Editing Psychoanalysis (section)

=== '''Lacanian Psychoanalysis''' ===

French psychoanalyst [[Jacques Lacan]] developed a linguistic or more precisely, semiotic interpretation of Freud where he transformed the concepts central to psychoanalysis into the linguistic theory propounded by [[Ferdinand de Saussure]]. Lacan's major contribution is his development of a system which emphasises the process of signification. He views the human mind as constituted by the language we use. <blockquote>Because Lacan's structure of psychoanalysis contains semiotics, it is important to learn the workings of semiology. In semiotics, the important part is the consideration of 'signs' as the 'conveyors of meaning', which extends beyond the limits of language. As per Saussure, a 'sign' has two important parts viz. the 'signifier' and the 'signified'. The 'signifier' contains in it the elements composing the sign (which in semantics would be speech sound or written marks) while the 'signified' is the conceptual meaning of the sign. The 'signifier' and the 'signified' leads to 'signification' which is a French term for 'meaning' or 'significance'. The essence and the focus of semiotics is not in interpreting a particular instance of 'signification' but in establishing the 'general signifying system' that each particular instance relies upon.</blockquote>Lacan reformulated Freud's early stages of psychosexual development and 'Oedipus complex' which is a prelinguistic stage of development that Lacan calls 'imaginary' and the stage after the acquisition of language is called 'symbolic'. In the 'imaginary' stage there is no clear distinction between the subject (individual self) and the object (the other selves). The intervening between the two stages leads to what Lacan would call 'mirror' stage - it is the moment when an infant learns to develop a cognition of a separate self which is also an illusory autonomous subject as viewed by him/her, it happens first when a child begins to learn about his image, watching himself in the mirror and is later aggravated by the factors such as encounters from other people. 

Now, when the infant subject enters the 'symbolic' or 'linguistic' stage, it assimilates the linguistic differences which are discussed above; the infant subject is constituted by the 'symbolic' and it learns to accept its predetermined "position" in linguistic oppositions such as 'male/female', 'father/son', 'mother/daughter'. This symbolic realm of language is also the realm of the law of the father. Here, the "phallus" (symbolically used for male privilege and authority) is the "privileged signifier" that establishes the mode or the chain of all the other signifiers. It can also be defined as the nodal points in a 'symbolic order' with the "master signifier"– where the 'master signifier' is the "signifier of [...] signification as such", as Haz describes it.<ref>https://youtu.be/w6g_dyS7Aw4?si=x5CJe6POG1LRMJLv&t=306</ref>

'Jouissance' and 'foreclosure' are important in Lacanian psychoanalysis and are even related to each other as they complement each other as if they are in the same network. 'Jouissance' refers to ecstasy which gets lost upon entering the 'symbolic order' and the continuous search for this plentitude of ecstacy due to its lack. In the case of Freud, it was an individual deriving 'death drive', which has been revised by Lacan. Feminist psychoanalytic interpretation of 'jouissance' is premised on feminine libidinal drive being repressed by the 'symbolic order'. The French postmodern thinker [[Gilles Deleuze]] owing to his 'schizoanalysis' developed 'jouissance of partial drives', the idea that there is a 'multiplicity of different and partial objects of enjoyment'. It is the de-patriarchal and de-oedipal reality where there is no single father.<ref>https://youtu.be/w6g_dyS7Aw4?si=1mgBo6M0pg0m0NbN&t=50</ref> In Ancient drama (Greek drama) and Renaissance drama there is one father and the plot is defined by this patriarchal figure, a great example of this is William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'. 

'Foreclosure' on the other hand is technically a defense mechanism in classical psychoanalytic terms. It is the expulsion and shunning of the fundamental signifier i.e. the 'castrative' presence of father, who is the source of 'symbolic castration'. It is initiated by the subject through identifying some 'form' in the place of 'the name-of-the-father' which is closely related to the 'master signifier', the 'superego' and the 'phallus'. The 'identifying' of a different 'imaginary form' and 'replacement' of the 'master signifier' is quintessentially 'psychosis' and 'schizophrenic'. 

The embrace of the 'name-of-the-father', the 'master signifier', is important to understand Infrared's stance on being patriotic and Infrared's understanding and criticism of the American left, who, in foreclosing the 'name-of-the-father', have taken for granted to have a concrete and firm basis of politics.<ref>https://youtu.be/w6g_dyS7Aw4?si=olgCwtyd9gOen5x7</ref><ref>https://youtu.be/w6g_dyS7Aw4?si=PNbYxI3UAhhdW1X2</ref><ref>https://youtu.be/37FaKGqGsb0?si=GvouTU6jqWsmEtVk</ref><ref>https://youtu.be/tRcWVFmRwzI?si=80Vvse-gMC_2XI05</ref>

Psychoanalysis is important to understand Infrared's stances in politics and the theoretical canon which has been put forward by this media collective over the years.<ref>https://youtu.be/hwoAMdPiMws?si=StPaL4uvDhWGNaLE</ref><ref>https://youtu.be/iTgUwAhrJFI?si=ubSvo5GkdTHv7Lzu&t=8110</ref> Also, it is important for understanding [[Continental thinkers]] of twentieth century and contemporary thinkers like [[Slavoj Žižek]] who have a profound influence on the development of Infrared thought.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/live/j6crW80iPv4?si=n7MWfrSZRKR0G8ta</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/live/sysTJu0ECOo?si=PhwaNGmsf08NGEia</ref><ref>https://x.com/InfraHaz/status/1455607110306340867</ref><ref>https://x.com/InfraHaz/status/1455614444734763008</ref>