John Holland: Introduction to Jacques Lacan’s “on a reform In Its HoLe”

7/25/2019 John Holland: Introduction to Jacques Lacans on a reform In Its HoLe

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S: J C L I C 8 (2015): 6-13

J H

I N R O D U C I O N O J A C U E S L A C A N S O N AR E F O R M I N I S H O L E

On February 5, 1969, in he course o his seminar, Dun Autre lautre[From an Oher o he oher], Jacques Lacan old his audience ha

yeserday, I allowed mysel o scribble ou a ex raher hurriedlyacually, i isn jus a skech, because I ook my ime wih iand I

don know wheher you will see i published, because i will appear eiherin a single place or i won appear a alland Im ineresed in knowingwheher i will appear or no. In shor, Ive been ineresed o he poin odelusional excessiveness. I would like people o see ha i is no longer pos-sible o play he appropriae role in ransmiting knowledge wihou beinga psychoanalys.1

Te ex in quesion here is On a Reorm in Is Hole [Dune rforme dans son trou].Lacan wroe i a he inviaion o Le Monde; his newspaper had asked him, asa psychiaris and psychoanalys, or his opinion on Edgar Faures reorm o heFrench universiy in general, and o he eaching o psychiary in paricular, in heimmediae afermah o he evens o May 1968.2

As Lacan had suspeced, his ex was never published during his lieime. Nearlya year and a hal laer, he old he audience o his nex seminar, Te Other Side ofPsycoanalysis, ha in his aricle, which

did no ge hroughI speak o a reorm in is hole. Precisely i wasa mater o using his whirlwind o a hole o ake a number o measuresconcerning he universiy. And good heavens, by correcly reerring o heerms o cerain undamenal discourses one migh have cerain scruples,les say, abou acing, one migh look wice beore jumping in o profi romhe lines ha have opened up.3

I is no difficul o imagine he reacions o surprise or conusion ha Lacansaricle may have inspired in he ediorial offices o Le Monde. Raher han merelyproviding his views on hese curren evens, Lacan ook hem as a springboardrom which o push his eaching orward by examining quesions concerning hesaus o knowledge, ruh and jouissance.


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H: Introdution to Jaques Laans On a Reform in Its Hole S8 (2015): 7

Among Faures reorms was a plan o gran psychiary greaer auonomy in medi-cal schools. From is beginning, he field o psychiary had been plagued by seriousepisemological problems semming, in par, rom he ac ha, alhough i was amedical specialy, i had no been able o esablish ha psychiaric illness has anorganic cause. Neurology, which did rea he organic body, had more presige,so much so ha psychiary had ceased o be a separae field o sudy in medicalschools. In he reorganizaion o eaching a he end o he Second World War, ihad become par o a hybrid discipline, neuropsychiary, which was augh byneurologiss. Faure, in response o demands by he proessional organizaion opsychiariss, he SPF [Syndiat des Psyciatres Franais], proposed o reinroduce

he eaching o psychiary as an independen discipline, augh by psychiarisshemselves.4

Anoher o Faures reorms involved he esablishmen o an experimenal cener inhe suburb o Vincennes, one ha would become he Universiy o Paris 8. MichelDebeauvais, a specialis in educaional reorm who was a member o he cenersplanning commitee, has noed ha one o he main moivaions behind he projecwas o conain he lefis abscess ar away rom he Lain Qarer [o Paris]. 5Healso believed i could serve as a model or undamenal changes in he sysem bywhich degrees would be awarded. Insead o graning hem on he basis o ourexaminaions held a he end o each year o undergraduae sudies, as was hepracice a he ime, a new sysem o coninuous assessmensimilar o he oneused in he Unied Saeswould be inroduced. Tis would involve he inroduc-

ion o course credis, a cerain number o which would need o be earned in or-der o graduae. Oher commitee members liked his plan, alhough hey houghhe erm credi should be avoided since people will say ha were copying heAmericans. Tey decided, insead, o use he expression unit de valeurlierally,value-uniand when Debeauvais proesed ha his did no mean anyhing,hey answered, Well, has precisely he poin. Teir new sysem was a grea suc-cess and soon spread o all French universiies.

Lacan akes up boh o hese aspecs o he Faure reorm in On a Reorm in IsHole. He also finds ways o connec hem wih he seminar he was giving a heime, Dun Autre lautre; some aspecs o his seminar hrow ligh on he implica-ions o he highly concenraed saemens in his aricle. In his seminar, he wasseeking o conceive o analysis in erms o se heory, a projec ha involved new

ways o heorizing he objec a, knowledge and ruh. I begins wih a redefini-ion o he objec a as surplus-jouissance, a orce ha comes ino exisence in away ha is homologous o Karl Marxs accoun o he producion o surplus-value(29, 45-46).6Tis new ormulaion is accompanied by a rehinking o he objec inerms o is relaion wih he superego, as Freud conceived o i in Civilization andIts Disontents (40). I he superego arises because we are obliged o renounce ourdrives, or Lacan, his renunciaion comes o inhere in every atemp o elaborae aknowledge ha would grasp he real.7In coming ino exisence, each new signifiermisses somehing, and his srucural impossibiliy o symbolizing everyhing be-


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comes Lacans ranslaion o Freuds process o renunciaion; he objec o surplus-jouissance gradually arises rom he hole opened up by his ailure o knowledge.Wih his ana lysis, a reworking o Freuds undersanding o he impasses o civili-zaion, Lacan was moving owards a uller reamen o collecive phenomena, oneha would depar in significan ways rom his previous heorizing o he singularcharacer o each analyic reamen. Tis movemen would evenually resul, ahe beginning o Te Other Side of Psycoanalysis, in his presenaion o he ourdiscourses.

Approached rom his conex, Lacans unpublished aricle can be read as a media-ion on he relaions beween knowledge, he objec aand he hole. Te figure ohe hole appears hroughou his discussions o he ailure o knowledge in medicalschools and in he universiy. For example, neurologiss inabiliy o accoun orall medical problems led o he opening up o a gap; psychiariss were he flaringedges o his gap, who flowed ou o he insiuions where he menal paienswhom hey rea are ound (On a Reorm, 16). Ye psychiary also ailed, or in-sead o reaing he psyche, i provided an approach ha was social in he worssense o he word, conribuing o he mainaining o asylum-like places, wherehe communiy segregaes is discordan members (16). By upholding sandards osocial conormiy in his way, psychiary had become wha Lacan calls sociary(15).

A he same ime, bu independenly, he universiy as a whole was suffering romis own limied concepion o knowledge. Even beore he reorm, he universiyhad specified is mission by defining knowledge in erms o is worh or value.o his end, emphasis was placed on he sudens role in conerring such value.Knowledge is valuable or any paricular suden because s/he has had o expendefforin oher words, o worko acquire i. As Lacan noes in Dun Autre lautre,he price or learning is supposed o be paid hrough he swea o ones brow:a swea ha gives knowledge is value, which he universiy hen recognizes byawarding a degree (200). Te later serves as he visible sign ha he now-ormersuden has graduated, has atained he saus o maser (399).

Raher ironically, his definiion o he value o knowledge has led he universiy oall prey o anoher sysem in which labor creaes value: capialism, which had longbeen rying o dominae he social body. According o Lacan, he universiy wasbeing subsumed wihin capialism well beore 1969. Te reorm only heighenedhe universiys commodificaion o knowledge; he course credi, or value-uni,proesses, like an enormous slip o he ongue, wha we are defining as he reduc-ion o knowledge o he uncion o he marke (On a Reorm, 20). Te assump-ion ha knowledge can be divided ino a series o counable unis, each o whichcan be given a numerical value, is ully consonan wih he capialis approach oanyhing ha can be exchanged.

Tis pracice o assigning value o unis o knowledge allows one o undersandreroacively a sysem ha is ar more general and has been uncioning or a long


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ime. I a uni o knowledge can be assigned a value, hen larger aggregaes oknowledge can also be given values; differen bodies o knowledge can even be as-signed differen values. Afer al l, i has been eviden or quie some ime ha someorms o knowledge have been considered o be more valuable han ohers. Tisinequaliy among he disciplines is no even recen, as is esified by he greaerpresige o neurology over psychiary in he marke o knowledge consiued bymedical schools. Seen in such a conex, he universiy reveals isel o be one moremarke o influence, in which each discipline compees wih he ohers or pres-ige and unding (19).

Tis marke exends, o course, even urher; each discipline ends o be overseenby a body o bosses, cerain o whom will have more influence han ohers (19).In such siuaions, sudens are obliged o compee wih each oher, in he hopeha he knowledge ha hey have acquired will enable hem o be brough ino heinner circle o he insiuion in quesion (19). Lacans example o his aspec ohe marke o influence is, in ac, no he universiy, bu anoher bureaucraic edu-caional insiuionhe Inernaional Psychoanalyic Associaionbu his wordscan apply jus as easily o i.

One o he implicaions o Lacans argumen is ha capialis concepions affec noonly sudens bu also hough isel; hey can undermine atemps o ake seriouslyhe episemological saus o science and knowledge. Such would seem o be hecase wih Jacques-Alain Millers elaboraion in Suure: Elemens o he Logic ohe Signifier, o which Lacan alludes discreely in he closing pages o his aricle;his ex presens a scheme by which science is able o progress in a logical andorderly ashion by esablishing a paricular place or is subjec.8One can wonderwheher an effor o consruc a heory in which knowledge would possess is ownauonomyeven a relaive onewould no be undermined, rom he beginning,by he violence o he marke o influence. Such a marke insiss ha he value oknowledge is deermined direcly, and no merely in he las insance, by capial-ism, and can hus inhibi oher exploraions and explanaions.9

One o he consequences o he riumph o his capialis undersanding o knowl-edge in he universiies and oher raining-ceners is heir own decline on he mar-ke o influence. I even hey have come o accep he capialis concepion, henhey are, as i were, assening o heir own relaive eclipse. Te sudens senseo his decline helped precipiae he uprising o May 1968. Lacan reers o hesesudens as bourgeois youh, who have been suffering rom a eeling o unresprecisely because hey have seen ha he universiy is going hrough such a roughpach (On a Reorm, 19). In such a conex, he subjec o science, he principleha was crucial or Miller, has nohing o do wih he kind o inflaion [boursou-flure] ha is given a premium on he marke o influence (19). Any concern orhe inernal logic o various kinds o knowledge is being swep aside by capialiscompeiion.


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In his conex, Lacan eels ha psychoanalyss can inervene in a privileged ash-ion in he debae abou educaional reorm; heir posiion as analyss has givenhem a very paricular undersanding o he workings o knowledge and ruh,an undersanding ha exends beyond he clinical seting and ino he uncion-ing o educaional insiuions. On his basis, he rejecs as incorrec he belie hasudens acquire knowledge hrough hard work; he later is only he invenion opedagogues (Dun Autre, p. 200). In a session o his seminar in which he provides agloss on he analyses ha he had offered in his aricle, he denies ha knowledge isatained hrough a long and laborious appreniceship. Insead, he asks his audience,isnt itsomething that happens in a lightning-flash? (200). According o his concep-

ion, a he momen when i is ransmited, knowledge becomes somehing morehan a series o discree, counable unis. A he very leas, he relaions amongis various elemens become clear, in an insan o insigh, and a bes, somehingradically new suddenly appears. As Lacan argues in his aricle, Galileo, Newon,Mendel, Gallois, he ever-endearing James. D. Wason: none o hem owes anyhingo his own labor; each owes i all o ohers (On a Reorm, 17). Insead, heir dis-coveries are ransmited in a sudden flash in which knowledge is acquired, and inwhich one can iner he presence o he subjec (Dun Autre, 200).

I is ruh, raher han knowledge, ha makes one work a good deal (172). Tisis one o he cenral issues o analyic reamen, and i enables he analys opinpoin cerain effecs o he difficulies ha knowledge has creaed wihin edu-caional insiuions. As he noes in his aricle, in analysis, he work required o

atain ruh will enable one o refind he hole, a long las vivid, ocasraion(On a Reorm, 18).

Tis saemen hrows ligh on Lacans use o he figure o he hole hroughouhis aricle. Wheher his hole is he one opened up by he excessive preensionso neurology or he one ino which, a he end o he aricle, he dissiden sudenshave been pulled by he maelsrom, i is always he figure hrough which casraionmaniess isel. Whenever knowledge ails o grasp somehing o he real, casra-ion makes an appearance; only, however, hrough he analyic work ha is neces-sary or reaching ruh can he characer o his casraion become clear.

Because i is analysis ha enables one o grasp he atribues and effecs o knowl-edge and casraion, even when hey play heir roles wihin educaional and hera-peuic insiuions, Lacan can propose a reorm ha no one else had dared o sug-ges: anyone who would like o each science classes should auomaically or evenobligaorily undergo i, ha is, psychoanalyic raining (19). Tis senence goesbeyond being a recommendaion only or he eaching o psychiary; in Dun Autre lautre, he saes explicily ha any eacher o mahemaicsbiochemisry orany oher field ha involves ransmiting knowledge would do well o be a psy-choanalys (160).

In his seminar, Lacan had argued ha he elaboraion o knowledge necessarilyproduces surplus-jouissance as is residue; in he aricle, i is he ailure o knowl-


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edge wihin insiuions ha produced he objec aha maniesed isel in he u-mul o May 1968. Te figure by which he gives body o his objecis he maelsrom.Wih his image, he is moving owards an analysis o he modes by which helibidinal is insered ino collecive acions, modes ha may differ markedly romhose ha are a work in he clinic o he singular subjec. He even suggess haheir appearance wihin his clinic is someimes less problemaic and difficul odeal wih han heir maniesaions in social pracices and sruggles. []he objecamanages much beter a making love wih he specular image, which i pero-raes, han a animaing he maelsrom ha i provokes as surplus-jouissance (Ona Reorm, 18). Indeed, surplus-jouissance akes on an especially complex characer,

or Lacan assers, in his aricle, ha here is a limi o is homological relaion wihsurplus-value: he objec ais he cause raher han he effec o he marke (18).

Tose caugh up wihin his umul perormed a singular service or everyone, bualso ound hemselves in a dangerous siuaion. Tey showed ha he consumerproducs wih which he capialis sysem was showering hem are no paricularmaniesaions o he objec aand ha o claim oherwise is an imposure; in heirproess, hey were vomiing ou he objecs ha his sociey expecs will providehem wih saisacion galore, because such objecs do no fill up [remplissent] heaeul objec a (19).

On he oher hand, Lacan presens he sudens as being drawn deeper and deeperino a conflic rom which hey would no be able o exricae hemselves; he wopoles o his conflic are he maelsrom o surplus-jouissance and he hole o cas-raion. Te maelsrom inensifies around he hole, leaving nohing o hold ono,because is edges are he hole isel and because whaever rises up agains beingdrawn ino i is precisely is cener (20). In a relaed passage in his seminar, hegives he sudens more specific advice; a direc, ronal opposiion o highly prob-lemaic reorms may no be he bes sraegy o adop. []o charge agains heobsacles ha are se up agains you is precisely o ac like a bull. He suggess hahe sudens should, insead, go where here aren any obsacles, or ha heyshould, in any case, no be especially ineresed in obsacles (Dun Autre, 242).

In his aricle, he image o a maelsrom ha pulls he sudens ino he hole isollowed by an enigmaic senence, in which Lacan makes his image even morecomplex, ransorming he umul ino a moving wheel, in he cener o which is ahub, is inner hole. Young people are no going o be able o slow down he wheelin which hey are caugh, when i is wihin hem ha he hub, by is very nonexis-ence, pays a visi o some (On a Reorm, 20). Here, he guardedly and ambiguouslyleaves open some hope; hrough heir acions, somehing o casraion will be ableo manies isel. Tis hope, however, occurs in a siuaion in which he proesswere accomplishing he opposie o wha he sudens had inended; he auhori-ies response o he crisis was serving o srenghen he grip o a capialism hawas already exering a srangle-hold upon he universiy. As Lacan argues, heurmoil o May is precipiaing wha caused i, by making possible reorms, such


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as he inroducion o course credis, ha srenghen he power o he capialisconcepion o knowledge (20).

In is reamen o he effecs o capialis knowledge, his aricle discreely raiseshe quesion o he relaion beween capialism and science. In his eaching, Lacansomeimes presens he wo as being closely conneced, even i heir relaion maybe a curious copulaion (Other Side, p. 110).10On a Reorm in Is Hole could besaid o place more emphasis on he adjecive in his descripion han on he noun; iseems o sugges ha here is a racure beween hese wo orces, and ha sciencecould well perish beore he onslaugh o capialism. In he firs hal o he aricle,he had argued ha one o he effecs o science, in is guise as psychiary, is hesegregaion o he discordan members o sociey wihin menal insiuions (16).Near he end o he aricle, Lacan suggess ha his process o segregaion may ac-celerae and become more radical, i one condiion is me: i science is exinguishedby he sysem ha has been nourishing i. As or he psychiaric secor, no lesshan or he new daycare ceners ha are called universiies, he eaures are beingskeched ou o how he sysem will end up, i he science ha sill makes use o hesysem succumbs o i: namely, he generalized concenraion camp (20).

Wihou arrying over he provocaive suggesion ha here is a relaion beweenhe creaion o ceners such as Vincennes and he movemen owards a universe oconcenraion camps, one can ask a differen quesion: does he hin ha sciencemay succumb o he sysem poin orward o Lacans laer ormulaions abouhe capialis discourse? Tis discourse is based on a oreclosure ha disrups helogic o circular permuaion ha had provided he oundaions or he our dis-courses (Other Side, 39). I he very condiion o such capialism is a disrupion ohe quasi-mahemaical logic ha plays such an imporan role in Lacans eaching,does his indicae ha capialism, in is mos radical orm, can only exis by neu-ralizing cerain aspecs o science? Such a quesion, which canno be examined inhe conex o his inroducion, suggess he complexiy and ar-reaching charac-er o Lacans aricle. Writen o commen on a reorm ha is no longer even yeser-days news, i noneheless conains suggesions ha are worhy o urher analysis.

Notes

1. Jacques Lacan, Le sminaire, livre XVI : Dun Autre lautre 1968-1969, ed. by Jacques-AlainMiller (Paris: Seuil, 2006) 160. Henceorh cied in he ex as Dun Autre.

2. Jacques Lacan, Dune rorme dans son rou, ed. by Parick Valas. Available a . Henceorh he Englishranslaion will be cied in he ex as On a Reorm.

3. Jacques Lacan, Te Other Side of Psycoanalysis [Seminar XVII], ed. by Jacques-AlainMiller, rans. by Russell Grigg (New York, NY: Noron, 2007) 168. Henceorh cied in heex as Other Side.

4. Parice Pinell, La normalisaion de la psychiarie ranaise, Regards soiologiques29(2004): 3. For discussions o he problemaic saus o psychiary in he nineeenh cenury,


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see he classic works by Foucaul and Casel: Michel Foucaul, Birth of the Clini : An Ar-caeology of Medial Pereption, rans. Alan M. Sheridan Smih (New York: Panheon, 1973);Rober Casel, Te Regulation of Madness: Te Origins of Inareration in Frane, rans. by W.D. Halls (Berkeley: Universiy o Caliornia Press, 1988).

5. Michel Debeauvais, Qelques souvenirs sur les origines de Vincennes, n.d. Avail-able a . All he quoaions in his paragraph come rom his ex.

6. For a rigorous accoun o his homology, see Samo omi, Homology: Marx andLacan, S: Journal of the Cirle for Laanian Ideology Critique5 (2012): 98113.

7. For a discussion o his renunciaion, please see my aricle Te Capialis Uncanny in

S: Journal of the Cirle for Laanian Ideology Critique 8 (2015): 95-123.

8. Jacques-Alain Miller, Suure: Elemens o he Logic o he Signifier in Conept andForm: Volume 1, Seletions from the Cahiers pour lanalyse, ed. by Peer Hallward and KnoxPeden, rans. by Jacqueline Rose (London: Verso, 2012) 91101. Lacan himsel argues else-where ha his concepion is misaken, since he progress o mahemaical logic [en-abled] he subjec o science o be compleely reducedno suured bu vaporized (OtherSide, 105).

9. Te expressions, relaive auonomy and deerminaion in he las insance are bor-rowed rom Louis Alhusser. See Louis Alhusser, Conradicion and Overdeerminaion.In For Marx, rans. by Ben Brewser (London: New Lef Books, 1970) 111, 113.

10. See also Marie-Jean Saures reerence o his expression in Psychopahology andFracures o he Social Bond,S: Journal of the Cirle for Laanian Ideology Critique 8 (2015):

38-62.

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John Holland: Introduction to Jacques Lacan’s “on a reform In Its HoLe”