Being and Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Antinomies of the Object (The Palgrave Lacan Series)

"This book explores how philosophical realisms relate to psychoanalytical conceptions of the Real, and in turn how the Lacanian framework challenges basic philosophical notions of object and reality. The author examines how contemporary psychoanalysis might respond to the question of ontology by taking advantage of the recent revitalization of realism in its speculative form. While the philosophical side of the debate makes a plea for an independent ontological consistency of the Real, this book proposes a Lacanian reassessment of the definition of the Real as 'what is foreign to subjectivity itself'. In doing so, it reframes the question of the Real in terms of what is already there beneath the supposedly linguistic constitution of subjectivity. The book then goes on to engage the problem of cognition in the realm of Nature qua materiality, focusing on the centrality of the body as a linguistic-material hybrid. It argues that it is possible to re-establish the theoretical dignity of Ricoeur's notion of 'suspicion', by building a dialogue between Lacanian psychoanalysis and three main domains of inquiry: desire, objects and bodily enjoyment. Borrowing from Piera Aulagnier's theory of the Other as a word-bearer, it considers the genesis of desire and sense of reality both explainable through a hybrid framework which comprises psychoanalytical insights and material dynamics in a comprehensive account. This created theoretical space is an opportunity for both philosophers and psychoanalysts to rethink some key Lacanian insights in light of the problem of the Real. Yuri Di Liberto is based at the University of Calabria, Italy and works on the possible intersections between philosophy and psychoanalysis. His research focuses on contemporary continental philosophy, post-structuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He is the author of Il pieno e il vuoto: Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze e il tessuto del Reale (2017)." -- Prové de l'editor Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 Contents 16 List of Figures 18 1 The Real: From Ancestrality to Actuality 19 1 The Problem of the Real 19 2 History and the Fantasy of the ‘Material Swarming’ 22 3 Descartes, Koyré and the Subject Without Qualities 34 4 The Real Beyond Fantasy: Lacan with Meillassoux 44 5 Ontological Surplus and Paranoia 49 6 Nature, Language, Temporality 53 7 The Real as Retrodetermination 62 8 The Real and the Materialization of the Transcendental 68 References 75 2 Openings of the Object: Values, Gestures, Events 78 1 Value Is Structure: Symbolic Objects and Differentiation 79 2 A Special Case of Symbolic Object: Lacan and Deleuze Against Hume’s Law 89 3 Motor Cognition and Umwelt: Imaginary Objects and Simulation 100 4 Object a, Sexuality and the Peafowl’s Tail 106 5 Sublimation and Anti-Philosophy 113 6 The Object of the Real: The Two Asymmetries of the Lacanian Registers 123 7 Object-Oriented Ontology and Fetishism 129 8 Speculation and the Thing-Body 141 References 147 3 The Real of the Body: Fantasies and Intimate Diagrams 150 1 The Body Is No-Thing 153 2 A Philosophy of the Skin: Nudity—Mirror—Phantom 161 3 A Philosophy of the Skin: Anzieu, Lacan and Fantasy 189 4 A Philosophy of the Skin: Involucre, Inscription, Surface, Patchwork 198 5 Diagrams—Some Theoretical and Historical Remarks 204 6 The Diagrammatization of Enjoyment 207 References 215 Conclusion: A Nameless Nature 218 References 222 Bibliography 223 Index 234 Front Matter ....Pages i-xix The Real: From Ancestrality to Actuality (Yuri Di Liberto)....Pages 1-59 Openings of the Object: Values, Gestures, Events (Yuri Di Liberto)....Pages 61-132 The Real of the Body: Fantasies and Intimate Diagrams (Yuri Di Liberto)....Pages 133-200 Back Matter ....Pages 201-222