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What advance is it?
TOURINHO SARMENTO Regina
A basis in psychoanalysis, and a fundamental concept introduced by Freud
as a support of the psychoanalytic theory and practice, the unconscious,
in its dimension of unattainable, permanently places the question of theoretical
advances that develop around it.
Freud instituted the concept of the unconscious. He mainly defined his
statute in three works: The Interpretation of Dreams, The Psychopathology
of Everyday Life; Jokes and their relation to the unconscious. He stated
that dreams were the main road to the unconscious. (1)
Lacan returned to Freud. He could read him with other tools. Linguistics
gave him a new point of view, and he recovered in Freud the structured
unconscious dimension as a language. He affirmed that jokes were the best
beginning to study the formations of the unconscious, the function of
the significant in the unconscious. (2)
Following the way of dreams or going in through jokes' door, where will
we be taken? Dreams put us before an enigma. Dreams are a rébus,
says Freud(3). Jokes in their form, in their verbalization are related
to a word game, to the release of non-sense, says Freud as well(4) . Jokes
give us words out of place, words presented without their original meaning
and ready to receive another one. Jokes put us before words that surprise
us. The possibility of surprise is indicative of the unconscious. Being
surprised by the unexpected, by the incomprehensible, by the enigmatic,
by the unintelligible, this is the effect of a meeting with the inaccessible.
(5)
Alain Didier-Weill, in his book The Three Phases of Law, works in detail
the matter of amazement, of sideration - Verblüffung - related to
spirituous maxim, jokes.
Following these ways of dreams, of jokes, of amazement, and taking as
main guidelines the question of theoretic advance in the unconscious concept,
I extract from Didier-Weill's text the next paragraph:
"Thus, with the Verblüffung, Freud finds out the function of
a significant that has the power of introducing a breakage in speech,
which is offered to the individual as an injunctive appeal, and by using
this fundamental contribution by Lacan he can change his speech from the
university speech -to which we are all used- into an analytic speech.
(6)
Appeal provides the possibility of giving oneself up, even if it is only
for a moment, to amaze, to dispossess of meaning, to the new.
This breakage introduced in speech, which is a disorder found out by Freud
from his works about dreams, is for Didier-Weill the scansion that Lacan
pointed out so much. Here he highlights that Freud moved backwards as
he did not introduced in his practice this breakage as an effect of the
unconscious production(7). What the speech breakage and the breakage as
scansion can evidence is the presence of a new knowledge. There is something
still not known and, this interruption can be either plugged as "already
known" or the arrival of "not known yet" should be accepted(8).
Jokes allow this privilege way through which one can perceive how the
unexpected comes out. They present an instant of surprise before what
is not known and immediately they allow the arousal of a new knowledge.
From the non-sense arises a new sense. Jokes do not allow going backwards.
For being part of the unconscious formation, the production of a joke
implies disregarding what is already known, the constituted knowledge,
in order to come to what in not known yet, that unconsciuos knowledge
that is what provokes change.
From this perspective of a knowledge that is not known yet, and taking
the theoretical advances in psychoanalysis, the unconscious promotes a
different way of dealing with this theory. If the unconscious is that
possibility of amazement, it is the possibility of letting oneself go
by a non-sense that will bring a new sense, which has effective consequences
in the psychoanalytic theory. It cannot be denied that there are advances.
Theory develops, it is complemented, and the troublesome items and the
returns take to developments. In the Freudian theory itself it is possible
to identify modifications in the way of focussing the unconscious. Metapsychology,
as well as the so-called second topic, for instance, introduces new points
of view, different preoccupations in the search of concept precision,
different from those found in the texts written around 1900. However,
the unconscious, being something indefinite, insistent, that challenges,
brings in itself the impossibility of an advance until a starting point.
The enigma of dreams, the stumble of lapses, the unexpectation of jokes
are always briefly showing the existence of another knowledge that surprises
us, that even though it is chased and oppressed, it always advances and
surprises us.
Lacan includes the breakage in speech in the analytic sessions, that is,
in treatments, through scansion and cut. Including this breakage in his
analytic theory was also an effort he made all along this teaching. In
his Writings he says he tries to write in a style similar to what he believes
the style of the unconscious is. Topology appeared to him as the possibility
of showing how the unconscious is shown.
The advance that can always place a theory in movement is the fact of
not missing this perspective, of considering the model that jokes provide.
In this sense, and now we are going to profit one of the resources used
by jokes -the homophony- we can think about the passage from the Freudian
Unbewusste to the Lacanian l'une bévue.
- Freud, Sigmund. The interpretation of dreams, Ed. Standard Bras.
Complete Works, RJ, Imago, 1977
- Lacan, Jacques. The seminar, book 5, The formations of the unconscious,
RJ. Jorge Zahar Editor, 1999
- Freud, Sigmund. The interpretation of dreams, Ed. S.B, Complete works,
RJ. Imago, 1977
- Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and their relation to the unconscious, Ed.
S. B. das OC. RJ, Imago 1977
- Didier-Weill, Alain - The three phases of law, RJ, Jorge Zahar Ed.1997
- Didier-Weill, Alain op. cit.
- Didier Weill op. cit.
- Didier-Weill op. cit.
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