Zizek, Slavoj (2008) The Lacanian real: television. Lacan.com ,
Abstract
Lacan: Television – let’s proceed like idiots; let’s take this title literally and ask ourselves a question, not the question, “what can we learn about TV from Lacan’s teaching?” which would get us on the wrong path of so-called applied psychoanalysis, but the inverse question, “what can we learn about Lacan’s teaching from the TV phenomenon?” At first sight, this seems as absurd as the well-known Hegelian proposition defining phrenology, “the spirit is the bone”: the equalization of the most sublime, elusive theory with the vulgar mass-cultural phenomenon. But perhaps, as in the Hegelian proposition, there is a “speculative truth” beneath the obvious banality – perhaps certain peculiarities of the American TV program allow us to grasp the fundamental Lacanian proposition that psychoanalysis is not a psychology: the most intimate beliefs – even the most intimate emotions such as compassion, crying, sorrow, laughter – can be transferred, delegated to others without losing their sincerity.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
Research Centres and Institutes: | Humanities, Birkbeck Institute for the (BIH) |
Depositing User: | Administrator |
Date Deposited: | 17 May 2011 10:04 |
Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 16:52 |
URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/2266 |
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