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Bachner-Anagrams in Psychoanalysis
Bachner-Anagrams in Psychoanalysis
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ANAGRAMSIN PSYCHOANALYSIS:
RETROPINGCONCEPTSBY SIGMUNDFREUD,
JACQUESLACAN,AND JEAN-FRANOISLYOTARD
Andrea Bachner
Whyanagrammatizepsychoanalysis?
COMPARATIVE
LITERATURE
STUDIES
Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
IO
Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
Lac(k)anagrams
12
/phonocentrism/
Anagrams in Psychoanalysis
13
/point de capiton/
Nulle chane signifiante en effet qui ne soutienne comme appendu
la ponctuation de chacune de ses units tout ce qui s'articule de
contextes attests, la verticale, si Ton peut dire, de ce point.
C'est ainsi que pour reprendre notre mot: arbre, non plus dans son
isolation nominale, mais au terme d'une de ces ponctuations, nous
verrons que ce n'est pas seulement la faveur du fait que le mot barre
est son anagramme, qu'il franchit celle de l'algorithme saussurien.
Car dcompos dans le double spectre de ses voyelles et de ses
consonnes, il appelle avec le robre et le platane les significations dont
il se charge sous notre flore, de force et de majest. Drainant tous les
contextes symboliques o il est pris dans l'hbreu de la Bible, il dresse
sur une butte sans frondaison l'ombre de la croix. Puis se rduit IT
majuscule du signe de la dichotomie qui, sans l'image historiant
l'armoriai, ne devrait rien l'arbre, tout gnalogique qu'il se dise.
Arbre circulatoire28
[There is in effect no signifying chain that does not have, as if attached to the punctuation of each of its units, a whole articulation of
relevant contexts suspended Vertically', as it were, from that point.
14
Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
15
/Borromeanknots/
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Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
17
Lyotardred(r)earnedfigures
argumentsin Discours,
LyotarcTs
figurecanbe seen as anotherdisplacement
of the anagramin the wake of Saussureand Freud,but- at least superficially so in strong contrastto Lacans dis/avowalof anagrammaticconcepts. Lyotard'sproject consists in redeeming the figure that has been
relegatedto a secondarystatusby the logos of discoursein the serviceof a
seamlesssignifyingprocess:
Ce qui est sauvageest Tartcommesilence.La positionde l'artest un
dmenti la position du discours.La position de l'artindiqueune
fonctionde la figure,qui n'estpas signifie,et cette fonction autour
et jusque dans le discours.Elle indique que la transcendancedu
symbole est la figure, c'est--direune manifestationspatiale que
l'espacelinguistiquene peut pas incorporersans tre branl,une
extrioritqu'il ne peut pas intrioriseren signification.L'artest
pos dans l'alteriten tant que plasticitet dsir,tendue courbe,
face l'invariabilitet la raison,espace diacritique.L'artveut la
figure,la 'beaut'est figurale,non-lie, rythmique.Le vrai symbole
donne penser,mais d'abordil se donne Voir'.(13)
[What is wild is artas silence.Thepositionof artis a dementiof the
positionof discourse.The positionof art indicatesa functionof the
figure,which is not signified,and this functionaroundand even in
discourse.It indicates the transcendenceof the symbol as figure,
that is, a spatialmanifestationthat linguisticspacecannotincorporatewithoutbeing shaken,an exterioritythat it cannotinteriorizeas
signification.Art, in its plasticityand desire, curved extension,is
andreason,diacriticspace.
placedin alterity,confrontinginvariability
Art wants the figure,"beauty"is figurai,unrelated,rhythmic.The
realsymbolprovokesthought,but first,it gives itself up to "sight."]
Given this strongemphasison the energetic,the visual,the non-logical, Lyotards textualsurfaceitself is strangelydevoidof figurality(I would
claimthat the inclusionof picturesin the text or as appendixdoes not grant
figuralitymore than a marginalposition). Lyotardhimself points to the
lackof figuralityin his work.Even though it lays claim to partakingof the
sphereof art "lasignificationest fragmentaire,il y a des lacuneset [. . .]
des rbus"(18) ["the significationis fragmentary,there are gaps and re-
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Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
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COMPARATIVE
LITERATURE
STUDIES
Anagramsin Psychoanalysis
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COMPARATIVE
LITERATURE
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CombinatorialParanoia
Anagrams in Psychoanalysis
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Notes
1. As I will point out in the next section of this essay, more recent literary as well as
theoretical traditions have rediscovered the anagram. One could argue that more often then
not, the anagram is not used with all its implications, but serves merely as the basis for a
much more general concept (Saussure's hypograms, Kristeva's paragrams), or for a much
looser literary use- and I will follow this route in my essay. But is this not also the case in
the uses of metaphor and metonymy?
2. See Frederick Ahl's essay "Ars Est Caelare Artem (Arts in Puns and Anagrams Engraved)," On Puns: The Foundation of Letters, ed. Jonathan Culler (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988)
17-43.
3. Quoted in Luzia Braun/Klaus Ruch, "Das Wrfeln mit den Wrtern: Geschichte und
Bedeutung des Anagramms," Merkur 42 A (469) (1988): 233.
4. As this is an anagrammatic poem, the translation can merely transport the content of
the poem and try to imitate some of its irregularities due to the anagrammatic constraints
without being able to preserve its anagrammatic form. Where the sources of the translations
are not explicitly indicated, the translations are mine.
5. See Anselm Haverkamp, "Anagramm und Trauma: Zwischen Klartext und Arabeske,
Zeichenzwischen Klartext undArabeske,ed. Susi Kotzinger and Gabriele Rippl (Amsterdam:
Rodopi, 1994) 169-174; Lynn Higgins, "Literature ' la lettre': Ricardou and the Poetics of
Anagram,"RomanicReview 73 A (1982): 473-488; and Alain Chevrier,"L'Anagrammecomme
genre potique nouveau," Critique 44.492 (1988): 416-430.
6. For discussions of the anagram connected to such issues, see Luzia Braun/Klaus Ruch,
"Das Wrfeln mit den Wrtern: Geschichte und Bedeutung des Anagramms," Merkur 42 A
(469) (1988): 225-236, and also H. Hunger, "Anagrammatismos Paragrammatismos: Das
1-11.
84-85.1
mit
den
(1991-1992):
Buchstaben,"
Spiel
Byzantinische Zeitschrift
7. Jean Starobinski, Les mots sous les mots (Paris: Gallimard, 1971) 27-28.
8. Signs can be read in a dematerialized way, as simple carriers of signification, or in a
der
material way, as figurai themselves. See Ina Schabert, "Das Doppelleben
Menschenbuchstaben," Zeichen zwischen Klartext und Arabeske, ed. Susi Kotzinger and
Gabriele Rippl (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994) 95-106, and Jean-Franois Lyotard, Discours,
fwure, 2nd ed. (Paris: Klincksieck, 1974).
9. This problem of intentionality is read by critics like David Shepheard as a positive,
creative ambiguity. See "Saussure's Vedic Anagrams," The Modern Language Review 77.3
(1982):512-523.
24
COMPARATIVE
LITERATURE
STUDIES
Letras?>\{\99\):\-9.
12. Julia Kristeva, Semeiotike:Recherchespour une smanalyse(Paris: Seuil, 1969) 175.
13. This is foregrounded by Lynn Higgins in the context of Ricardous literary practice in
"Literature' la lettre': Ricardou and the Poetics of Anagram," Romanic Review 73.4 (1982):
473. She writes, "words are but one of many possible signifying systems upon which anagrams can operate."
14. I have attempted a translation whenever possible, but some of the slips of the tongue
cannot really be rendered in translation. In the context of my analysis, such criticisms as
Andrew W. Ellis' of the errors in Freud's concept of speech errors (as proven by recent
research) seem to be highly irrelevant. See "On the FreudianTheory of Speech Errors,"Errors
in Linguistic Performance,ed. Victoria A. Fromkin (New York:Academic, 1980) 123-131.
15. Sigmund Freud, PsychologischeSchriften(Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 1970) 38.
16. Freud, Vorlesungenzur Einfuhrung in die Psychoanalyse, 10th ed. (Frankfurt/Main:
Fischer, 2000) 173.
17. Kristeva, "Revolution in Poetic Language," The Kristeva Reader, ed. Toril Moi (New
York: Columbia UP, 1986) 111, emphasis Kristeva's.
18. Freud, Die Traumdeutunv,8th ed. (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 1998) 483.
19. Freud, Das Unbehaven in der Kultur, 5th ed. (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 1997) 37.
20. Emmanuel Filhol, "L'analyseFreudienne des formations de l'inconscient: Une logique
du signifiant," Travaux de Linguistique 28 (1994): 134 and 138.
21. Marcelo Dascal, "Language Use in Jokes and Dreams: Sociopragmatics vs
Psychopragmatics," Language and Communication5.2 (1985): 105, emphases Dascal's.
22. See Michel Arriv, "Lacan sur le style, sur le style de Lacan, Qu est-ce que le style? ed.
Georges Molinie etc. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1994) 45-61; and James
Glogowski, "The Psychoanalytical Textuality of Jacques Lacan," Prose Studies 11.3 (1988):
13-20. Both critics engage (at least partly) in an explanation of Lacan's style through and in
the context of his theories.
23. Jacques Lacan, Le SminairedeJacquesLacan. Livre XX. Encore1972-1973, ed. JacquesAlain Miller (Paris: Seuil, 1975) 37.
24. Jean-Joseph Goux, "Lacan Iconoclast," Lacan & Human Sciences,ed. Alexandre Leupin
(Lincoln, London: U of Nebraska P, 1991) 117-118, emphases Goux's.
25. It would be almost impossible to translate these word plays.
26. Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: On Feminine Sexuality/The Limits of Love and
Knowledge. Book XX. Encore 1972-1972, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Bruce Fink (New
York: Norton, 1998) 120. 1 will use this translation for all subsequent quotes from Encore,
only indicating page numbers.
27. See Ellie Ragland- Sullivan, "Stealing Material: The Materiality of Language according to Freud and Lacan," Lacan & Human Sciences,ed. Alexandre Leupin (Lincoln: U of
Nebraska P, 1991) 64.
28. Lacan, Ecrits, 2 vols. (Paris: Seuil, 1966 and 1971) 1: 261.
29. Lacan. Ecrits: A Selection,trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Norton, 1977) 154. 1 will
use this translation for all subsequent quotes from Ecrits, only indicating page numbers.
30. See Franoise Meltzer, "Eat Your Dasein: Lacan's Self-Consuming Puns," On Puns:
The Foundation of Letters, ed. Jonathan Culler (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988) 156-163.
Anagrams in Psychoanalysis
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31. Lacan, Le Sminaire deJacquesLacan. Livre III. Les Psychoses1955-1956, ed. JacquesAlain Miller (Paris: Seuil, 1981) 262.
32. See illustration in Lacan & Human Sciences,d. Alexandre Leupin (Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1991) 15.
33. Jacques- Alain Miller, "Language: Much Ado About What?" Lacan and the Subjectof
Language, ed. Ellie Ragland- Sullivan and Mark Bracher (New York: Routledge, 1991) 33.
34. Henri Atlan, "Du bruit comme principe d'auto-organisation," Communications 18
(1972): 35.
35. On the concept of "sur-rflexion"see Mark Roberts, "The End(s) of Pictoral Representation: Merleau-Ponty and Lyotard," Cultural Semiosis:Tracing the Signifier, ed. Hugh J.
Silverman (New York: Routledge, 1998) 129-139.
36. Geoff Bennington addresses this question of a real difference (an uncrossable gulf
between them, their belonging to different categories) or a mere opposition (their being
merely different tendencies in one and the same realm that work together through opposition, but are dependent on each other) between the figurai and the discursive. See "Lyotard:
From Discourse and Figure to Experimentation and Event," Paragraph6 (1985): 19-27.