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Structuralist theology
Levi-Strauss's theology
The bewildered
visionary
Rediscovering the
unconscious
Freud's legacy
In one sense both Wallon's version of the mirror theory and its
Lacanian derivative are little more than sophisticated
elaborations of this earlier biogenetic view except that now the
origin of consciousness is pushed back to a pre-linguistic level.
Traces of Lacan's biogenetic reasoning are visible when he
talks about six month-old children being 'backward in relation
to the chimpanzee' from the point of view of instrumental
intelligence, and 'catching up' with the chimpanzee only at
eleven months.[13]
In the quest for the phallus the subject moves from being it to
having it. It is here that is inscribed the last Spaltung [splitting]
by which the subject articulates himself to the Logos...
The schema shows that the dual relation between the ego and
its projection o o' (indifferently its image and that of the other)
constitutes an obstacle to the advent of the subject S in the
locus of its signifying determination, A. The quaternary is
fundamental: 'a quadripartite structure has, since the
introduction of the unconscious, always been required in the
construction of a subjective ordering...' Why? Because to
restore the imaginary relation in the structure that presents it
involves a duplication of its terms: the 'small other' being
exponentiated into 'capital Other', the undoing of the subject of
the signifying chain coming to double the ego. The symmetry
of reciprocity belongs to the imaginary register, and the
position of the Third party implies that of the fourth, which is
given according to the levels of the analysis, the name of
'barred subject', or dummy (mort).[23]
s'
S. S . 1
S' x s
NOTES
[10] Ecrits, p. 2
[12] Haeckel, The Riddle of the Universe, Watts & Co, London, 1929, p.
151
[13] p. 18
[21] Cioffi,
[30]
[35] For an excellent discussion of this point, see Mary Midgley, Beasts
and Man RKP
[36]
[39] quoted by Roudinesco from her own interview with Ricoeur, p. 392
[41] Quoted by Colette Chiland, 'Qui Osera Dire que L'empéreur est
nu?', Le Monde, January 1980
[44] Turkle, p.
[46]
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© Richard Webster, 2002
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