the life death drives - cengiz erdem

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The Life Death Drives

Cengiz Erdem

Supervisors

Jon Cook and Denise Riley

A thesis in TheSchool of Literature and Creative Writingsubmitted to TheFaculty of

Arts and Humanitiesin partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosohyat The !niversity of East Anglia.

May 2009


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The Life Death Drives

Publisher:Senselogi, ondon.

Copyright:Cengi! "rdem, #$$%. ISBN:%&'()(*$%#(%''+() Standard Copyright iense

#
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/http://www.copyright.gov/title17/


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Acknole!ge"ents

- glorify the folloing names ith praise for teahing, helping, and guiding me in

a perilous time/ Jon Cook, Denise Riley, 0ate Campbell, Anthony 1ash, 2oard Caygill,

Andreas Dorshell, 3atriia Dunker, Sean 4atthes, Sarah Churhell, Aileen Davies,

Colleen Clayton.

- ould also like to thank for different reasons, Claire5s heart, 6raindane,

4ustukillah Sound Squad, Dread "ntertainment Ageny, 1enetia, 7he 8all of Sound,

C!eh7ek and all Soma Reordings personnel.

7hat said, though, an essential party ould have been left unthanked andunpraised, unless The !niversity of East Anglia"s #nternational $ffice as glorified too,

for funding this pro9et.

:n the hole in the absene of all these people, institutions, festivities, organs,

olletive bodies, and establishments, - ould have never been able to finish this ork.

At times of despair their presene gave me the strength to go on; even hen there as

nohere to go on. 7hey ated out for me, in and through their presene, ho one

beomes hat one is. one ould

shake the foundations of one5s on mode of being.?

@


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#able o$ Contents

Aknoledgements......@

7able of Contents.....................*

Abstrat........&

Intro!uction: #he Cont%act Beteen &econstruction an! A$$ir"ati'e (ecreation

). :vervie.. ...'

#. :b9etive....)*

@. 4ethod...........)&

*. 7he ContBat.........#*

. Strutural Summary of 7he 7hesis............#+

PA(# )N*: #ilight Psyche!elia

Chapter I:Life and Death in a Raving New World....................@@

).


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Conclusion o$ Part I.....&'

PA(# #,): Cra$ty Cuts

Chapter III: Cinema and Psychoanalysis ..'*

). Cinemati Apparatus and 7he 3syhe.......'*

#. Dream,


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*. Artaud, Deleu!e, and the 8ill to Eothingness....)&$

. Artaud and 7he Shaman...)'$

+. 6ekett.)')

&. 0rapp5s ast 7ape....)'%

Inter"e!iation .....)%*

Chapter /I:Literat#re! Psychoanalysis! and Tra#ma.........)%

). Arhiteture of The White Hotel......)%

#. -s "veryman an -slandF....#$

@%3ro9etion(-ntro9etion 4ehanism in Jak 0eroua5s The Su)terraneans..... ..#)$Conclusion o$ Part III....#)%

Conse1uences Beyon! #he i$e &eath &ri'es........##)

)% 7he -mmortal Sub9et 6eyond 7he ife Drive........##)

#. 7he -mmortal Sub9et 6eyond 7he Death Drive.........##&

@. "Hpulsion of the Eegative and Affirmation of ife are 4utually "Hlusive..#@@

*. ContBation is not the same as imposing one order upon another..#@+

. "pitetusF Ies..............................................................................................................#@&

+. 7o 8hat "nd ast 8ordsF 7o hat end suffering......#*$

A3#*(,)(&...#*@

). 7he Gnhappy Consiousness.......................................................................................#*@

#. Conversation Around Eiet!she..................................................................................#*

&ilmograpy ' "iliography...........#')

+


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IN#()&4C#I)N

#he Cont%act Beteen &econstruction an! A$$ir"ati'e (ecreation

() *verview

7he fragile title of the introdution, hih splits as it unites deonstrution and

affirmative rereation, should not disourage the reader from even beginning to engage in

an enounter ith this thesis. 7his thesis is the produt of an intense meditation on the

relevane of


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also the form of the developmental proess, the ays in hih the failures of this

developmental proess manifest themselves, and here this developmental proess is

heading as seen in partiular orks of literature and inema.

7his thesis does not pro9et an apoalypti vision of eHistene. 4y ill is highly

optimisti, it is my intellet that is pessimisti.

:ne simply annot oneal from oneself hat all the

illing that has reeived its diretion from the aseti ideal

atually eHpresses/ this hatred of the human, still more of

the animal, still more of the material, this abhorrene of thesenses, of reason itself, this fear of happiness and of beauty,

this longing aay from all appearane, hange, beoming,

death, ish, longing itselfMall of this meansMlet us grasp

thisMa ill to nothingness, an aversion to life, a rebellion

against the most fundamental presuppositions of life; but it

is and remains a illN And, to say again at the end hat -

said at the beginning/ man ould muh rather ill

nothingness than not ill )

During the ourse of my investigation first - distinguish to distint forms of the

ill to nothingness. 7he first one is the death drive and the seond one is the life drive.

As e ill see, - used


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another5s masks and ostumes; they at out one another5s roles, and they keep the sho

business going on.

3erhaps hat as at stake as the onfrontation beteen "ros and 7hanatos, the

yet to be disovered life drive and death drive ithin him, hen Eiet!she prolaimed

himself Christ and Dionysus at the same time in one last ry. -n this light - see the life

drive and the death drive as the to onstituent parts of the ill to nothingness, to

driving fores behind the ill to nothingness, hih give birth to the to different forms

of ontemporary nihilism/ >Civili!ed progress? and >barbari regress.?

6ut that - don5t find the resolution of the onflit beteen them satisfying doesnot mean that - am dreaming of a higher form of reoniliation. 8hat - mean is that these

to are alays already reoniled, and yet that the only ay to atualise this

reoniliation is to think their separation through introduing a differene beteen them

that unites them as it splits them.

- see the failure of the relationship beteen ivilised progress and barbari regress

as something beoming inreasingly relevant for an analysis of ultural and natural

transformations of life. 7he ongoing onflit beteen hat e started to understand from

ivili!ed progress and barbari regress after 2egel and sine his three different

appliations to the study of ulture, embodied by Eiet!she, 4arH, and


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and this mentality sub9ets them to being reative fores that multiply themselves by

ontaminating the others ho are treated as inferior but are in fat >the strong.? -n pursuit

of esaping from that history of an error ritten by the slaves and hih is a produt of

slave mentality, genealogy.? -n origins.?#

8here the soul pretends unifiation or the 4e fabriates a

oherent identity, the genealogist sets out to study the

beginningMnumberless beginnings, hose faint traes and

hints of olour are readily seen by a historial eye.@

Eiet!she, 4arH, and


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8riting for different reasons, in a different ay, and in a different onteHt, the

solutions of the past are my problems. 4y aim is to sho that hat seems to be a

liberating attitude turns into its opposite and beomes a restritive and paralysing

theoretial approah. -n other ords, the symptom hih isthe non(reason inherent in

reason turns into the ure hen in fat it is the manifestation of the illness. 7his dynami

of a viious yle ill be the ma9or ob9et of this study.

7o stay alive in a state of onflit hat one needs to learn to do is to rite and

rerite a la for oneself as one goes along the ay; a la that is permanently in touh

ith the others ithin and ithout. :ne is to beome apable of imagining another orldand still live in thisorld in suh a ay as to turn life into a movement toards a ne

life. Death as a is interior to the sub9et as muh as it is eHterior to it.

7he Satyr, at his first sight of fire, ished to kiss and embrae it,

but 3rometheus said, >Iou, goat, ill mourn your vanished beard,?

for fire burns him ho touhes it, yet it furnishes light and heat,

and is an instrument of every raft for those ho have learned to

use it.?*

At the root of every progressive movement Eiet!she sees a traumati inident,

and for that reason the real is alays touhed through a surfae event. Eiet!she sees

progress as an effet of regress and regress as an effet of progress. Eiet!she onfuses

auses and effets.


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the ause of a traumati effet the transendene of hih is at the same time a proess of

passing through the state of being governed by a superior and yet unknon fore, death,

hih is interior and eHterior to the life of the sub9et at the same time. traversing the fantasy.?Deleu!e ould have said, it is, at the same time, traversing the

symboli, in that it is a passage aross the field of affetive intensities and partial ob9ets

here there remains no gap beteen fantasy and reality, psyhi and somati, part andhole, organ and body, self and orld, transendental and empirial. 7raversing the

fantasy is the proess of beoming in and through hih Eiet!she feels himself to be

>all the names in history.? 8here transendene and immanene beome one, there one

eHperienes a sublimation of sublimation, and learns to affirm life as it is by affirming the

negative ontat, and lives on as pure immanene surviving psyhi death.

All this, of ourse, requires a reali!ation that the eHternal fores, having beome

interior to the sub9et, themselves reate the onditions of negative ontat, and yet the

affirmation of the negating sub9et is itself onstitutive of the affirmative ontat.

Eiet!she had failed in surviving this proess of reali!ation. 7he onfrontation

ith the unonsious, the Real fores of the outside, had beome so intense that a

spiralling of his thoughts into nothingness beame inesapable. 2is painstaking proess

of riting against himself aused a turning against itself of his desire to immerse himself

in the haos of the Real. 8hen this ondition of impoverishment and eHhaustion

oinided ith his ill to rite he found the strength to say hat he may/ >And, to say

Slavo9 =i!ek, The Tic'lish Su)0ect Kondon/ erso, )%%%L, ))@


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again at the end hat - said at the beginning/ man ould muh rather ill nothingness

than not ill?+

+) *,ective

7he prinipal ob9etive of this thesis is to point out the ontinuing, and even

inreasing relevane of the onepts of life drive and death drive for ontemporary

ultural and ritial theory. 8hen


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signify and are signified by lifedeath ithout unonsious drives, but onsious desiring.

7his form of being in relation to the onepts of life drive and death drive enables me to

see these drives not as unhanging onstituents of human nature and life, or as solidly

defined onepts onstitutive of a ertain kind of knoledge about human nature and life

but as modes of being and forms of thinking produed and pro9eted onto human nature

by ultural produts. -n the light of this, - propose that these onepts an be used as

omponents of a mobile and dynami ritial apparatus targeting the orks in and

through hih the myths of life drive and death drive are not only produed, but also

eHploited andor oppressed.- attempt to sho ho the life drive is eHploited as the death drive is oppressed in

some literary and filmi teHts, hile the death drive is eHploited and the life drive is

oppressed in some others. 7he ondition of possibility for the oppressioneHploitation of

the lifedeath drives to take plae is sustained by a manipulation of the ambiguous

relationship beteen these to; they an easily reverse the roles and disguised as their

opposites, the life drive and the death drive beome enemies orking in the servie of

destroying the sub9et hose life, ith the advane of global apitalism and the

inreasing abuse of the reent developments in tehnology, has literally beome an

osillation beteen them.


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this situation in hih the sub9et finds himselfherself has beome not only imposed on

the sub9et but also illed by the sub9et.

As - already said, hile in some ases the death drive beomes the target of

eHploitationoppression, in some other ases the life drive beomes this target. - use teHts

from, inema, literature, philosophy, and psyhoanalysis in order to eHpliate this theory

of the emergene of the ne forms that poer, embodied by and embodying the 6ig

:ther, takes.

Gnless one splits the past and the present, the self and the other, the theory and the

pratie, the life drive and the death drive, the sub9et of enuniationKonsious desireLand the enuniated ontentKthe unonsious driveL, the ritial and the linial, it beomes

impossible to reate a spae out of hih a ne and pratial truth emerges, and hene

the onditions of eHistene annot be developed. All these binaries are separate but

ontiguous to one another, they are alays already reoniled but the only ay to

atuali!e this reoniliation is to introdue a split beteen them hih unites them as it

eHposes the gap inherent in their relationship. 8e are in the proess of reali!ing this

preisely beause e have started to see that if theory is not pratial it serves nothing.

7his reali!ation should bring ith it a ill to split theory and pratie, for their unity

means the destrution of both of them; already before the beginning of the proess of

beoming one they start destroying one another. 7heir oneness is their death, for one dies

as muh, more than one lives as suh.


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only possible but is also already at ork ithin the ontemporary psyhosomati and

soiopolitial realms of eHperiene.

-) .ethod

7he nature of this study requires an interdisiplinary and a multi(methodologial

attitude hih goes beyond the opposition beteen merely oneptual and merely

empirial approahes. -t is based on a mode of enquiry hih takes its driving fore from

thought(eHperiments that open paths to a ne field in hih various perspetives interat

and form an intra(sub9etive dimension of theoretial pratie situating psyhoanalysis,

ognitive neurosiene, and philosophy in the onteHt of ultural and ritial theory.


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6eause of the dynami and parallel nature of re(entry and

beause it is a proess of higher(order seletion, it is not

easy to provide a metaphor that aptures all the properties

of re(entry. 7ry this/ -magine a peuliar Kand even eirdL

string quartet, in hih eah player responds by

improvisation to ideas and ues of his or her on, as ell

as to all kinds of sensory ues in the environment. Sine

there is no sore, eah player ould provide his or her on

harateristi tunes, but initially these various tunes ould

not be oordinated ith those of the other players. Eo

imagine that the bodies of the players are onneted to eah

other by myriad fine threads so that their ations andmovements are rapidly onveyed bak and forth through

signals of hanging thread tensions that at simultaneously

to time eah player5s ations. Signals that instantaneously

onnet the four players ould lead to a orrelation of their

sounds; thus, ne, more ohesive, and more integrated

sounds ould emerge out of the otherise independent

efforts of eah player. 7his orrelative proess ould alter

the neHt ation of eah player, and by these means the

proess ould be repeated but ith ne emergent tunes

that ere even more orrelated. Although no ondutor

ould instrut or oordinate the group and eah player

ould still maintain his or her style and role, the player5s

overall produtions ould lead to a kind of mutually

oherent musi that eah one ating alone ould not

produe.&

7he model of mind oneptuali!ed by 1erald "delman shos us that the mind is

an embodied substane hih has the ability to adapt to hanges surrounding it. -f e

keep in mind that inema, literature, art, and musi sho ho the mind orks at a

&1erald "delman, A !niverse of Consciousness1 Ho2 +atter 3ecomes #magination KEe Iork/ 6asi6ooks,#$$$L, *%

)'


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partiular moment in history, as ell as the emotional state of that partiular moment, it

beomes lear hy a mode of enquiry rather than a speifi method is required for the

analysis and ritique of human onsiousness and its relation to the environment

surrounding it. -n this onteHt, the plot driven ritique of the literary and filmi teHts aims

at distinguishing beteen the orld of onsiousness and the orld of appearanes. 4y

laim is that it is only through looking at the mortal orld of appearanes ith the eyes

of an immortal onsiousness that e an see that hih is present as an absene in the

predominant symboli order. 6y looking at >hat happens hen? in a movie or a book as

ell as >ho that thing happens,? - sustain the onditions of impossibility as theonditions of possibility for ontKrLation to take plae and give birth to an immortal

sub9et. Eeedless to say, this sub9et is also an ob9et enountering and enountered by

the unknon ithin the knon, the haos inherent in the order itself, that alls forth he

ho has died so many times and is yet to die again and be reborn many more times so as

to live as dead again. 7he reader might be disappointed beause - ill not have pursued

and inorporated "delman5s neural Darinism and further developed the idea of a

onteHt(bound ognitive neurosiene and a matterKbrainL based ultural and ritial

theory. 7he reason for this is that - disovered "delman5s ork toards the end of riting

my thesis, and then rerote the#ntroduction. As a matter of fat, after this disovery the

hole thesis itself ould have been reritten. Just as the a hanges its ob9et and is in

turn hanged by that ob9et, my ritial apparatus, too, hanges and is hanged by its

ob9ets, in this ase ultural produts, be they filmi, literary or philosophial teHts. -t is

suh that this theoretial narrative moves on in suh a ay as to ut itself from its on

past and unite ith its on future at the same time, that is, in one simultaneous

movement in to diretions at one.

)%


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2ene it beomes lear hy - pay attention to >hat happens hen? and >ho

that thing happens,? at the same time.


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ithin and ithout mortal life at the same time that the eHploitation of mortality an be

brought into the spotlight. A ritique of the eHploitation of mortality inherent in

partiularly eHemplary ultural produts ill be ahieved through putting them in a

perspetive that analy!es the life death drivesin suh a ay as to eHpose the eHploitation

of the fear of death as the driving fore inherent in them. 7he point is that it is indeed

neessary to fantasi!e being hat one is not, in our ase being non(mortal, to be able to

beome self(onsious of one5s self(refleHivity in the ay of reating an order of

signifiation not aught up in the rotary motion of drives loked in 0lein5s pro9etion(

intro9etion mehanism, but rather one hih breaks this viious yle and at leastattempts to subtrat death from life in a ounter(at to the post(struturalist idea of life as

a proess of dying and death as an absent presene in the midst of life. -t is only through

suh a subtration of the absent presene of death ithin life that the produtive

interation beteen Deleu!e5s transendental empiriism,


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proess of intro9etion and pro9etive identifiation and rereates 0lein5s paranoid(

shi!oid position as a ay of shoing that it has to forms; one is healthy and the other

is pathologial.


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dominant ay of being reative e an understand hy a ritique of deonstrution is a

ritique of ontemporary ulture.

-n this thesis - try to eHpose the orkings of the deonstrutive pratie in ertain

orks of art, literature, and inema, hih, onsiously or unonsiously, eHploit the

ambiguity of the relationship beteen the life drive and the death drive, hene oppressing

the one or the other. Eeedless to say this oppression of the one or the other neessarily

eHploits the one or the other, for oppression of the one requires eHploitation of the other.

As a onsequene of this dynami inherent in ontemporary nihilisti ulture pro9eted

onto the sub9et, the readerspetator is removed out into the transendental orld ofunonsious drives, leading to an illusory sense of omnisiene on behalf of the

readerspetator.

7he differene beteen deonstrution and affirmative rereation is that in the

former an interation beteen the destrution of a struture based on metaphysis of

presene and reation of an opening, prodution of a void ithin the meaning of the teHt

based on logoentrism is at ork, hereas hat is at ork in the latter is a simultaneous

dismantling of meaning, opening up of a void in the onteHt of the teHt, and sustenane of

the onditions for the possibility of the meaning5s flo in and through this void and out

into the outside of the dominant onteHt.%Derrida5s ell knon proposition that >there is

nothing outside the teHt? is not the basi assumption of affirmative rereation; quite the

ontrary, a hole is opened ithin the onteHt, and the meaning of the teHt flos through

this hole. 7he meaning of the teHt is made to move on progressively, not 9ust left ithout

%-t is important to note that here onteHt signifies the dominant pro9etion(intro9etionmehanism. 7o go outside this pro9etion(intro9etion mehanism requires hat 6ionalls >the binoular vision.? 6inoular vision means that the sub9et is still ithin thedominant onteHt and yet he is also in touh ith another mode of being hih he is ableto pro9et onto the present and future. 6inoular vision is the first step toards reating ane situation out of the present situation. 8ilfred 6ion, A Theory of Thin'ing, Seond7houghts, Kondon/ 0arna 6ooks, )%'*L.

#@


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any foundations on hih to stand and onsequently fall. Deonstrution is onerned

ith eHposing the rigidity and the solidity of rigid strutures and solid onstrutions as is

lear from its name. -n a nutshell this is hat Derrida5s self(refleHive reading strategy

alled deonstrution does/ the soially and historially onstruted and generally

aepted dominant meaning of the teHt is eHpliated. And then this meaning is shon to

be self(ontraditory through the opening of a gap beteen hat the author intended to

say and hat he has atually said. -n affirmative rereation hat5s at stake is a melting of

the meaning and its ontinuous reshaping like a sulpture. 7he teHt is turned from a solid

state into something like lava or lay and kept hot for further and perpetual reshaping, notinto another ompleted sulpture.


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struture of the pro9etion(intro9etion mehanism and initiates hange in the ay of

opening up ne paths toards ne modes of being, thinking, and reation.

-t is important to note here that every pro9etion(intro9etion mehanism belongs

to the orld of unonsious drives. :pening a hole in the orld of unonsious drives

makes the good ob9ets and the bad ob9ets spiral into the void and the sub9et esapes

osillation beteen the paranoid(shi!oid position and the depressive position, or

beteen the life and death drives. 7his also means that the sub9et5s orld turns from

being governed by the metaphysial mode of prodution based on unonsious drives and

into the soial mode of prodution based on onsious desiring.7he onept of ontKrLat is the produt of an interation beteen deonstrution

and affirmative rereation. 7he ontKrLat produes an outside ithin the pre(dominant

pro9etion(intro9etion mehanism, or onteHt. ContKrLation onnets the ounter fores

of the inside ith the unnameable fores of the outside. 7he inard eHplosion reates a

turbulene ithin the pro9etion(intro9etion mehanism ausing the good ob9ets and the

bad ob9ets to spiral into the outside ithin reated by the ounter fores of the inside and

into the void onstituted by the unnameable fores of the outside. 8e must remember that

good and bad are onepts that belong not to the material orld but to the metaphysial

orld, not to life but to the beyond of life. As e kno, psyhotis see everything in

terms of a struggle beteen the fores of good and evil. -f e apply this psyhoti vision

to the polarity of the life drive and the death drive e an understand hat - atually

ant to mean hen - make a distintion beteen the orld of unonsious drives and the

orld of onsious desiring. 6ut by doing this am - not, in a psyhoti fashion, dividing

the orld into to; the bad orld of unonsious drives and the good orld of onsious

desiringF Am - not, in a ay, trying to transend the state of being governed by the

#


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unonsious drivesF - am indeed, for - still am ithin the psyhoti orld of metaphysis

trying to reate an outside, or an opening to loving ithout interpretation and

identifiation. 7o ahieve this - have to at self(refleHively, hih - think is hat - do

hen say it is neessary to pass from the state of being governed by unonsious drives

to the mode of being produtive of onsious desiring. 7his self(refleHivity and these

paradoHial statements are the forms this passage takes and they lie at the deentred heart

of my epoh.

7o sum it up and to larify it all - shall no say hat - merely hinted at right at

the beginning. 7he theory of ontKrLat employs deonstrution and affirmative rereationith the aim of sustaining the onditions of possibility for a fragile and yet affirmative

ontat not based on a ontrat beteen the self and the other, beteen the old and the

ne, beteen illness and health, beteen the linial and the ritial, and even beteen

life and death. 7he ounterat and the implosion are the omplementary positions of

ontKrLation, that is, of the theoretial pratie demonstrating an interation beteen

deonstrution and affirmative rereation.

1) 2tr#ct#ral 2#mmary of The Thesis

7he thesis is omposed of three parts divided into siH hapters, eah of hih is

divided ithin itself into several subsetions, folloed by the onsequenes and an

afterord. 7he three ma9or parts onentrate on three different disursive forms

Ktheoretial, filmi, literaryL and eah part stands for one of the three different positions in

the ourse of the developmental proess of a pratial theory of ontKrLation omposed

of to omplementary ations ounter to one another hih are deonstrution and

affirmative rereation. 7hese three positions in the developmental proess of a pratial

theory of ontKrLation, hih is onstituted by and is onstitutive of a theoretial pratie

#+


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demonstrating the interation beteen deonstrution and affirmative rereation, are

orked through appliation to ontemporary theoretialKpart -L, filmiKpart --L, and

literaryKpart ---L teHts.

7he enuniated ontent of the thesis is not one, but three. -f one of these is

missing, hoever, the other to annot persist.


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play dominant roles throughout the thesis. -n this hapter - also ompare the pro9ets and

ritial strategies of post(struturalism and the broken(heart.?

7he third hapter investigates the inemati apparatus and ho it is able to

diretly ommuniate ith the unonsious and shape it. - tend to believe that in its

present state inema is a mahinery that populates the spetator ith >bad ob9ets,? and

folloing Christian 4et!, - argue that it is not by saying that inema is the >good ob9et?

that inema ill get better, on the ontrary, my ritique of the inemati apparatus targets

its use as a tool for manipulating the unonsious; my ritique of inema is aimed at

ritii!ing a partiular use of inema hih gives birth to a larval fasism by onstantly

provoking pro9etive identifiation.

7he fourth hapter onentrates on David Cronenberg5s films inluding The Dead

6one, Dead 7ingers, .ideodrome, e8isten6, The &a'ed Lunch, and is aimed at

eHpliating Deleu!e5s version of the relationship beteen reativity and destrutivity. -n

Cronenberg5s movies e usually have an artist, a riter, or a sientist ho undertakes a

#'


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reative task andbut hose pro9et turns against itself in the proess through the

domination of his psyhe ith the non(symboli!able aggressive impulses. Cronenberg

portrays reative people ho in time turn into agents of destrution through siene and

art. And Deleu!e has often mentioned the possibility of an interruption of the reative

proess by the entry of a traumati kernel hih should remain non(symboli!ed and

unonsious if one ere to be able to go on reating onsiously ithout beoming self(

destrutive.

7he fifth hapter looks at the Surrealist movement and ho 6reton tried to use the

unonsious in a produtive ay and failed in doing so. 7o sho the shortomings ofSurrealism - use 6ataille5s omparison of Eiet!she and the surrealists and his ritiism

of Dali5sLugu)rious *ame. 7his is folloed by a brief omparison of Artaudian theatre

of ruelty and Shamanism. 8e ill have seen that Surrealists and Artaud laid the

foundations of to differently oneived tehniques of manipulating the unonsious

drives and eHploiting the ambiguity of the relationship beteen the life drive and the

death drive. 7he neHt setion of the fifth hapter is on 6ekett and analy!es 6ekett5s

generi thought as pointed out by Alain 6adiou in his book $n 3ec'ett. - try to sho ho

6ekett not only represents the human(ondition through subtration of the Symboli

from the Real, but also to portray a 6ekett eHpliating the dynamis of the unonsious

as a hole in the sub9et in his plays suh as Waiting for *odot, 9ra"s Last Tae, and

Endgame.

7he siHth hapter investigates the relationship beteen literature, psyhoanalysis,

violene and trauma. 4y intention in this hapter is to investigate the ethial and the

politial impliations of trying to represent the traumati kernel hih resists

symboli!ation. - espeially onentrate on D.4. 7homas5s The White Hotelhih is a

#%


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post(struturalist novel about the 2oloaust and a problemati!ation of the truth of

psyhoanalysis. 8orking through The White Hotel- attempt to put under a ritial and

linial magnifying glass the foundations of the ontemporary understanding of >healthy

living.? -n this hapter - also analy!e the interation beteen the life drive and the death

drive in 8illiam 1olding5s The Lord of the Flies and the orkings of pro9etive

identifiation and intro9etion in Jak 0eroua5s The Su)terraneans. 7his last hapter

prepares the grounds on hih - an finally sho, via Slavo9 =i!ek and


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and 7hanatos, or :edipus and Earissus; and Eiet!she oneived this division ithin

himself in the form of a division beteen Christ and Dionysus. 6ut hat about the Stoi

and the Septi, here do they enter the seneF

7oday Stoiism is onsidered a therapeuti philosophy of life and Septiism is

onsidered a ritial attitude. Stoiism adapts the sub9et to the eHisting order and

Septiism detahes the sub9et from it. 7hese to attitudes are embodied by Eiet!she,

hose life onsisted in an osillation beteen illness and health. 7herefore, a

onversation around Eiet!she beteen a Stoi and a Septi is atually a onversation

beteen linial theory and ritial theory taking plae ithin Eiet!she5s head.

PA(# )N*

Twilight Psychedelia

2hich is the asymmetrically dialectical narrative of a time of desair and in

2hich the resence of dar' thoughts dominate the scene% #n and through it the

@)


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reader learns that the strength of one time )ecomes the imoverishment of

another time% And at the end of an intense and yet condensed meditation in the

form of an interaction )et2een Post:Structuralism and Critical Theory, # find

myself standing firm outside in a erilous time% #n this art it loo's as though

there is no2here to go on, no one to go on, and that 2ith each sentence the 2riter

is moving further a2ay from 2hat he is trying to say% And yet, out of the )lue, an

une-ected truth emerges and the conditions for the ossi)ility of going on are

sustained% The voyage turns out to )e more erilous than it at first aears to )e%

$nce the end of this first art of the voyage is reached my visions sharen andturn against their su)0ect% This sharening of visions and turning against their

su)0ect is loo'ed at through Lacan"s and 9lein"s theories

C-AP#*( I:Life and Death in a Raving New World

() &re#d and 3instein

-n )%@) the -nternational -nstitute of -ntelletual Cooperation invited ertain

intelletuals to ommuniate and think about the solutions to the problems faing the

orld. 7he


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"instein as one of the intelletuals the -nstitute got in touh ith, and he proposed


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mutually opposing ation of both. Eo it seems as though an

instint of the one sort an sarely ever operate in isolation; it is

alays aompaniedMor, as e say, alloyed O ith a ertain quota

from the other side, hih modifies its aim or is, in some ases,

hat enables it to ahieve that aim. 7hus, for instane, the instint

of self(preservation is ertainly of an eroti kind, but it must

nevertheless have aggressiveness at its disposal if it is to fulfil its

purpose. So, too, the instint of love, hen it is direted toards an

ob9et, stands in need of some ontribution from the instint formastery if it is in any ay to obtain possession of that ob9et. 7he

diffiulty of isolating the to lasses of instint in their atual

manifestation is indeed hat has so long prevented us from

reogni!ing them.))


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direted outards, on to ob9ets. 7he organism preserves its on life, so to say, by

destroying an eHtraneous one.?)#-t is this senario that makes it possible to say that there

is a dis9untive synthesis at ork here. A term oined by 1illes Deleu!e, dis0unctive

synthesisdefines the operation in and through hih the to omponents of an apparatus,

a psyhi apparatus in this ase, appear to be to differently oneived onstituents of the

same thing.

7he influene of Eiet!she5s onepts of the ill to nothingness and eternal return

is pervasive in


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-n the fae of the present situation - pro9et a fe alterations onto


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as a metaphor of the modern poer struture hih has nothingness at its entre gains

ne signifiane.

At the periphery, an annular building; at the enter, a toer; this

toer is piered ith hite indos that open onto the inner side

of the ring; the peripheri building is divided into ells, eah of

hih eHtends the hole idth of the building; they have to

indos, one on the inside, orresponding to the indos of the

toer; the other, on the outside, allos the light to ross the ell

from one end to the other. All that is needed, then, is to plae asupervisor in a entral toer and to shut up in eah ell a madman,

a patient, a ondemned man, a orker or a shoolboy. 6y the effet

of baklighting, one an observe from the toer, standing out

preisely against the light, the small aptive shados in the ells of

the periphery. 7hey are like so many ages, so many small theatres,

in hih eah ator is alone, perfetly individuali!ed and

onstantly visible. 7he panopti mehanism arranges spatial unities

that make it possible to see onstantly and to reogni!e

immediately. -n short, it reverses the priniple of the dungeon; or

rather of its three funtions O to enlose, to deprive of light and to

hide O it preserves only the first and eliminates the other to.


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onflits and turning us into antagonists. -t does this by erasing the neessary boundary

beteen life and death, the organi and the inorgani, so as to reate the onditions of

possibility for manufaturing an illusory sense of oneness ith the orld, hene uniting

the sub9et of statement Kthe enuniatedL and the sub9et of enuniation hih should

remain separate from andbut ontiguous to one another for the perpetual transformation

and multipliation of life forms to take plae at the same time.

Eo - ill attempt to make a leap forard in the diretion of theori!ing a

pratial ay of handling the onflit beteen material prodution and metaphysial

prodution. -n hat follos, therefore, - try to sho ho this onflit arises and ho itturns into an antagonism.

-t is the pro9etion(intro9etion mehanism operating ithin and through the

apillaries of the )ody 2ithout organsaross the ne "arth only to reprodue that hih

it had attempted to eHpel as an organ 2ithout a )odyon the old "arth that produes the

to poles of the unhealthy onflit. :ne being soial and the other metaphysial, and

being against one another, these to are feeding neither themselves nor the other, but

ontributing to the prodution of otherness as negativity, hene taking part in the setting

of the very viious trap in hih they find themselves against eah other and out of hih

they both ome dismembered. 7hey are loked in an agoni!ing proess, hih is

destroying both of them. -t is impossible for one to survive ithout the other, and yet they

prefer to eat one another. Soial prodution produes eHlusion of the other, metaphysial

prodution produes an illusory image of the other. 8hen these to modes of prodution

ork together they reate the onditions of impossibility for a non(illusory and non(

antagonisti mode of being.

*$


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8e shall add to this, that although the problem is inherent in the pro9etion(

intro9etion mehanism itself e are looking for the soure of our maladies outside. 8e

are pro9eting all our bad qualities onto the others and then ausing them of being

negative toards us. -n turn e are giving birth to the negativity of the other, or otherness

as negativity. 7he negative ithin and ithout us is being reated by us sine e intro9et

hat e have pro9eted and inversely.

-) The 2#,ect and Power

7he relationship beteen the sub9et and poer is a theme that has played a

signifiant role in determining the diretion of "uropean thought sine Eiet!she, 4arH,and


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light "nlightenment appears to be merely a hange of roles beteen the masters and the

slaves; the problem inherent in the metaphysial orld of representation remains the

same. 8alter 6en9amin, for instane, arns against this trap set by the panopti

mehanism hih reates a eviathan ithin the sub9et. -n his essay, >7he 8ork of Art

in the Age of 4ehanial Reprodution? 6en9amin argues that inema an turn out to be

a fasist propaganda mahine if it falls in the rong hands. 6en9amin is not only against

the aesthetii!ation of politis but also the politii!ation of aesthetis. 8hat remains

unthought in 6en9amin5s essay, though, is the ideology of representational and

metaphysial oneptions of non(reason, hih is itself the problem inherent in thestruture of the system.

2ere it is also important to emphasi!e my differene from 2erbert 4aruse.

4aruse onsidered modern estern apitalist soieties to be sik. 2e thought himself as

the healthy sub9et outside a sik soiety and determined his goal as the healing of this

sik soiety. 4aruse5s politial philosophy as therapy is no more suffiient for the

inreasingly sophistiated problems of today.


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musi. 8ith eletroni musi the sounds are already there, loaded into the omputer; all

one needs to do to beome a musi produer has beome putting these sounds together,

making them overlap ith one another in a positively disordered ay and produe

something that is neither the one nor the other.

-f e imagine for a moment 6eethoven making his musi after the orhestra plays

it, omposing the piee after it is materiali!ed, e an see ho paradoHial the situation

the produer is aught up in inherent in the prodution proess of eletroni musi is. -t is

as if 6eethoven rote the notes of his musi as he listened to the orhestra play it. 8e an

see that this is in fat eHatly the opposite of hat 6eethoven did.


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Trance, and3rea')eat, laim that they are the beholders of the threshold beteen the

soma and the psyhe, that ith their alls of sound they keep them separate and yet

ontiguous to one another.

8hat e itness in this time is Aldous 2uHley5s 3rave &e2 World turning into

7ave &e2 World% A orld in hih the ell knon and the so alled lines beteen mind

and body, fantasy and reality, nature and ulture, organi and inorgani, life and death,

are not 9ust blurred, but have ompletely disappeared. And yet, at the same, these lines

are in the proess of reappearane.

7he reent developments in eletroni musi present us ith a good eHample ofho the inorgani has beome, at least in sound, more organi than the organi. 8ith the

rapid development of sound(produing mahines it has beome possible to reate suh

sounds that hile listening to it one feels like there is a living organism from a strangely

familiar realm making noises in the room, or orse still, that the noises are oming from

ithin one5s mind and body. istening to this kind of musi makes the mutual

eHlusiveness of the somati and the psyhi irrelevant. "speially after the three

dimensional medium presented by CDs and DDs it has beome possible to present the

sound to masses in a form that sounds more real than the original, live reording.

-t ould be rong to assume, as many have done, that this kind of musi is in

touh ith only a fe listeners. :n the ontrary, sine not only the listeners but also the

produers of this kind of musi have started to oupy dominant positions in the

advertisement prodution business, it is not surprising that eletroni musi, and

espeially the underground minimal tehno, is inreasingly being used as the bakground

musi surrounding the ob9et advertised in many advertisements on radio and 7.. 6ased

on the erasure of the boundary beteen the psyhi and the somati, or beteen the

*+


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inorgani and organi, the use of minimalist eletroni musi in the advertisements of

today5s heti life(styles is a very good eHample of the eHploitation of the lifedeath

drives inherent in ontemporary nihilisti ulture driving and driven by hat has almost

beome transglobal apitalism. 7he 1 G''$ ultra(slim mobile phone advert on 7.. is

preisely the hard(ore of ho this eHploitation of the lifedeath drives takes plae. -n the

advert there is heart beating in the phone. :r, the heart is shon to have a transparent

phone surrounding it. And ith the minimalist tehno at the bak, that is, sounds that are

neither organi nor inorgani but both at the same time. 7he beating heart in the phone

reates the deep and dark bass sound ith eHtremely eletroni and yet organi soundingnoises oming from ithin the phone. -t5s as though it is one5s on heart beating in the

phone; this phone is you, so it5s yours... -f e keep in mind that the transpareny of the

phone is fleshy, for there are apillaries of the phone, the overall impression reated is

one of ultra minimalist life redued to its bare bones hen in reality the 1 G''$ mobile

phone is itself the produt of eHatly the opposite of an ultra minimalist attitude. 7he

message is that this mobile phone is hat attahes you to life, hen in fat it detahes

you from life as it is. 7he finishing ords, >ife is 1ood,? only onfirms my ritique of

this advertisement, of this marvellous sound(image hih is an inorgani ob9et disguised

as a living organism. -t is obvious that hat5s at ork here is the eHploitationoppression

of the lifedeath drives, as the inorgani replaes the organi, and the real of death in the

midst of life is eHpelled.

-n this situation in hih - found myself 6en9amin5s and 4aruse5s theories are

insuffiient in that they do not reali!e that it is preisely the reversing of the roles poliy,

that is, presentation of something as its opposite, of an inorgani entity as an organi

entity for instane, or of that hih is inside as if it is outside, that has to be left behind,

*&


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for 3anoption and eviathan are ithin and ithout the sub9et at the same time, and a

reverse of the roles of the inside and the outside means nothing in this perilous time.


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of ressentiment%;


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7he Eiet!shean sub9et is alays at the periphery and perpetually in touh ith

the ob9ets surrounding him. -n fat he is not only in touh but also is defined by them.

7his sub9et is produed through hat it onsumes. 7he sub9et buys things and those

things determine the sub9et5s identity hih is a non(identity. 7he sub9et beomes hat

it onsumes, it pro9ets hat it has intro9eted. -n a orld full of violene, destrution and

death, or >madness in every diretion,? as 0eroua ould have said, the sub9et beomes

nothing but a pro9etor of the evil ithin soiety. 7his paradoHial nature of the

ontemporary Eiet!shean sub9et is a result of the turning of self into the other ithin in

the proess of beoming. 7he self of the present has not only beome a prison(house ofthe others ithin itself but also it itself has beome a self(ontained monad ith no

relation to the outside and no aareness of the eHternal orld populated by the others5

selves.

7he relation of a sub9et to the ob9ets surrounding himher shos us something

about the sub9et5s relation to death. -n a orld in hih use value as opposed to

eHhange value is important, the sub9et gets to kno the nature of the ob9ets and death

more profoundly. 6ut today use value is itself determined by eHhange value. 7he orld

today is almost eHatly the opposite of a orld in hih nothing is a substitute for

another thing.

8ith soieties based on eHhange value the relationship beteen the sub9et and

the ob9et is onfined in the paranoid(shi!oid position. 7here remains no gap beteen

the sub9et and the ob9et hen in fat there should be. "verything beomes a substitute

for another thing and everything is substitutable. 8ith the advane of global apitalism

the sub9et itself beomes an ob9et. 7he sub9et begins to at itself out as an ob9et for

the desire and onsumption of the other. 7he sub9et beomes a substitute of itself. 8ith

$


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global apitalism the sub9et starts to feel itself as a mahine; it beomes inorgani for

itself hen in fat it is essentially organi. -n other ords organs start to operate like non(

organs, all organiity is replaed by inorganiity, life ith death, and in this kind of a

soiety everyone is alays already dead.

1lobal apitalism indeed appears to have rendered everyone equal in relation to

eah other. 7hey all have the equal rights to onsume but in no ay have all the means to

do so. 7his status of the sub9et as a mere onsumer, ob9etifies the sub9et as a sub9et of

onsumption. 7he sub9et is redued to a onsuming(eHreting mahineKnaturallyL, or a

mehanism of intro9etion(pro9etionKulturallyL. 7hat makes everyone substitutable byanyone else; they an take on eah other5s roles, at themselves out as they are not, as

someone else is. -n other ords rather than beome no(one, no(body, impereptible, they

beome something eHhangeable and eHpendable. And yet it is only on the ondition of

feeling oneself as nothing rather than something, feeling of self as nothingness, an one

go beyond one5s symboli life driven by striving for seurity and omnisiene. 7he

sub9et should start to see the redution of self to nothingness as a gain hen from the

perspetive of the already eHisting symboli order it is a loss of the differene of

everything in relation to a sub9et or an ob9et. -n the absene of this kind of a sub9et

ho does not ant to beome an ordinary symboli person, herd(instint dominates all

sub9ets. 8ith the advane of global apitalism this herd(instint an be said to have

beome nothing but a result of the eHploitation of the life and death drives to redue life

to a struggleforand againstlifedeath. 7he sub9et no longer has to arry the burden of

being different. -n this light and in this time e an see global apitalism reating not

only the onditions of possibility for the sub9et to forget itself but also the onditions of

)


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impossibility for a remembrane of self, produing the non(knoledge of self as the

ounter(knoledge.

Eo that Eiet!she5s autobiographial book Ecce Homohas beome a symptom,

an effet of his previous books, the other ithin of his oeuvre, in most parts of "urope,

but espeially in the Gnited States of Ameria and 6ritain, this book is onsidered to be a

presription for the predominant ay of >healthy living.? -t ill almost sound offensive

to say that the other ithin of the past has beome the self of the present, the non(reason

inherent in reason has beome the reason itself, and yet the questions remain/

). 8hat an be learned from Eiet!she5s failure, hih aused and ontinues toause many other failuresF

#. 8hat are the onditions of possibility for a non(antagonisti and yet non(

illusory relationship beteen the self and the other and ho an they be

sustainedF

Inter"e!iation +

-n the previous hapter - tried to introdue ertain


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Derridean deonstrution in relation to the paranoid(shi!oid position and the depressive

position in the onteHt of intro9etion and pro9etive identifiation. :n the hole the

folloing hapter aims at onneting psyhoanalyti theory and pratie to more

philosophial issues onerning reative and ritial proesses.

C-AP#*( II: TheControversy

Eo, the history of depths begins ith hat is most

terrifying/ it begins ith the theatre of terror hose

unforgettable piture 4elanie 0lein painted. -n it, the

nursing infant is, beginning ith his or her first year, stage,

ator, and drama at one. :rality, mouth, and breast are

initially bottomless depths. Eot only are the breast and the

entire body of the mother split apart into good and bad

ob9et, but they are aggressively emptied, slashed to piees,

@


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broken into rumbs and alimentary morsels. 7he

intro9etion of these partial ob9ets into the body of the

infant is aompanied by a pro9etion of aggressiveness

onto these internal ob9ets, and by a re(pro9etion of these

ob9ets into the maternal body. 7hus, intro9eted morsels

are like poisonous, perseuting, eHplosive, and toHi

substanes threatening the hild5s body from ithin and

being endlessly reonstituted inside the mother5s body. 7he

neessity of a perpetual re(intro9etion is the result of this.7he entire system of intro9etion and pro9etion is a

ommuniation of bodies in, and through, depth.)'

*illes Deleuze%

() Nat#re! C#lt#re! and Lacan

Aording to aan a psyhoanalysable sub9et5s drama is an outome of the

onflit beteen nature and ulture. As Claude Qvi(Strauss put it, this onflit arises

from the inest taboo, hih is a result of the prohibition of marriage among family

members ho are tied to one another by blood.

-t is modern struturalism that has brought this out best, by

shoing that it is at the level of matrimonial alliane, as opposed

to natural generation, to biologial lineal desentMat the level

therefore of the signifierMthat the fundamental eHhanges take

plae and it is there that e find one again that the most

)'1illes Deleu!e, The Logic of Sense, trans. 4ark ester ith Charles Stivale, Kondon/Continuum, #$$@L, )'&

*


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elementary strutures of soial funtioning are insribed in the

terms of a ombinatory.)%


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beteen the me and the not(me, and sees himself as one, the hild is as yet a mere

Ksub9etL, that is to say a sub9et that is not a sub9et of ulture.#)

7he hild eHits the order of nature and enters the order of ulture through

symbols. -t is a symboli entry to the orld of symbols in hih a sub9et beomes the

sub9et. A symbol fills the spae in(beteen the hild and the mother and is the third

orld, the imaginary orld beteen the symboli and the real, hih takes the plae of

the unmediated relationship beteen the other to.

7he refletion on the mirror sets in motion the numberless intro9etive(pro9etive

proesses that the sub9et ill eHperiene throughout hisher life. Seeing the hole imageof self on the mirror helps the sub9et to develop a self(onsiousness as a separate being

neither in(itself nor for itself. 7he aareness of selfness brings ith it the aareness of

otherness. 7he sub9et distinguishes beteen the me and the not(me. 7his situation uts

the sub9et in to halves; one half is the omnipotent eHhibitionist and the other half is the

ob9et of the ga!e of others. Reali!ing that the sub9et is not only the observer but also the

observed produes a self(onsious onsiousness; being onsious of self as that hih

an never be fully onsious of itself.

7he sub9et is produed in and through language. 8hen the sub9et says - the

symbol beomes the mediator beteen the internal and the eHternal orlds, hih means

that language splits the sub9et and the ob9et as it unites them.


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phallus.


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use language to attain the lost ob9et, his striving for holeness is in vain, hih renders

him tragi and eHhilarating.


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as the ob9et of the other5s desire. -t is this that splits the sub9et. -n other ords every

individual re(eHperienes the tragedy of Earissus at the bak of hisher mind throughout

life. And it is this regressive re(eHperiening that produes and is produed by the real of

the sub9et5s desire.

7he father5s la forbids identifiation ith the mother and promotes

identifiation ith the ob9et of the mother5s desire. 7he father5s la is the la of the

ulture. -f the hild doesn5t obey the father5s la, that is, hen the hild refuses to leave

the mirror stage behind, the hild annot move on to the neHt stage and distinguish itself

from the others; it resists odifiation. 7his is hat a shi!ophreni is. 7o be loked in themirror stage is to be a shi!ophreni. 2ere the sub9et eHperienes eHistene as an

illusory reality. 2e an do nothing to at upon the orld for he doesn5t kno hat use the

ob9ets surrounding him have. 7he shi!ophreni ho refuses to pass from father5s

ivili!ing astration, is he ho esapes ultural odifiation. And ulture loks aay the

mad into a ell ith mirrors on all alls that hide the serets. A hain of identifiations

ith the ob9ets of others5 desires begins hen and if the sub9et passes through the

fantasy orld of the mirror stage and beomes rational. -t all ends ith an ideali!ed ar

ulture, hen and if ulture is built on and through the Eame of the


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+) No Replica5

0lein is the first psyhoanalyst to analyse a pre(verbal and pre(:edipal stage of

development, that is, before the hild starts to hate the father and ants to unite ith the

mother hom he believes to ontain the father5s penis. -n her Psychoanalysis of Children

0lein gives a good eHample of ho this adaptation to reality takes plae/

7he small patient ill begin, for instane, to distinguish beteen

his make(believe mother and his real one, or beteen his toy

brother and his live one. 2e ill insist that he only meant to do this

or that to his toy brother, and that he loves his real brother verymuh. :nly after very strong and obstinate resistanes have been

surmounted ill he be able to see that his aggressive ats ere

aimed at the ob9et in the real orld. 6ut hen he has ome to

understand this, young as he is, he ill have made a very important

advane in his adaptation to reality.#@

0lein analyses the proess of adapting to reality in terms of the hild5s relation to

his mother5s body. -n the first year of life it is through intro9etion of the mother5s body

as the embodiment of the eHternal orld that the hild learns to relate to reality. At this

stage the hild sees the breast as the representative of the mother. 7he hild pro9ets his

on reality onto the eHternal orld and believes that the mother5s breast belongs to him.

8hen the flo of milk is interrupted the hild beomes aggressive toards the mother

and bites the breast. Aording to 0lein this is the paranoid(shi!oid position

harateri!ed by oral sadism.

#@ 4elanie 0lein, The Psychoanalysis of Children, trans. AliH Strahey Kondon/ 7he2ogarth 3ress and the -nstitute of 3syhoanalysis, )%&L, ))

+)


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0lein assoiates this attitude of the hild ith the dynamis of an adult

shi!ophreni mind. A hild ho annot yet make a distintion beteen the inner reality

and the eHternal orld is like a psyhoti adult ho annot make a distintion beteen

hat belongs to his fantasy life and hat to the eHternal orld.

A good eHample to this situation an be seleted from the 2ollyood horror

sene. 8hat e see in the7ed Dragon, for instane, is a man ho over(identifies ith

2annibal eter, and beomes hat 2annibal eter identified ith in the first plae; a

psyhoti serial killer ho identifies himself ith 6lake5s7ed Dragon.

7he psyhoti serial killer ho believes himself to be onstruting a ork of artith stories of his murders, sees his riminal ats as the atuali!ation of a prophey, an

inarnation of the myth of 7ed Dragon. -t is through 8illiam 6lake5s painting, 7ed

Dragon,that the harater is familiar ith the myth of 7ed Dragon. 7oards the end of

the film e see him literally eating, inorporating, 6lake5s original painting. 7hat is hen

his total transformation from bodily eHistene to a mythologial dimension beyond the

flesh takes plae. Gntil that point in the film he is governed by the Red Dragon, no he is

the Red Dragon, hih means that he no longer takes the orders from a fore outside of

himself. 2e has intro9eted the soure of poer and has beome his on master against

himself. And perhaps he even believes that his beoming is omplete no.

-) The 2ignificance of 6lein7s &antasies

-t as 0lein ho emphasi!ed the importane of fantasies and playing in the

proess of development. -n her Psychoanalysis of Children0lein brought to light that as

humans e perpetually osillate beteen paranoid(shi!oid position and the depressive

position throughout life. 0lein ategori!ed the death drive as more dominant in the

paranoid(shi!oid position and life(drive as more dominant in the depressive position.

+#


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to represent its unonsious in a diret ay, and is thus not only

able to eHperiene a far(reahing emotional abreation but atually

to live through the original situation in its analysis, so that ith the

help of interpretation its fiHations an to a onsiderable eHtent be

resolved.#'

8hen a hild reates imaginary haraters, pretends that they are real and talks

ith them, this is onsidered as playing, but hen an adult does the same thing he is

onsidered to be a shi!ophreni, a sub9et of psyhosis. Shi!ophrenia is a term oined

by 6leuler to designate a set of symptoms suh as loss of memory and eHessivelyregressive behaviour usually assoiated ith old age. 7he shi!ophreni eHperiene, as

understood by 6leuler, is the reliving of hildhood near death in the form of a

disorgani!aton and loss of the piees onstituting the memory.

by pro9eting his terrifying super(ego on to his ob9ets, the

individual inreases his hatred of those ob9ets and thus also his

fear of them, ith the result that, if his aggression and anHiety are

eHessive, his eHternal orld is hanged into a plae of terror and

his ob9ets into enemies and he is threatened ith perseution both

from the eHternal orld and from his intro9eted enemies.#%

0lein desribes shi!ophrenia as the >attempt to ard off, master or ontend ith

an internal enemy.?@$7his theme is linked to 0lein5s disussion about the dynami of

envy.


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fantasy that the breast is good all the time beause it supplies the hild ith milk

henever he ants. 8hen the milk is denied to the hild the hild believes that the

mother is bad beause she is ithholding the soure of good. 7he hild splits the ob9et

into good and bad to save the good breast from possible damage aused by his attaks on

the bad breast. 0lein goes on to say that it is at this stage that the hild develops a sense

of eHternal reality by beginning to see the mother as another person, and the breast as a

hole ob9et hih is good and bad at the same time. 7his is the depressive position in

hih the same ob9et has onfliting signifiations for the hild. Gnderstanding that he

has been attaking not only the bad breast but also the soure of good indues guilt in thehild ho in turn learns hy not to be envious. 0lein sees guilt as therapeuti of envy.

8hat appears to be the illness turns out to be the soure of good in 0lein5s therapeuti

proedure. 8ith 0lein therapy is reaffirmed as the proess of reoniliation through

hih a rational sub9et is reated.

/) 6lein! Lacan! and Psychosis


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male hild to give up the mother. 7he seHual desire turns aay from the forbidden ob9et

and moves toards finding ays of eHpressing itself in and through metaphors supplied

by the predominant ulture.

Aording to 0lein the formation of the super(ego begins in the first year of life.

early :edipus onflit? is at the root of hild psyhoanalysis. 0lein says

that :edipal tendenies of the hild start ith oral frustrations and this is hen the super(

ego takes its ourse of formation.

7hese analyses have shon that oral frustrations release the

:edipus impulses and that the super(ego begins to be formed at thesame time. 7his is the beginning of that developmental period

hih is harateri!ed by the distint demaration of genital trends

and hih is knon as the early floering of seHuality and the

phase of the :edipus onflit.@)

-t is 0lein5s legay to have taken the beginning of development to a stage earlier

than the appearane of the Eame of the


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0lein attributes as muh importane to the death drive as she does to the life

drive.


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penis and the response this aggression gets plays a dominant role in the formation of the

super(ego. As it develops the super(ego beomes more and more important in the ay the

sub9et handles his relation to the orld.

by pro9eting his terrifying super(ego on to his ob9ets, the

individual inreases his hatred of those ob9ets and thus also his

fear of them, ith the result that, if his aggression and anHiety are

eHessive, his eHternal orld is hanged into a plae of terror and

his ob9ets into enemies and he is threatened ith perseution both

from the eHternal orld and from his intro9eted enemies.

@@

An aggressive attitude toards the eHternal orld damages the relationship ith

the eHternal orld; the eHternal orld is regarded as hostile, hih leads to aggression,

and this aggression in turn provokes hostility against the hild. -t is this kind of a viious

yle in hih many psyhotis and neurotis find themselves. 0lein desribes

shi!ophrenia as the >attempt to ard of, master or ontend ith an internal enemy.?@*


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priniple. 6ut aording to aan hat5s important is not the natural frustrations

themselves, but ho they are symboli!ed, ho they are represented in and through

language, ho they manifest themselves in the form of ultural produts. aan finds

0lein5s theories too biologial.

7o eHpliate here aan and 0lein disagree - ould like to give their opinions

on Dik ho is a four years old boy suffering from >psyhosis.? Dik, ho hardly ever

talks, is permanently indifferent toards the eHternal orld. -n Dik5s orld there is no

good and bad, there is nothing to be afraid of and nothing to love. -t is as though Dik

lives in a orld apart, in another reality. Dik5s orld is not strutured like language,there is no differentiation, and here there is indifferene there an be no differene, in

Dik5s orld all ob9ets and sub9ets are one.

Dik has a toy train hih he repetitively moves to and fro on the floor. 0lein

says, >- took the big train and put it beside a smaller one and alled them PDaddy train5

and PDik train.5 7hereupon he piked up the train - alled Dik and made it roll toard

the station - eHplained/ P7he station is mummy; Dik is going into mummy.5 @At the

end of this first session of therapy Dik begins to eHpress his feelings. -t is after Dik

beomes apable of situating himself ithin the symboli order in relation to his mother

and father that he beomes a human. 2e begins to play his role given to him by 0lein.

2uman reality is a mediated reality. 8e an see in Dik5s ase that the biologial

turns into ultural through :edipalisation. aan thinks 0lein5s therapeuti tehnique is

orret but her theory rong. 8hat aan thinks 0lein5s theory laks is the astrating

father figure ho says >Eo.? aan omplains that the astrating father figure is not

given a role in 0lein5s senario. -t is true that father is not given a role in the proess of

sub9et formation, but aan5s assumption that 0lein is :edipali!ing the hild is rong.

@4elanie 0lein, quoted from Deleu!e and 1uattari5s Anti(:edipus, *&$


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-n psyhosis the sub9et5s fantasy of unmediated omnipresene resists

symboli!ation. 7he sub9et annot turn his feelings and thoughts into symboli ats, he

annot make a distintion beteen the me and the not me, annot engage in

intersub9etivity. -ntroversion dominates the psyhoti and he finds himself in a orld

here nothing matters for nothing is differentiated. 7he psyhoti eHperienes his inner

reality as though it is the reality of all, he annot separate the inner from the outer. 7he

psyhoti5s reality esapes ultural odes. 7he psyhoti doesn5t kno the symboli

meaning of the father5s la. 7he la of the father establishes the order of ulture, but the

psyhoti refuses to ome to terms ith the father5s la and eventually annot overomehis frustrations. 7he mother5s role is determinant in the formation of psyhosis. -f the

mother doesn5t reogni!e the role of the father the hild remains loked in the imaginary

orld, outside signifiation.

3syhosis appears hen all the signifiers refer to the same signified. anguage

and meaning dissolve. oked in the mirror stage the sub9et identifies everything as me,

and the me as the phallus. 6ut the reality is that the >-? is not the phallus inside the

mother5s body. 7he psyhoti is deprived of nostalgia, of the feeling of loss hih is

onstitutive of the sub9et. aking lak the psyhoti sub9et laks hat aan alls

>lak in being.? And laking lak in being the sub9et annot identify his natural self as

being separate from the ultural ob9ets of identifiation. 6y entering the symboli order

the narissisti sense of oneness, >the oeani feeling,? is lost. And this loss opens a gap

ithin the sub9et, hih the sub9et tries to fill ith the ob9ets of identifiation

presented to it by the predominant ulture. -dentifiation is a ay of ompensating for the

emptiness ithin the sub9et aused by the loss of sense of oneness. 6ut the unonsious

desires an never be satisfied by metaphors. 7o overome the frustration aused by the


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loss of his fantasy orld, the sub9et turns toards symboli ats in the ay of limbing

up the soial ladder. 7he sub9et beomes a dotor, pilot, teaher; all to endure the pain of

not being able to satisfy one5s unonsious desires, or the Real of one5s desire. -t is in this

onteHt that aan sees repression as produtive of the sub9et as a split sub9et. 6eause

the psyhoti has lost nothing, laks nothing, he has no motivations for suh pursuits as

beoming a dotor, pilot, or teaher. 7he psyhoti has no sense of nostalgia and he is

therefore eHtremely indifferent to the eHternal orld. "Hperiening no frustrations in the

fae of the harsh reality of not being one, the psyhoti desires nothingness.

1) 6lein! Derrida! Deconstr#ction

Aording to 0lein e all osillate beteen the paranoid(shi!oid position and

the depressive position throughout our lives. 7his means that none is normal sine the

orld is a plae in hih all kinds of abnormalities take plae all the time and nobody

an be a normal person independently of all these abnormalities. :ne may hoose

ithdraal and indifferene in a Stoi fashion, but ho an laim that this is normalF

7he only thing that is normal is that nothing is normal.

0lein used the ord Pposition5 as she as reating her onepts to designate

moods hih one finds oneself in throughout life. -t is neessary to underline the ord

Pposition5 beause the ord Pposition5 is espeially hosen to signify psyhi onditions

rather than stages of a linear ourse of development. 7he paranoid(shi!oid position and

the depressive position are omplementary situations of the sub9et in a non(linear

ourse of development hih attahes to the death drive, as muh important a role as it

does to the life drive in the ourse of development. -t is obvious that for 0lein the

relationship beteen regress and progress is not in the form of a symmetrial binary

opposition.@&

@&4elanie 0lein, $ur adult 2orld and other essaysKondon/ 2einemann, )%&L&@


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-f e keep in mind that reativity means reating a meaning out of the

meaningless haos e an see ho 0lein5s theory an be used in the servie of a ritial

theory aiming at destroying the stati unities and rereating non(stati formations.

-nfluened by 0lein, 8ilfred 6ion developed a theory of thinking onentrating on hat

0eats alled negative apability. Eegative apability is the ability to remain intat in the

fae of not(knoing throughout the thinking proess. 8hile 0lein emphasi!ed the

negative aspets of the paranoid(shi!oid position and gave a more important role to the

depressive position in the developmental proess, 6ion argued that fragmentation of

previous theories is as important as the reintegration proess for the emergene of nethought. A 7heory of 7hinking,? Second Thoughts1 Selected Paers on PsychoanalysisKondon/

0arna, )%+&L

&*


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As the sub9et5s intensity of self(onsiousness inreases, so does its pain and

anHiety in the fae of death. 7his auses hopelessness and despair hih may or may not

lead to a total devastation of the pro9et of inverting and putting into the spotlight the

nothingness at the entre of the sub9et. 2eidegger repeatedly puts all this don in 3eing

and Timehen he says that >being(toards(death is angst.? :ne ure for eHpelling

anHiety has been to believe in god, any other metaphysial onstrut, or in some ases it

has even taken the form of a materialist system of thought; in all these ases, hoever, an

esape is seen as a solution hen in fat it is the problem itself.


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ithin itself destrutivity and inversely. -t may not be neessary to destroy something

intentionally to reate something ne, but to have destroyed something is usually a

onsequene of having reated something ne. Jaques Derrida5s reading strategy alled

deonstrution eHposes ho a teHt rites and unrites itself against its dominant

meaning and in ontrast to ommon sense pereption. - see Derrida5s orpus as an intense

meditation on the meaning of meaning itself.


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everything disappears and nothing oneivable remains ithin the teHt. -t is true that

deonstrution dissolves the transendental signified but the question remains/ 8hat is

the prie paid hen the transendental signified is deonstruted rather than affirmatively

rereated and turned into an immanent sign here and no. -n Derrida there is the aiting

for the ne to arrive but no ation is taken in the ay of making this arrival possible no.

8e shall ask hy not rereate oneself as the ne, hy not do it no and give birth to the

ne here and no, hy not be the ne in ationF -n a fashion similar to 2amlet, Derrida

perpetually postpones the ation by playing ith language and ends up loking himself

up in an endlessly deferred self(perpetuating, self(onsuming, and self(refleHive endgameith no beginning and no end, making it impossible for onsious desire to engage in

effetive ation.

Conclusion o$ Part I

"araric Regress and Civilised Progress contra Deconstr#ction and 4ffirmative

Recreation

-n 2omer5s :dyssey the all of the sirens is a sign addressed to men ho an only

survive this sedutive all by turning a deaf ear to it, by ignoring, not aknoledging and

repressing their desire for it. -f the desire is of a visual ob9et then you an turn a blind

eye on it, or you may prefer not to lose your eyes and 9ust look at the ob9et of desire;

you an be a voyeur or an innoent itness if you ish. 6ut the seHual sign that targets

the ear is muh more dangerous. 7he ears don5t have lids. And the voyeurism by ears, in

ontrast to normal voyeurism, an only give pain rather than pleasure. -n eonard

Cohen5s song, Paer Thin Hotel, the man5s pain listening to the seHual interourse neHt

&&


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door is immeasurable; but if there as a hole on the all, things ould have been

otherise.

:dysseus5 ay of proteting himself from the all of the sirens is different from

his ompanions5. 2e doesn5t stop his ears ith aH; quite the ontrary, he is more than

illing to hear the all. 6ut against the danger of folloing the all he has himself tied on

the mast. 7he oarsmen5s stopping their ears to the all, and :dysseus5 having himself tied

to the mast so as not to follo the all, are the to different versions of resisting the

sirens. 8hile the former is a measure taken by the ego against the ob9et of desire, the

latter is that of the super(ego. -n stopping one5s ears ith aH hat5s at stake is a ill notto hear, pretending as though the ob9et of desire didn5t eHist, the desire is repressed, and

the ob9et is forgotten. 8hereas by having oneself tied to the mast one hears the sirens,

the desire is aepted but not pursued; the ob9et is onsiously resisted. 6ut hat is this

thing that is so forefully prohibited, hih hen adhered to leads to death, and hen

ignored makes life so boring and eHistene so banalF 7o this question there are to

ansers hih in the end beome one.

7he first anser is aanian/ the all of the sirens represents the desire for the

mother. 7his desire for the mother is neither totally instintive, nor totally seHual. -t

belongs to a period here the instintive and the seHual are one. 7his desire is prohibited

by the father. And the aeptane of the impossibility of uniting ith the mother auses

groth. "very hild desires the hole of the mother, not 9ust parts of her. 7he mother,

hoever, is fragmentary from the beginning; in Adam 3hillips5 ords, the mother is

promisuous. So there is the tragedy/ on the one hand there is the obsessive attahment,

and on the other hand there is the paranoid reation.

&'


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7here is an abundane of teHts depiting the tragedy born of the tension beteen

promisuous omen ho are openly open to other relationships at all times and

obsessively in love men ho are hyporitially monogami throughout the history of

literature. 7he femme fatale is nothing but the arhetype of the unsatisfied desire for the

mother.

8ith the la of the father the desire for the mother beomes a real all of the

sirens. -f the hild obeys the all, the result is death, or a psyhoti eHistene signifying

death. -n psyhosis the sub9et builds his life on an obsession for the unattainable mother,

and his every at ill be in the ay of attaining the armth, seurity, and protetiveenvironment of the omb. Eot to beome a psyhoti the hild hooses another ay; he

hooses to lose his ears to the all and obey the la of the father; but then he beomes

an ordinary neuroti. 3erhaps the best ay to hoose is to fae and aept the desire for

the mother, aknoledge the all of the sirens, but not to follo it.

7he seond anser to hat the sirens signify is


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and release, pain and pleasure do not eHist.


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no sense of value, truth, meaning. 2e feels nothing for the orld of goodness. "ventually

the death drive produes the most aggressive response imaginable to the onflit beteen

ivili!ed progress and barbari regress onstitutive of ontemporary nihilism. 6ut that the

response of the death drive is the most aggressive one does not mean that it is destrutive,

on the ontrary, it gives aggression a ne form. -t is not aggression that is bad in(itself,

rather, hat5s important is the form aggression takes.

Gnfortunately today many forms of ritial attitude toards global apitalism take

on a nihilisti, reative, and slavish role, rather than an affirmative and ative response,

and fall vitim to their on ressentiment, or hat 0lein ould have alled envy%- think aritial attitude toards this nihilism produed by the onditions of global apitalism

should be in the ay of developing a pratial theory of theoretial pratie for hange,

driven by and driving an interation beteen deonstrution and affirmative rereation ((

a ontKrLation (( rather than total negation leading to barbari regress and violene.

-t ills no not eHatly hat ours, but something in that hih

ours, something yet to ome hih ould be onsistent ith

hat ours, in aordane ith the las of an obsure, humorous

onformity/ the "vent. -t is in this sense that the amor fati is one

ith the struggle of free man. 4y misfortune is present in all

events, but also a splendor and brightness hih dry up misfortune

and hih bring about that the event, one illed, is atuali!ed on

its most ontrated point, on the utting edge of an operation. All

this is the effet of the stati genesis and of the immaulate

oneption.@%

@%1illes Deleu!e,The Logic of Sense, transl. 4ark ester Kondon/ Athlone, )%%$L, )*%')


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7hat at the root of every progressive movement there is a traumati inident, ar,

destrution, suffering, pain, is as yet a ommonly held opinion. 8hat e see through the

opposition beteen >ivili!ed progress? and >barbari regress? is that both these

attitudes, these to differently oneived forms of nihilism, have at their ore the life

drive disguised as the death drive and inversely/ they are toards totalitarianism and

stasis rather than dynamism and multipliity. 6oth ignore the foundational question

hih is ho to be and let the other be rather than to be or not to be. 7he problem today

is to kno ho to beome hat one is ithout onfining the other into the realm of non(

being. 2o to reate the self in suh a ay as not to be destrutive of the other and itselfat the same timeF

PA(# #,)

Crafty C#ts

in 2hich # find myself and my sharened visions turned against their su)0ect% Here is

there 2here # might have said, if # had a voice to say, ho2 the sharening visions of the

su)0ect turn against their su)0ect% And 2ould go if # could have gone, to the culmination

oint of all these directions, 2here there is one marvelous sign% # see that the more

affirmative one"s attitude to2ards life gets the more fragile the contact 2ith the other

)ecomes% Parado-ically, as # sho2 myself to have found myself standing firm outside in a

time of derangement and loss of oneness, the reader 2itnesses that as the contact

)ecomes more fragile and affirmation more difficult, maintaining the conditions for the

'#


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death drive. 8hat the dream does is to supply the unonsious ith ob9ets to hih it

an attah its drives, give them a meaning and turn the unonsious drives into onsious

desire. Dreams keep the natural and the ultural separate but ontiguous to one another.

Dream language is loser to the dynamis of the unonsious than the logi of fantasies.


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utting himself off from arrying the burden of his rime as a free man. 8ith the 9ury

telling him that he is no free, he does not have to be punished anymore, his fantasy

ollapses. 2e reali!es that redemption requires an eHternal soure. 7hat by believing he

as being redeemed didn5t mean that he as really being redeemed. 2e has to be

redeemed in the eyes of another, in the eyes of the ones ho suffered the most beause of

his rime.

-n a standard proess of development the sub9et is eHpeted to hoose the ob9ets

of desire from the opposite seH and the ob9ets of identifiation from the same seH. 7he

sub9et intro9ets the ob9ets of the same seH as ob9ets of identifiation and the ob9ets ofthe opposite seH as ob9ets of desire. -n turn the sub9et pro9ets his intro9eted ob9ets of

identifiation onto his ob9ets of desire, the other seH, strengthening his image of self in

the eyes of the ob9ets of the same seH ho are hisher ob9ets of identifiation.

8hat

the life death drives - cengiz erdem

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