Cat Embodies History, the Real

Scott McLemee, intellectual affairs columnist for www.insidehighered.com, asks "What did Jacques Lacan mean by 'the Real'?"  That question has as many answers as some people have faces* ... and deserves to be taken as seriously as any question about a psychoanalytic work.  Not at all.  Seriously.  Taken not at all seriously.  You can judge the seriousness of McLemee's seriously serious account of "the Real" for yourself:

What did Jacques Lacan mean by "the Real"? I found out, sort of, by walking across my apartment in search of a copy of the recent re-translation of his Ecrits -- a volume replacing another (somewhat notoriously unreliable) translation released by the same publisher more than 20 years earlier.

When a manufacturer of toasters finds out that its toasters are defective, it will issue a recall. About halfway to the bookshelf, the light bulb went off: Time for a class action suit!

Suddenly, a rogue housecat interposed himself between my feet -- causing immediate "walk failure" and consequent wrenching of lower back.

Now, the Imaginary is for Lacan the dimension of the human human psyche that permits us to feel more or less cohesive. It is the raw material of ego identity. By contrast, the Symbolic includes all the systems we use for communication and exchange with others. It is "language," very broadly defined. But what about Lacan's third term?

Just to back up a little.... I'd been reading Slavoj Zizek, the wild and woolly cultural theorist, who is about as Lacanian as they come. He slings the lingo like a pro. But every so often, my reading comprehension disappears, like the steam from a bowl of cooling soup.

Zizek refers to the Real "escaping" the Imaginary and "errupting into" the Symbolic. Which is good to know, but not that helpful. It left me wondering: "OK, the Real -- what is it? And where?"

And then, out of nowhere, I got an answer. The Real is a silent but (potentially) deadly housecat. The realm of the ego's Imaginary dignity is violated. The order of the Symbolic is reduced to groans and obscenities. The Real is what leaves you on the floor.

Fredric Jameson, the lefty lit-crit guru maximus, once equated Lacan's concept    with the Marxist notion of History -- a word that Jameson always capitalizes, like the name of a god. History, and hence the Real, he explained, "is what hurts."

OK, but does that mean my cat embodies History?

 

McLemee follows that with a brief discussion of the forthcoming Zizek: The Movie, in which, according to the official website, "Zizek never stops philosophizing."  Not that one would expect anything less from "the Elvis of cultural theory," a man for whom, according to Judith Butler, "discussing Hegel and Lacan is like breathing." 

*A practical guide to what Campbell called "the monomyth" outlines "the stages of the HERO," and for some reason, it does so entirely in CAPS:

1. THE HERO IS INTRODUCED IN HIS ORDINARY WORLD
2. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE
3. THE HERO IS RELUCTANT AT FIRST
4. THE HERO IS ENCOURAGED BY THE WISE OLD MAN OR WOMAN
5. THE HERO PASSES THE FIRST THRESHOLD
6. THE HERO ENCOUNTERS TESTS AND HELPERS
7. THE HERO REACHES THE INNERMOST CAVE
8. THE HERO ENDURES THE SUPREME ORDEAL
9. THE HERO SIEZES THE SWORD
10. THE ROAD BACK
11. RESURRECTION
12. RETURN WITH ELIXIR

As with all psychoanalytically-informed theories--Campbell having been a devotee of Jung--this one need not be taken literally.  The THE HERO SIEZES THE SWORD stage can, as in one variation of the Arthurian myth, consist of the hero siezing the sword, but "sometimes the 'sword' is knowledge and experience that leads to greater understanding."  In an irony Freudians no doubt appreciate, the "sword" may also be a woman with whom THE HERO has recently reconciled.  That woman might, however, be a SHAPE-SHIFTER, and could therefore really be anyone.  So the "sword" can be anything or anyone.  Psychoanalytic theories rule!  I can hear your complaints already, dear readers: "Yes, A. Cephalous, psychoanalytic theories seriously rule, but what we really want to know is when will ZIZEK SIEZE THE SWORD?" 

Comments

[Sone Gay Guy]

"Every so often, my reading comprehension disappears, like the steam from a bowl of cooling soup."

Whoa.

[Robert]

This reminded me - a few years ago, I was engaged in a discussion about 'real' reality vs 'consensus' reality. What I eventually came up with was - if you fall on the sidewalk, is what your hip is pressed against realer than the idea of concrete?
Granted, in my example, no cats were involved.

My own answer is yes. Reality, in PK Dick's famous phrase, "is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

[Michelle Minick]

does anyone know the significance of the cats in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Herland?"