The best thing that #Lacan said about #Bentham - and he said a few things - is that the principal lesson of Bentham’s philosophy was that we should not be surprised at what happens when we use words.

Now in HTML

#Heidegger and #Psychoanalysis?
by William John Richardson, S.J.

#Freud #Lacan
https://www.beyng.com/papers/WilliamJRichardson-Psychoanalysis.html

I'll be, #Zizek does get there (see: https://fediphilosophy.org/@Eph/110471776328493702) (by referencing others that do), or at least very close to the #ExodusEarth realization. He/they reframe idea of setting free that which we have come to know and love further, paraphrasing page xxi 'if we #love the #earth/#nature then for our sake, and the earth's/nature's sake, we must set #earth/#nature free.' Zizek only needs to extend his reasoning a little further. Maybe he does elsewhere, we are still neophyte Zizekians.

It is natural to not consider exodus-ing earth to live in space. We prefer the idea of finding another planet to exploit. We tend to repress the idea of living in the vacuum of #space in favor of another planet (diagnosed as planetary chauvinism by Isaac Asimov).

Or if we do empathically and compassionately realize we are no longer healthy for the earth and nature and we need to be removed, we may even contemplate something graver like self-extinction of ourselves, our species.

The #reason (from a gross amateur psychoanalyst) is the idea of living in space is akin to acknowledging the *das ding* of the 'real.' Here, we repress, or maybe more accurately, we are forbidden to acknowledge the existential truth that all existence resides precariously within a vacuous void of unpredictability and unknowing. Or represented more colloquially here by the real idea of living in the vacuum of space. Such an existence isn't imagined as comfortable or cozy for humans or any other earth mammalian species. It literally repulses us we think

We may think there must be another way. But if if we free our philosophy to reach its own conclusion and liberation, as recommended in The Sublime, the ACT will liberate the earth and humanity. We allow the truth to manifest philosophically without the subject, us (xxii).

This is hubris humans sacrificing themselves on the cross of earthly existence so that the earth can be reborn and man abolveres/sublamates to heaven, free of guilt, shame, and other fetters that had up til now invisibly enslaved them.

The most important thing to realize here, practically, as a first step, is that exodus-ing Earth is achievable now. We need not consider deep space, exploring the universe, etc. for now. Exiting Earth is about NEAR SPACE, to orbiting the earth, staying close to our mother but also weaned from her. This is the most profound, liberating, and loving thing we can do for ourselves as a species, but also for the sake of the Mother. It is, as Zizek refers to elsewhere in the preface, *absolvere*.

Collectively, our repressed guilt for being too good at what evolution made us, master exploiters, is destroying us psychoanalytically as it is destroying the earth and all life on it. Exodus Earth will not only exculpate our guilt but allow us to become angels in the sky for our Mother and all her other children.

The Sublime Subject of Ideology, Preface to the New Edition: The Idea's Constipation? Slavoj Zizek

p. xxi
"So, to pursue the rather tasteless metaphor, Hegel was not a sublimated coprophagist, as the usual notion of the dialectical process would lead us to believe. The matrix of the dialectical process is not that of excrementation­ externalization followed by a swallowing (reappropriation) of the external­
ized content, but, on the contrary, of appropriation followed by the excremental move of dropping it, releasing it, letting it go. What this means is that one should not equate externalization with alienation. The externalization which concludes a cycle of dialectical process is not alien­ation, it is the highest point of disalienation: one really reconciles oneself with some objective content not when one still has to strive to master
and control it, but when one can afford the supreme sovereign gesture of releasing this content from oneself, of setting it free. Which is why, incidentally, and as some of the sharper interpreters have pointed out, far
from subduing nature totally to man, Hegel opens up an unexpected space for ecological awareness: for Hegel, the drive to exploit nature technolo­gically is still a mark of man's finitude; in such an attitude, nature is
perceived as an external object, an opposing force to be dominated, while a philosopher, from his standpoint of Absolute Knowledge, experiences nature not as a threatening force to be controlled and dominated, but as something to be left to follow its inherent path."

End quote.

The realization that we must exit the Earth is traumatic and we will naturally protest and argue the conclusion and its cure and even compromise to going to another planet to exploit. The reasons for living in space are legion from free resources (energy) to space travel itself. The most dangerous, expensive, and resource intensive aspects of space travel is leaving and entering a planets atmosphere. But most profoundly and analytically, is that living in space, where we have nothing to exploit but each other, we have the possibility of truly coming to know ourselves and maybe evolve from Homo exploitus to becoming truly Homo sapiens.

One of frustrating aspects of #scifi is that human nature follows us where ever we go? It doesn't matter how we engineer society or utopias, our nature doesn't allow us to abide Eden. We think we know ourselves and we certainly do not know ourselves from an evolutionary psychology(analysis) perspective. Even worse than not knowing ourselves, we believe we have the will power to change. Our will power is not enough. The more we ignore our true biological and evolutionary natures, the more destructive we become. What we resist, persists. We are uber exploiters, it is the ground of our being (personal thesis). But we can change with wisdom. But not by just willing it, again, our will is not superhuman, but our drive to exploit is. An no amount of therapy can change it, but it can let us see it, for what it really is, an apparently inescapable ideology of nature and evolution.

#Mindfulness is becoming the preferred method of coming to terms with our true nature, Homo exploitus. Mindfulness creates both the space and time to be discerning ourselves before we act. It allows us to act compassionately and consciously. We don't change in that our true natures, Homo exploitus, is still there, but we can sidestep that reality and truly ACT in the Zizekian sense.

The biggest danger is ourselves. Even now, those at the forefront of #FreeSpace aren't advocates of FreeSpace, but capitalists.

Need some inspiration? Try these music video youtubes:

Sting's 1985 (remastered) Video of "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free." Don't worry, your monitor is just fine. 4:05 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSGl3d4KOMk

And

Peyton's 2009 vdeo (warning bright flashing bright club light) "A Higher Place." 3:56 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFfEOnNfD1o

#philosophy #Hegel #evolution #psychology #psychoanalysis #Lacan #space

@albertonuno7 Hi Alberto,

The short answer is a fascination with subjectivity and the unconscious mind. And while some of #Freud's and #Lacan's theories have been disproven, there is still much within their works that are useful and utterly fascinating, if one remembers to be as objective and critical as possible.

our key philosophical interest is #EvolutionaryPsychology and specifically we've begun to be most interested in the #evolution of ideologies, not just philosophically, but from an evolutionary perspective. This study necessarily includes the development of the unconscious and subjective experience.

Some of our subjective interest also include a secular #mindfulness and #meditation practice and we have observed that some of what Freud, Lacan, and #Jung, observed and theorized seems to be true within the subconscious, and what we can induce about our own subjective and unconscious constructs.

Likewise there are are centuries of data to be gathered from #Buddhism. One only needs to be patient and discreet enough to examine it as objectively as possible.

While some of the harder psychological sciences (adjacent) are producing fascinating and important findings from the empirical realm, mindfulness for example, when it comes to the #evolution of the subjective and unconscious aspects of mind, we think #psychoanalysis, #PsychoanalyticalPsychology, and the philosophers who examine these aspects of #mind and ideologies will be fruitful, especially through the lens of evolutionary psychology.
#philosophy #ideolology #psychology

I just migrated to a new server so here's my #introduction again:

🔹 I am Youssef from Morocco 🇲🇦 and I work in IT
🔹#cinephile : Italian neorealism, French New Wave, Silent film, noir
🔹 interested in #literature, #philosophy #poetry and #psychoanalysis
🔹 Specifically, I gravitate towards the intersection of #hegel and #lacan, and German Idealism more broadly. Also #marxism and #postmodernism
🔹 An advocate of #opensource interested in the intersection between #tech, #philosophy and #polítics

"Dex turned the mug over and over in their hands. “It doesn’t bother you?” Dex said. “The thought that your life might mean nothing in the end?” “That’s true for all life I’ve observed. Why would it bother me?” Mosscap’s eyes glowed brightly. “Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing? Here we are, in this incomprehensibly large universe, on this one tiny moon around this one incidental planet, and in all the time this entire scenario has existed, every component has been recycled over and over and over again into infinitely incredible configurations, and sometimes, those configurations are special enough to be able to see the world around them. You and I—we’re just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?”

Chambers, Becky. A Psalm for the Wild-Built: 1 (Monk & Robot) (p. 140). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Disclaimer, we are neoZizekians and desire to be corrected where we are mistaken.

We've been dipping back into #Zizek, which is a divergence at the moment, and critiquing his philosophical theories through the lens of #EvolutionaryPsychology.

#TheAct - The pressure of profound personal dilemmas seem to be a catalyst for one to "act." The act being an authentic and liberated achievement free of any unconscious, subconscious and conscious drives and limitations. It argues that to be able to "act" is *desirable*.

Now, ignoring the infinite existential loop/reflection for the moment, in Zizekian terms, it could be argued it isn't the desire to be able to act autonomously that we want, rather what truly drives us is the desire to desire (ala #Lacan). What isn't discussed thus far in what we've read is how we came to be beings who are driven to desire beyond having ("Having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical but often true." - #Spock, Amok Time, #StarTrek the original series).

From an Evolutionary Psychology POV, desire is secondary to survival and reproducing. But somehow it has also become an end in itself. Somehow we evolved to desire incessantly.

I think it could be argued desire stems more from reproduction (desiring the healthiest and most fertile mates - one imagines at first mating with whatever, but mating with the healthiest and most fertile became naturally selected and with that the ability to discern and desire). But for survival, one also must learn to discern foods that enhance survival and flourishing, thus desiring those foods. Power, another secondary drive also uses desire, the desire for it (#Nietzsche), and the desire for the power payoffs that increases ones status which enhances #survival and mating. But #sex and #love overwhelms us with a #desire that makes us forget everything else, love as an act of violence (Zizek, Badiou?, Spok), such that we become irrational with desire.

Have you ever experienced a desire that overwhelms every aspect of who you are (it doesn't even have to be sexual or because of love)? This is what the gods of #capitalism, and retroactively (Zizek, Lacan?) #evolution and #being have capitalized on. We'd even argue capitalism is, probably innocently, but maybe not, based on this fatal flaw of evolution. Capitalistic #consumerism feeds the desire to desire without any life giving purpose. We become like addicts, and our #addiction, consumerism, will kill us, and maybe the planet (my usual soapbox stuff).

Now what does all this have to do with the lengthy quote from #BeckyChambers must read for those seeking plots based on #mindfulness and #reflection? As we've preached elsewhere, we can't master these evolutionary drives that have run amok from the top down. Most of us do not have the #willpower. Those that do and are still slaves to the hierarchical drive for #power, are often our masters, even in this seemingly world of #democracy and #liberty. Us mortals, we do not have that kind of willpower. But we can master our drives from the bottom-up!

Mindfulness practice allows us to find that space between the drive to impulsively act, react, act out, and actually acting. Mindfulness allows us to truly "act" even without having to wait till life's pressures make it possible (One wonders if the "act" as a result of life pressures then is a true "act" compared to the mindful "act"). Mindfulness is the true power of the final revolution. Not only against those with superhuman will power, but against the gods of evolution as well. Mindfulness is the third pill (Zizek).

MossCap is a sentient robot. MossCap is a being free of everything that #psychology and modern and continental #philosophy strive to cure and resolve. He is not burdened with the evolutionary and social burdens we are. He is example par excellence standing right in front of Dex, the somewhat enlightened and evolved human. Yet Dex cannot stop desiring something. They (Dex, identifies as nonbinary) are never satisfied going from one occupation to another, one place to another, always trying to find what will satisfy their desire. Even when Mosscap spells it out, Dex, because of their human predicament cannot hear or see the answer in front of them.

Now this analysis is not a conclusive theory but it is clear where we must begin, becoming mindful of our evolutionary predicament. We are not to blame, we should not blame ourselves. Blaming is not helpful. We cannot just willfully change. It takes a cooperative, compassionate and patient practice. In the book quote, that is the role of MossCap, the cooperative, compassionate, and patient example companion. But if we could just get to where we are not driven by all our human shortcomings and learn how to be happy, or at least OK, in this existential moment, ala MossCap, then we can truly "act" free of our evolutionary, psychological, and sociological chains. We can truly revolutionize what it means to be human (Nietzsche without the human sacrifices).

The desire to desire may never be irradicated, but we believe it can be mastered and redirected towards desiring that which benefits all. In theory.

#Lacan: "We must take up Freud's work again, starting with The Interpretation of Dreams, to remind ourselves that a dream has the struc­ture of a sentence" (Écrits, p. 267).

#Lacan: "The unconscious is the chapter of my history that is marked by a blank or occupied by a lie: it is the censored chapter. But the truth can be refound; most often it has already been written elsewhere" (Écrits, p. 259).

Well, if you''re familiar with "The Plague Of Fantasies" by Slavoj Žižek, published in 1997, basically, the Internet is making us crazy, and I agree. #Lacan Not that AI won't contribute to it all.

"‘The danger isn’t that AI destroys us. It’s that it drives us insane" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/23/tech-guru-jaron-lanier-the-danger-isnt-that-ai-destroys-us-its-that-it-drives-us-insane @guardian

Good morning!

It's Tuesday and almost time for my weekly Écrits reading group. We're tackling the essay on Poe's Purloined Letter.

"A letter always arrives at its destination"

Plus, it's always good to remember that the envelope is more significant than you think. 😂 #Lacan

Every Tuesday morning, a small group of us gets together on Zoom and reads and unpacks chapters of #Lacan's 'Ecrits'.

I never mind which chapter we pick, because what I really love is how curious, thoughtful and focused our little group is.

It's the 2 hours in the week I most look forward to. #psychoanalysis #Lacan #Reading

It's almost time for our weekly Seminar V reading with the #Lacan Circle of Australia.
We're past Freud's 'Der Witz" and deep diving into the Name-Of-The-Father and foreclosure.

The reading group is free and open to everyone. Learn more about it here: https://lacancircle.com.au/reading-group-formations/ #psychoanalysis

Žižek & So On Podcast
NEW EPISODE: Žižek Underground

Listen here: https://www.tinyurl.com/zizeku

Today we are speaking with Mikey Downs of the Dangerous Maybe blog & Dave McKerracher of Theory Underground about #Zizek #Hegel & #Lacan. We’re talking the difference between pleasure and enjoyment, Žižek’s lasting contributions to theory, the history of the Subject, & the obscene supplement of the Law with Dirty Harry. Hang out for the end of the episode, it’s better than canned laughter.

A new podcast release by @zizekand … extract from their podcast notes:
“Alright, today we are speaking with Mikey Downs of the Dangerous Maybe blog and Dave McKerracher of Theory Underground about Žižek, Hegel & Lacan. We’re talking the difference between pleasure and enjoyment, Žižek’s lasting contributions to theory, the history of the Subject, and the obscene supplement of the Law with Dirty Harry ...”

#Lacan #Žižek #psychoanalysis

https://overcast.fm/+YfMgj34G4

The #Lacan Circle of Australia runs a wonderful, free, very active reading group that goes through one of Lacan's seminars per year. We're onto Seminar V, Formations of the Unconscious.

If you're interested, you can sign up here: https://lacancircle.com.au/reading-group-formations/

I'm a little quiet here. but I took a few weeks off to study for my next preliminary examination (philosophy, decentered subjectivity) in two weeks. Wish me luck!

#philosophy #phemonology #Husserl #Lacan #etc

Finally reading this so important E. A. #Poe tale “The purloined letter” [1846]. Crucial to #Lacan and his eponymous seminar.

Never fully read it because I assumed I knew the story from the multiple short summaries including in papers and books about Lacan.

More on #Lacan and #structuralism is coming. Stay tuned!

Translating #philosophy is such a difficult and ungrateful task: it indubitably adds and subtracts something from the original. Best practice: read the translation side by side with the original and reference the original in papers and books as well.

I have so many examples of imprecisions in #Deleuze, #Whitehead, #Heidegger or #Lacan.

#AcademicTips

Me: How long have I been coming to see you? Three months? Four?

Analyst: Four or around there.

Me: And only today did I actually notice the irony that your office is on a street called 'Path of Deviation'
Analyst: Really? Only today.

Me: How could I not have seen the humour in that before?

Analyst: Now we're really doing analysis. Before we were just dancing around.

#Lacan #Psychoanalysis

Good morning, my lovely Feddies!

It's too damn early, but it's Wednesday, which means it's almost time for the Seminar V: Formations of the Unconscious reading group.

The Lacan Circle of Australia runs a weekly #Lacan seminar reading group. It's free and open to anyone.

https://lacancircle.com.au/reading-group-formations/

#psychoanalysis #Freud #LCA