969; Allen 1997b), it has traditionally been construed as an empirical discovery of hitherto unrecognized causal processes that govern mental life. Freudian psycho- analysis is considered to be a science of the mind that uncovers and explains these causal processes. The cogency of Freudian psychoanalysis and its application to film theory can be judged on the grounds of whether or not the phenomena explained through psychoanalysis bear the requisite hallmarks of irrationality, and where cinema is ascribed causal effects, the cogency of this ascription may be judged by reference to the behavior of actual spectators. However, Lacan recasts Freud’s psychological theory of unconscious agency as a philosophical theory that describes the essential or constitutive paradox of self-representation. Laca- nian theory is given an aura of empirical legitimacy by borrowing the language of psychological (and linguistic) theory, but because it is a metaphysical theory it is actually immune from empirical confirmation or refutation and cannot be used to justify or support causal hypotheses. Lacan’s theory has its roots in the philosophy of Hegel, but its metaphysical foundations are perhaps best displayed by comparing Lacanian themes to the ideas of Sartre, who was hostile to and repudiated psychoanalytic theory. For Sartre, human self-consciousness is defined by a perpetual struggle between being-for-itself (pour-soi), expressing absolute freedom, nonfixity, mobility, transformation, and change, and being-in-itself (en-soi), expressing fixity, thing- hood, and stasis. In bad faith, the for-itself defines itself as an entity, but while Sartre condemns this as inauthentic, he offers no way out of the dilemma or paradox of self-representation. When I represent myself to another being-for- itself by expressing my desire for them, I necessarily misrepresent myself, for I am fixed in the look of the other as a being-in-itself. The perpetual process of self-alienation that defines the condition of consciousness and the relationship of self to the other is stabilized for Sartre only by the gaze of a third person who stands for the social order as whole, bestows an apparent equivalence between self and other, and gives the illusion of commonality and community. (1)
- the need of subject a. perpetual cycle of pleasure and suffering in the search of the phallus. jouissance is all weve got. the spectre of pure loss in the back of our mind is called 'the thing'
- "Desire is a relation to being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not the lack of this or that, but lack of being whereby the being exists.“(2)
Sex and the City, is a great example to discuss as its a show about blatant and extravagant materialism. The show uses the main characters, four best friends dating their way through the city of New York sleeping with hundreds of men, drinking thousands of cosmopolitans, and spending what seems like millions on designer shoes.
Bibliography
1.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227584959_Psychoanalytic_Film_Theory
2.https://www.lacanonline.com/2010/05/what-does-lacan-say-about-desire/
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