I'm trying to get into Lee edelman and have hear that it requries a good understanding of lacanian pyschoanalysis specifically about the Lack and the death drive - I would greatly appreciate it if someone could explain to me what it was before i jumped into it
You can read our paper as an example of applied death drive:
When Freud, in the course of his constant changes in his theories (especially about aggression), increasingly moved from attempting to subject his thinking to scientific demands to mere speculation, then according to Freud things get worse and worse. With Lacan only a handling with terms and names can be determined. That is only speculation, which had its time, but today is only historical. Also the history of reception is of course interesting. If there are any names in this context, such as Heidegger, Freud, Kant, etc., then there is no point in throwing these names around, but one must have studied their philosophy thoroughly in order not simply to believe what later generations offer as demanding thinking.
Before jumping into Lacan I would question what it is in Edelman’s teachings you wish to understand better, and why you think understanding Lacan will help.
. Lacan-fans will not like my saying this, but Lacanian theory is very very dense, and because he himself did not write much after his phd thesis, others have written about him and how you should understand him. He gave popular lectures for decades and therefore most of his work is actually oral. So what you have is writers quoting other writers who interpret Lacan. Much like Anna Freud and others interpreted Freud’s work to English speakers who could not read the original in German. Translating the German into English then led to distortions and near meta-physical terminology which was not there in the original. When people attack Freud, they often attack the translation, or do not realize his work developed over 50 years, building on itself as all science and knowledge does.
What I see in my own field of applying psychoanalytic theory to organisational life is that unfortunately there is quite a bit of intellectual snobbery. People quote “Lacan” without it leading to extra understanding. I personally do not find his work enlightening and seeing as I am both an experimental physicist and a psychoanalytically trained counselor and group therapist, it is not a lack of intelligence or powers of abstraction. I also speak and read French.
However, this is only my opinion and perhaps you like the intellectual challenge of diving into this field, so if that is the case,don’t let anything hold you back. Just do not expect anyone able to make it easier for you.
I do think that Lacan can't be resume in so few words. You better start reading the essay of Freud, "Beyond the pleasure principle". Then, you will understand better what is the death drive.
What is the claim of science? To contradict myths or to transform myths in statements which are empirically decideable (with scientific methods) regarding their claim to truth.
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