Effigy in Absentia
Ashley Geiger Pryor
USA, Toledo
“Man’s desire is the desire of the Other”? (Seminar XI) -- Jacques Lacan
Taking up the challenge of completing the Cumberland column, I was reminded of the work of the French psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan. Lacan’s theory of human subjectivity is a diagnostic of desire. According to Lacan, the human subject is constituted in and through desire. Desire is never directed to a particular object (even if we are convinced otherwise).Desire can have no object but rather is the process of moving from one object to the next. According to Lacan, the true objective of desire is to secure “the Other’s” (what we imagine to be outside of ourselves) recognition. Desire is for the thing that we suppose “the Other” wants. This is why desire is ultimately limitless-- and futile. Our desire for “the Other’s” recognition is unobtainable.
In his Seminar V, 12.03.58, Lacan introduces the famous graph of desire, which I have embedded in two of my images. There, he poses the question, ‘Che vuoi?‘ -- “‘What do you want?’ For me, this is a timely question as we face the monument/al crises that confront us. As we grapple with painful historical legacies of colonization and violence, it can be tempting to believe that we can simply substitute an offending image with a more salutary or liberating idea. But if Lacan is correct, matters may not, in fact, be so simple. What is the actual object of desire? And can it ultimately ever be obtained?
Ashley Geiger Pryor
USA, Toledo
“Man’s desire is the desire of the Other”? (Seminar XI) -- Jacques Lacan
Taking up the challenge of completing the Cumberland column, I was reminded of the work of the French psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan. Lacan’s theory of human subjectivity is a diagnostic of desire. According to Lacan, the human subject is constituted in and through desire. Desire is never directed to a particular object (even if we are convinced otherwise).Desire can have no object but rather is the process of moving from one object to the next. According to Lacan, the true objective of desire is to secure “the Other’s” (what we imagine to be outside of ourselves) recognition. Desire is for the thing that we suppose “the Other” wants. This is why desire is ultimately limitless-- and futile. Our desire for “the Other’s” recognition is unobtainable.
In his Seminar V, 12.03.58, Lacan introduces the famous graph of desire, which I have embedded in two of my images. There, he poses the question, ‘Che vuoi?‘ -- “‘What do you want?’ For me, this is a timely question as we face the monument/al crises that confront us. As we grapple with painful historical legacies of colonization and violence, it can be tempting to believe that we can simply substitute an offending image with a more salutary or liberating idea. But if Lacan is correct, matters may not, in fact, be so simple. What is the actual object of desire? And can it ultimately ever be obtained?