There is Something of One (God): Lacan and Political Theology

Abstract

For both Lacan and Badiou, Plato's Parmenides is a primary locus for the question of the One. Moreover, for both Lacan and Badiou, the One ultimately takes on political valence, as key to the problematics of representation and the discursive conditions of collectivity. However, unlike Badiou, Lacan's exploration of the question of One also passes through theology— through what I am calling "something of One God"— and I want to argue that it is only by bringing the One into explicit relationship with those monotheistic issues that we can fully understand its implications for analytic discourse and political life. Lacan's thinking on the "something of One" takes a necessary swerve back through a theological problematic, and in the process articulates the terms of a political theology, an essential conjunction of political and religious understandings of sovereignty, subjectivity and collectivity.     

The poet becomes poem: The missing object and Petrarch's ends in the Canzoniere

This article considers the role of the object of desire in Petrarch's Canzoniere. Deconstructive and post-deconstructive readings tend to emphasize the fragmentation and instability of the subject position—specifically, the figure of the poet who is metamorphosing or falling apart. Other readings of the Canzoniere, especially by feminist and psychoanalytic critics, have reappraised the place and function of the beloved. One implication of these conflicting readings is to repolarize the object/subject distinction. Developing a line of inquiry that acknowledges both threads, this article looks at the several endings—the last poem in the cycle, the “Poem to the Virgin,” Petrarch's ending as a subject, and the form of the envoi—to explore a new view of the object's function within the process of subject formation.     

Mother's Umbilicus and Father's Spirit: The Dialectics of Selfhood of a Yagwoia Transgendered Person

ABSTRACT This is an ethnographic exploration of a Yagwoia transgendered person and his‐her life‐situation within the specificities of libidinal dynamics and economy of intersubjective relationships that constitute Yagwoia matrix of kinship and affinal relatedness. Developed within a framework of psychoanalysis and existential phenomenology, and forged through a long‐term field research, this study offers an in‐depth perspective on concrete realities of gender experience and social existence in an Angan life‐world of east Papua New Guinea.     

The dilemmas of ontological insecurity in a postcolonising Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

Since the signing of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement of 1998, Northern Ireland has made significant progress towards a postcolonising transformation of its political culture and its major political and social institutions, as it has shifted away from violence and the dominance of political ideologies structured by the friend–enemy distinction. These ideological formations and the practices of social and political antagonism that they prescribed have been challenged by adversary–neighbour ideological formations that construct identities and relations through more inclusive norms of recognition and that support a more complex emotional constellation. However, as this cultural transformation has been neither thoroughgoing nor universal, Northern Ireland finds itself in the somewhat counter-intuitive situation in which the shift away from the violence of the past has increased, rather than reduced, the ontological insecurity of its citizens. Moreover, as ontological security may be supported by either friend–enemy or adversary–neighbour ideological formations, two distinct ways in which ontological security may collapse or re-configure have emerged in Northern Ireland.     

Locating physical disability in Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis: Problems and prospects

In this paper, I use psychoanalytic theory to look at the meaning of disability within an ableist culture, and its relationship to issues of sexuality and death. I suggest that while disability has not been a central focus of psychoanalysis, it has been employed to stand in for something else, and this has had important implications for disability that have yet to be fully explored. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of disability as a 'symbolic substitute' for castration as conceived by Freud and Lacan, and the implications of this formulation for the cultural construction of disabled bodies as lacking. While there is cause for continued caution with respect to this theoretical tradition, psychoanalysis offers important insight into the complex origins of 'aesthetic anxieties' that surround disability within ableist culture, and the way in which these emotions are implicated in the geographic exclusion of 'different' bodies. In particular, psychoanalysis helps to demonstrate the illusory nature of the 'able-body' as a key source of oppression.     

The automatic production of space

This paper is concerned with the changing nature of space. More and more of the spaces of everyday life come loaded up with software, lines of code that are installing a new kind of automatically reproduced background and whose nature is only now starting to become clear. This paper is an attempt to map out this background. The paper begins by considering the nature of software. Subsequently, a simple audit is undertaken of where software is chiefly to be found in the spaces of everyday life. The next part of the paper notes the way in which more and more of this software is written to mimic corporeal intelligence, so as to produce a better and more unobtrusive fit with habitation. The paper then sets out three different geographies of software and the way in which they are implicated in the reproduction of everyday life before concluding with a consideration of the degree to which we might consider the rise of software as an epochal event or something much more modest.     

The production of tyrannical space

Bullying is an internationally pervasive problem that impacts significantly on the behaviour, health and wellbeing of children. Drawing on ideas developed in both the abundant psychology literature, and the landmark study by Percy-Smith and Matthews Tyrannical Spaces (2001) Percy-Smith, B. and Matthews, H. 2001. Tyrannical spaces: Young people, bullying and urban neighbourhoods. Local Environment, 6(1): 49–63. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar], this paper examines the psychosocial dynamics of bullying as they interrelate with various environments. The key groups involved in bullying are considered particularly with respect to their spatial rituals, actions and interactions. In the absence of sustained geographical research in this field, some broad directions for future geographies of bullying are suggested as the basis for future inquiry. Some initial indications are provided as to how these might involve, and connect to, existing disciplinary interests in geographies of exclusion, moral and emotional geographies.     

The incommensurability of psychoanalysis and history

This article argues that, although psychoanalysis and history have different conceptions of time and causality, there can be a productive relationship between them. Psychoanalysis can force historians to question their certainty about facts, narrative, and cause; it introduces disturbing notions about unconscious motivation and the effects of fantasy on the making of history. This was not the case with the movement for psychohistory that began in the 1970s. Then the influence of American ego-psychology on history-writing promoted the idea of compatibility between the two disciplines in ways that undercut the critical possibilities of their interaction. The work of the French historian Michel de Certeau provides theoretical insight into the uses of incommensurability, while that of Lyndal Roper demonstrates both its limits and its value for enriching historical understanding.     

Anxiety geopolitics: Hybrid warfare,civilisational geopolitics,and the Janus-faced politics of anxiety

Working at the intersection of political geography and international relations, this article does two things. First, it theorises the relationship between geopolitics and anxiety. Second, it uses this conceptual lens to analyse and critique the discourse of ‘hybrid warfare’. The conceptual part draws on Lacanian political theory and contributes to critical geopolitics, ontological security studies, and the literature on politics of anxiety. It is built around the notion of anxiety geopolitics, which denotes a discourse that promises to deal with social anxiety by providing geopolitical fixes to it, yet also ultimately fails in doing so. We then move to argue that ‘hybrid warfare’ is a prime case of such discourse. Using examples from the Czech Republic, we show how the discourse of ‘hybrid warfare’ successfully connects different sorts of anxieties together and creates a sense of ontological security by linking them to familiar East/West civilisational geopolitics that points to Russia as the ultimate culprit. Yet, at the same time, the discourse simultaneously subverts itself by portraying ‘hybrid threats’ as too insidious, invisible and constantly shifting to be ever possibly durably resolved. We conclude that this makes ‘hybrid warfare’ self-defeating, normatively problematic, and strategically impractical.     

The importance of exercising in space

Abstract

As a direct consequence of exposure to microgravity, astronauts experience a set of physiological changes which can have serious medical implications when they return to earth. Most immediate and significant are the headward shift of body fluids and the removal of gravitational loading from bone and muscles, which lead to progressive changes in the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Cardiovascular adaptations result in an increased incidence of orthostatic intolerance (fainting) following flight, decreased cardiac output, and reduced capacity for exercise. Changes in the musculoskeletal system contribute significantly to impaired function experienced in the post-flight period. The underlying factor producing these changes is the absence of gravity, and countermeasures are therefore designed primarily to simulate earthlike movements, stresses, and system interactions. Exercise is one approach that has had wide operational use and acceptance in both the US and Russian space programmes, and it has enabled humans to stay relatively healthy in space for well over a year. Although it remains the most effective countermeasure currently available, significant physiological degradation still occurs. The development of other countermeasures will be necessary for missions of longer duration, for example for human exploration of Mars.     

The importance of exercising in space

As a direct consequence of exposure to microgravity, astronauts experience a set of physiological changes which can have serious medical implications when they return to earth. Most immediate and significant are the headward shift of body fluids and the removal of gravitational loading from bone and muscles, which lead to progressive changes in the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Cardiovascular adaptations result in an increased incidence of orthostatic intolerance (fainting) following flight, decreased cardiac output, and reduced capacity for exercise. Changes in the musculoskeletal system contribute significantly to impaired function experienced in the post-flight period. The underlying factor producing these changes is the absence of gravity, and countermeasures are therefore designed primarily to simulate earthlike movements, stresses, and system interactions. Exercise is one approach that has had wide operational use and acceptance in both the US and Russian space programmes, and it has enabled humans to stay relatively healthy in space for well over a year. Although it remains the most effective countermeasure currently available, significant physiological degradation still occurs. The development of other countermeasures will be necessary for missions of longer duration, for example for human exploration of Mars.     

Natàlia's Journey from the Imaginary to the Symbolic in Mercè Rodoreda's La plaza del Diamante

In Mercé Rodoreda's La plaza del Diamante (La plaça del Diamant), the main character Natàlia rejects the Symbolic Order, represented by the nom du père (“Name-of-the-Father”), the imposition of the Law by the father. This article analyzes Natàlia's journey from the Symbolic to the Imaginary in Lacanian terms. In the novel, the Symbolic manifests itself on the plain of the forces hostile toward the protagonist, signifying suffering and displacement, the war, the losses, hunger, the doves, and ultimately, her first husband, Quimet. Natàlia rejects the Symbolic Order represented by the father by denying him access to her life and by rejecting his presence. In Lacan's analyses, the father represents the culture and the language. Thus, by imposing the nom du père, the father imposes the Law and becomes the one “that makes possible the Symbolic Order and the separation from the state of nonconsciousness of the Imaginary” (Carbonell 23). Natàlia's moments of disorientation and lack of self-identity are triggered when she is opposed by the Symbolic Order, when, according to Lacan, the Name-of-the-Father is foreclosed. Natàlia, initially unable to come to terms with the male-dominated hostile Symbolic Order, through numerous transformations in her life achieves to break out of her Imaginary existence and become incorporated into the Symbolic world.     

Caring for ethics and the politics of health care reform in the United States

It is increasingly recognized that the work of (unpaid) informal caregivers constitutes an important contribution to care delivery in the United States and in many other societies. Accounting for the range of social, economic and political circumstances in which this care is produced has become the focus of a number of academics and others theorizing the ‘third sector’, or the ‘social economy’. However, some scholars are concerned that the increasing attention paid to the role of informal economic activity will either legitimate neoliberal state withdrawal from social reproduction or facilitate continued invasive commodification of relationships that were formerly part of social life. While these are possible dangers, J.K. Gibson-Graham's diverse economy framework and theory of community economy allow us to understand the social and economic conditions that support, rather than undermine, a caregiver's fidelity to the process of caring. Given the size of the informal caregiving sector, it would remain an important aspect of the care economy even if the United States developed a national health care system. It is important to understand informal caregivers as economic subjects, with their desires, motivations, hopes and anxieties. What emerges from my qualitative research is an understanding of informal caregivers as ethical subjects who operate best in a network of collective recognition and support. Informal caregivers are neither self-interested economic actors nor (necessarily) victims of failed social support. Rather, they are, potentially, agents of change in a new politics of health care reform.     

The conservation and management of historic urban space

In practice, the care of historic urban space is dominated by planning professionals whose bias is towards the broad remit of the conservation of the built heritage; it remains the exception for other professions to take an active role in the protection of spatial elements of the historic townscape. Neither do these areas enjoy the same degree of statutory protection as their built counterpart, even though they may have played an equally important role in the evolution of our towns and are an integral part of the urban form. This study is the first stage of the author's on‐going research into the value of historic space within the modern urban environment and the level of protection afforded it by the planning system. The results of this pilot study are used to suggest a professional and statutory framework, based upon inter‐disciplinary co‐operation, from which the full value of townscapes may be safeguarded in the future.     

Into the arms of dolls: Japan’s declining fertility rates,the 1990s financial crisis and the (maternal) comforts of the posthuman

Abstract

Japan’s 1990s financial crisis proved psychically traumatic for many men, their trauma exacerbated by decades of falling fertility rates and related sociospatial attenuation. The crisis disrupted a range of heteronormative practices that had stabilized post-war gendered identities, especially marriage and stay-at-home motherhood. Some men consequently began seeking comfort in the company of youthful-looking, large-format, hyper-feminized commodity-dolls of which there are two psychical kinds: ‘infantile’ dolls used largely by precariously positioned young men for comfort and play; and expensive ‘Oedipal’ silicone sex dolls associated with Japanese salarymen whose jobs had become less secure. Both have worked emotionally for two reasons: dolls are evocative of the maternal – the basis of intersubjective (be) longing/Eros; and the dolls are owned, ownership allowing pleasure and control more securely to intertwine. Following the oil crisis and the de-industrialization that followed, men in racially and economically privileged terrain across the US and Europe turned to similar kinds of commodity dolls for comfort, if for differently sexed and racialized reasons. Japanese men’s doll markets therefore speak to certain particular and general conditions of masculinity and geopolitical economic trauma.     

The Activist Polis: Topologies of Conflict in Indigenous Solidarity Activism

Interpersonal conflict poses a serious threat to social justice activism. In the context of indigenous solidarity activism in southern Arizona, conflicts are often born of the challenges accompanying differentials in social privilege due to differences in race and ethnicity relative to white supremacist settler colonialism. This paper examines activist collaboration between Tohono O'odham and non‐Native anarchist activists in southern Arizona, arguing that a topological activist polis is a useful lens through which we can better understand the roots of conflict in social justice activism. Non‐Native activists are often aware of the ways white supremacist settler colonial society privileges particular identities while marginalizing others. Nonetheless, settler and white privilege give rise to tensions which can be seen topologically through the very different relationships non‐Native and indigenous activists have to ongoing processes of white supremacy and to histories of the genocide of indigenous peoples.     

The evacuation camp as paradoxical space for women

In recent years, so-called natural disasters have devastated areas around the world. Survivors must leave their homes and reside temporarily in evacuation camps run by state, religious and humanitarian actors. These official post-disaster spaces are intended to provide safety to survivors while they repair damaged homes, rebuild livelihoods, or await new lodging. Not all people, however, experience or perceive these spaces as safe. Through the interventions of institutional actors and the actions of evacuees, these spaces can become sites of repression, violence and family separation. This study of women survivors' experiences in evacuation camps reveals that gendered social relations and norms, often invisible or incomprehensible to the organizations running the camps, shape these sites into paradoxical spaces. The paper draws from interviews and participatory videos made by urban poor survivors of Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines. Gillian Rose's concept of paradoxical space is used to study women's access to, use of and experiences within official post-disaster spaces. Distinct outcomes for survivors based on gender, ethnic and class differences highlight the failure of official post-disaster spaces to protect survivors from harm and the need for women survivors to adopt conflictual strategies that simultaneously exposed them to harms and resisted ideal survivor subject norms.     

The quest for coordinates in space and time

Hall, Edward T. The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, 1984. 250 pp. including appendices, glossary, bibliography, and index. $15.95 cloth; $5.50 paper.

Pinxten, Rik, Ingrid van Dooren, and Frank Harvey. Anthropology of Space: Explorations into the Natural Philosophy and Semantics of the Navajo. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. xi + 240 pp. including appendices, bibliography, and name and subject indices. $32.50 cloth.