ANDY's definitions
In Lacanian theory, a signifier which stops the slippage of the signified under the signifier and fixes meaning, thereby forming a stable symbolic order. It is a particular signifier with no signified of its own, which stands in for the "fullness" of the meaning of the symbolic system itself. However, since contingency and lack are taken to be primary in Lacanian theory, it is necessarily arbitrary and is unable to guarantee its own primacy except through arbitrary and ungrounded violence. It is always haunted by the return of the Real.
In my view, this concept is useful but its basis is mistaken. What is repressed is active desire, held down for fear of punishment, and not some kind of ontological void. Lacan is wrong to pose his problems on such a metaphysical level.
by Andy May 7, 2004
Get the master-signifier mug.Newspeak for torture, used by the CIA and its allies. "Stress and duress" tactics are used in interrogations, and refer to a variety of tortures and forms of mistreatment which the CIA thinks are OK. These include:
sleep deprivation
overload of light
complete darkness
stripping and sexually humiliating prisoners
threatening to torture and rape prisoners
threatening prisoners' families
making prisoners stand, sit etc. in uncomfortable positions to induce pain
denial of satisfaction of basic rights and needs such as food, bedding, clothing and exercise
deliberate cultural insensitivity and intolerance
verbal abuse
use of painful "restraint" techniques
beatings
sleep deprivation
overload of light
complete darkness
stripping and sexually humiliating prisoners
threatening to torture and rape prisoners
threatening prisoners' families
making prisoners stand, sit etc. in uncomfortable positions to induce pain
denial of satisfaction of basic rights and needs such as food, bedding, clothing and exercise
deliberate cultural insensitivity and intolerance
verbal abuse
use of painful "restraint" techniques
beatings
These techniques are widespread also in US prisons, although nominally illegal. They are more widely used in deregulated offshore gulags such as Guantanamo Bay, abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan.
Don't be fooled - these tactics ARE TORTURE, and are defined as such both by the UN and by experts in trauma. Their role is to break down the sense of personality of the prisoner and to deliberately induce psychological trauma and crisis.
They are directly referred to in CIA handbooks - so the photos from abu Ghraib show a systematic pattern of torture, NOT rogue acts by a few stupid/evil/misguided soldiers.
Don't be fooled - these tactics ARE TORTURE, and are defined as such both by the UN and by experts in trauma. Their role is to break down the sense of personality of the prisoner and to deliberately induce psychological trauma and crisis.
They are directly referred to in CIA handbooks - so the photos from abu Ghraib show a systematic pattern of torture, NOT rogue acts by a few stupid/evil/misguided soldiers.
by Andy May 7, 2004
Get the stress and duress mug.Subjective destitution; an experience of oneself as excremental (a piece of shit) and worthless, and of being eclipsed by the objet petit a. An experience of the breakdown of one's sense of one's own value when overshadowed by the external locus of one's desires.
It is a concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis which is also sometimes used in cultural studies. It is a crucial component of Zizek's concept of the Act.
It is a concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis which is also sometimes used in cultural studies. It is a crucial component of Zizek's concept of the Act.
Victims of terrorist kidnappings may undergo aphanisis and end up identifying with their captors (the so-called "Helsinki Syndrome").
by Andy May 7, 2004
Get the aphanisis mug.Term used by psychoanalysts, especially Lacanians, for the eruption into social life of impulses or phenomena which have been repressed from the symbolic order in the process of the formation of a master-signifier. The excluded element is not destroyed but returns in a form which is incomprehensible and terrifying. A "return of the Real" is a sudden eruption and interruption which spectacularly reveals the contingency of social relations and shatters fixed certainties.
For instance, Slavoj Zizek analysed September 11th as a "return of the Real": the repressed fundamentalist impulse which was the hidden outcome of the US's own activities produced an explosive and terrifying result which rocked people's identities and the existing political framework.
For instance, Slavoj Zizek analysed September 11th as a "return of the Real": the repressed fundamentalist impulse which was the hidden outcome of the US's own activities produced an explosive and terrifying result which rocked people's identities and the existing political framework.
A reworking of the return of the repressed.
Doesn't make as much sense outside Lacanian ontology, because the violence and negativity of the "return of the Real" are crucial to its use as a concept. One can reconfigure it to some extent if one suggests that the social order makes its own Real, so that the phrase "return" is simply figurative.
Doesn't make as much sense outside Lacanian ontology, because the violence and negativity of the "return of the Real" are crucial to its use as a concept. One can reconfigure it to some extent if one suggests that the social order makes its own Real, so that the phrase "return" is simply figurative.
by Andy May 7, 2004
Get the return of the Real mug.The formation of a libidinal investment. The attachment of oneself to a particular external element or a particular alignment of discourse, a role, etc. through the rearticulation of psychological desires/drives which are already present.
The verb for is "to cathect".
The verb for is "to cathect".
His frustration with his father was repressed, but re-emerged through a cathexis in relation to his boss.
by Andy May 7, 2004
Get the cathexis mug.Concept used in the work of Michel Foucault, to denote the interchangeability and mutual supportiveness of power and knowledge. Because he thought a regime of power always constructs forms of knowledge and a regime of knowledge always institutes a regime of power, he fused the two words into a single concept.
For example, prisons are an example of a regime of power/knowledge: the observation of prisoners and the recording of different categories of criminality are in many ways identical with the process of incarceration itself, as a system of control of people's bodies and of physical spaces.
For example, prisons are an example of a regime of power/knowledge: the observation of prisoners and the recording of different categories of criminality are in many ways identical with the process of incarceration itself, as a system of control of people's bodies and of physical spaces.
Mental asylums, schools, armies, etc. are all different examples of regimes of power/knowledge. The way in which people are recorded as elements in these discourses is connected to their subordination to or complicity in particular relations of power.
by Andy May 7, 2004
Get the power/knowledge mug.The release of pent-up or repressed energies through their attachment to a new object or situation and their resultant release. For instance, the vicarious satisfaction of a desire to commit violence due to frustration with one's boss, through something other than violence against one's boss, e.g. through watching violent films, doing karate as a hobby, fighting a rival gang, playing Doom, etc.
It's a concept taken from Freudian psychoanalysis.
It also has a peculiar meaning in Gramscian theory, where it refers to the rearticulation and reconfiguration of desires and passions into a new ideological/philosophical framework - roughly speaking, the achievement of a new, revolutionary formation of desire.
It also has a peculiar meaning in Gramscian theory, where it refers to the rearticulation and reconfiguration of desires and passions into a new ideological/philosophical framework - roughly speaking, the achievement of a new, revolutionary formation of desire.
by Andy May 9, 2004
Get the catharsis mug.