Lit Crit. On Lacanian Pussy
*So, this week I’m happy to report that I’m feeling somewhat better and am caught up with my work. Although doing a literary analysis on “Lacanian Pussy” wasn’t the easiest job in the world (especially in terms of keeping my focus!), I managed to get it done. I wasn’t exactly expecting to incorporate so much psychology information in my essay but I also didn’t expect “Lacanian Pussy” to have so many psychological references in it! Though I am taking a psychology class online, it is way less advanced than the terms mentioned in this piece. So although it may seem a bit scatterbrained and unsure, I did my best.*
With the numerous mentions of “Lacanian psychoanalysis” throughout this piece, I decided to first look up the definition of that. I found that Lacanian psychoanalysis is the theory and clinical practice of psychoanalyst James Lacan. James Lacan brings us back to Freud and Carmilla, but goes even further on the road of bizarre. Like Sigmund Freud, James Lacan’s work is based mainly on the unconscious and the ego (id, ego, and superego). It also features something called the “castration complex,” which I found was by definition: the fear of emasculation literally and metaphorically. There are also notable ideas which are talked about in the article that Lacan came up with himself. These include The Real, The Symbolic, The Imaginary, and the Mirror Stage. The discussion of “Breakfast on Pluto” doesn’t really start until the mentioning of Lacanian psychoanalysis, and up until then Peter Mahon discusses Irish culture, history, and background in context to other Irish films and novels of the time.
When he begins mentioning “Pluto,” he states, “What is perhaps unique about Breakfast on Pluto is that its exploration of the psycho-dynamics of the Troubles is suggestive of the concepts and techniques of Lacanian psychoanalysis.” He mentions the Troubles in this statement, which are another term for the period of ethno-political issues dating from 1960-1998.He then continues with an in depth explanation of the relationship of Lacanian psychoanalysis and the novel. It is in this paragraph where most of his analysis is stated, so I wanted to further dissect both this paragraph and the novel to state my analysis. Before I do that though, Mahon also mentions something called “The rhetoric of sameness.” I had to research what exactly he meant by that, and couldn’t really pin point anything. So, I broke down the saying and translated “rhetoric” into “persuasive speech” and “sameness” into “similarity”. I am not sure if Mahon meant a deeper meaning of “rhetoric of sameness” but what I got from it is considering males and females as ‘one’ or ‘the same.’ But I am not completely sure since I couldn’t find a good definition or explanation of it on the internet. What I did find was a use of that phrase while comparing a strong-willed female to a male, so I had to take a guess on what it really meant.
Mahon continues the paragraph with, “The text's exploration of the Troubles in this manner makes it possible to see how the rhetoric of sameness is not only indebted to Lacanian psychoanalysis, but is also, as a result, shaped by the phallo-centric politics of authoritarianism that restricts the formulation of desire and the signifier as developed in Lacan's work. In the place of this politically charged, authoritarian, and phallocentric rhetoric of sameness, Breakfast on Pluto offers the reader an alternative, non-phallic mode of intervening in the discourse of sameness and political violence.” Now, back to the psychological part of the analysis. To further understand Lacanian psychoanalysis, Mirror Stage needs to be further explained. The Mirror Stage is Lacan’s first real contribution to his work, and it “describes the formation of the Ego via the process of objectification, the Ego being the result of feeling dissension between one's perceived visual appearance and one's perceived emotional reality.” (Wiki7) This is also known as alienation. This is seen in the book with Pussy’s cross-dressing and desire to be a woman. There is a deeper and more elaborate explanation of the Mirror Stage, but it doesn’t immediately pertain to neither the book or Mahon’s piece, so I’m not going to divulge into it. The three orders are also part of Lacanian psychoanalysis, but I don’t feel that it is necessary to understanding this novel; technically, you could apply any amount of psychology on this piece and every psychoanalyst or psychologist will have some sort of explanation of what goes on in the book on a psychological level. However, Mahon writes an interesting paragraph concerning one of the orders, The Imaginary, which I found interesting. It reads, “For Lacan, the imaginary is the psychical site where the child's ego is formed through its identification with the bodily image that the child sees in either a mirror or another child (Ecrits, p.130). Once this idealized bodily image takes shape, it becomes what Lacan calls the 'semblable' or double--the 'other' that forevermore shapes, and simultaneously frustrates, the ego and its desire. (20) Because the ego is always exiled in the image of another, it is always marked with separation, alienation, and doubling, which in turns affects what the ego wants: T will always want what the 'other' has, not because T 'really' and 'truly' want it, but because the 'other' has or wants it.”
After reading this paragraph it has come to my knowledge that although Mahon has talked quite a bit about Lacanian psychoanalysis, he hasn’t really made any significant comparisons to “Breakfast on Pluto.” Did he describe perhaps why Pussy has a violently compulsive and obsessive relationship with finding his mother? He mentions it but never explains what realm of psychology could prove why he feels that way. Forgive me for writing in a “stream of consciousness”-like method here but as I read this piece I couldn’t really figure out who Mahon was trying to prove his theories to—the reader or himself? He does a fine job of explaining for instance what The Imaginary is and what Mirror Stage is but he never really explains how that relates to Breakfast On Pluto. I would have enjoyed this literary criticism piece a whole lot more if I saw more conclusions drawn between the novel and Lacanian psychoanalysis, and though I would draw those conclusions myself, I’m no psychologist. In other words, I am not really sure what the purpose of this piece was! I would love if anyone else held an explanation for me. Does anyone else have a guess or disagreement?
Works Cited
“Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Description”. Changing-minds.org. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/psychoanalysis/articles/lacanian_psychoanalysis.htm
Clark, Robert. "Castration Complex". The Literary Encyclopedia. Web. 20 Apr 2010 http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1601
“Jacques Lacan”. Wikipedia. Web. 19 Apr 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan
Mahon, Peter. “Lacanian Pussy: towards a psychoanalytic reading of Patrick McCabe’s Breakfast on Pluto”. Web. 20 Apr 2010.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-172978392/lacanian-pussy-towards-psychoanalytic.html
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Hi Lucky,
ReplyDeleteWell, I don’t feel like I have enough knowledge about psychology to have an opinion. You seem to have a better understanding than I do. Although, yes while I read Mahon’s analysis I often wondered what his point was because he didn’t make things very easy to understand. Maybe he should make an analysis for dummies to help me out I thought you did a great job breaking down some of Lacan’s theories. I also tried to do this and like I said, I have no background knowledge of psych. I like the part where you said,
“The Mirror Stage is Lacan’s first real contribution to his work, and it “describes the formation of the Ego via the process of objectification, the Ego being the result of feeling dissension between one's perceived visual appearance and one's perceived emotional reality.” (Wiki7) This is also known as alienation. This is seen in the book with Pussy’s cross-dressing and desire to be a woman. There is a deeper and more elaborate explanation of the Mirror Stage, but it doesn’t immediately pertain to neither the book or Mahon’s piece, so I’m not going to divulge into it.”
I stupidly returned my book Breakfast on Pluto to the library today but I remember at the begginning of the book, Patrick is describing a memory of when he was young and he dressed up in Whiskers clothes and put on make-up. Maybe I’m wrong, but wasn’t he looking in the mirror while he did this? This could be symbolism of the Mirror Stage.
Lacan describes the Mirror Stage as the formation of the ego via the process of identification.
“As Lacan further develops the mirror stage concept, the stress falls less on its historical value and ever more on its structural value. "Historical value" refers to the mental development of the child and "structural value" to the libidinal relationship with the body image.[8]. In Lacan's fourth Seminar, La relation d'objet, he states that "the mirror stage is far from a mere phenomenon which occurs in the development of the child. It illustrates the conflictual nature of the dual relationship". The dual relationship (relation duelle) refers not only to the relation between the Ego and the body, which is always characterized by illusions of similarity and reciprocity, but also to the relation between the Imaginary and the Real. The visual identity given from the mirror supplies imaginary "wholeness" to the experience of a fragmentary real. (wiki/Mirror_stage)
So during the scene from the book that I mentioned above perhaps this is the turning point where Patrick sees himself or herself rather, for the very first time.
Hi Lucky,
ReplyDeleteWell, I don’t feel like I have enough knowledge about psychology to have an opinion. You seem to have a better understanding than I do. Although, yes while I read Mahon’s analysis I often wondered what his point was because he didn’t make things very easy to understand. Maybe he should make an analysis for dummies to help me out I thought you did a great job breaking down some of Lacan’s theories. I also tried to do this and like I said, I have no background knowledge of psych. I like the part where you said,
“The Mirror Stage is Lacan’s first real contribution to his work, and it “describes the formation of the Ego via the process of objectification, the Ego being the result of feeling dissension between one's perceived visual appearance and one's perceived emotional reality.” (Wiki7) This is also known as alienation. This is seen in the book with Pussy’s cross-dressing and desire to be a woman. There is a deeper and more elaborate explanation of the Mirror Stage, but it doesn’t immediately pertain to neither the book or Mahon’s piece, so I’m not going to divulge into it.”
I stupidly returned my book Breakfast on Pluto to the library today but I remember at the begginning of the book, Patrick is describing a memory of when he was young and he dressed up in Whiskers clothes and put on make-up. Maybe I’m wrong, but wasn’t he looking in the mirror while he did this? This could be symbolism of the Mirror Stage.
Lacan describes the Mirror Stage as the formation of the ego via the process of identification.
“As Lacan further develops the mirror stage concept, the stress falls less on its historical value and ever more on its structural value. "Historical value" refers to the mental development of the child and "structural value" to the libidinal relationship with the body image.[8]. In Lacan's fourth Seminar, La relation d'objet, he states that "the mirror stage is far from a mere phenomenon which occurs in the development of the child. It illustrates the conflictual nature of the dual relationship". The dual relationship (relation duelle) refers not only to the relation between the Ego and the body, which is always characterized by illusions of similarity and reciprocity, but also to the relation between the Imaginary and the Real. The visual identity given from the mirror supplies imaginary "wholeness" to the experience of a fragmentary real. (wiki/Mirror_stage)
So during the scene from the book that I mentioned above perhaps this is the turning point where Patrick sees himself or herself rather, for the very first time.
Lucky,
ReplyDeleteI seriously don’t envy you having to do your literary criticism on this piece. I had a very hard time reading Mahon’s article as well and found it extremely difficult to focus on or even understand. In my blog, I talked a little about my “theory” on the idea of “sameness” but truly have no idea if I’m any closer to understanding it than you.
You commented,
“After reading this paragraph it has come to my knowledge that although Mahon has talked quite a bit about Lacanian psychoanalysis, he hasn’t really made any significant comparisons to ‘Breakfast on Pluto.’”
I again can’t agree with you more on this situation. Many of the critics we’ve read before were much easier to see the relationship between what the author was saying and the book. Mahon just seemed to talk a lot about psychology with occasional references to book. However, this could also be my jaded opinion because I’m personally not a fan of a lot of Lacan’s work, and I usually hate it when I feel like people over analyze something using “quacky psychology references”. (Sorry to be so harsh…just my opinions)
Anyway, I didn’t think about the incident with Pussy dressing up in Whiskers clothes that Lucy pointed out. That is an interesting thought, but I also liked the point that Pussy made in the book. She mentioned something about perhaps she liked to wear dresses because they looked like what her father wore. Almost seemed like perhaps Patrick wanted to blame his “father” for “turning out” the way he did. Good job on a very tough critique.
Lucky,
ReplyDeleteYour commentary about quacky psychology references had me laughing out loud. I had to re-read this article twice and over the course of a few days and find, like everyone else, that while fascinating from a psychoanalytical thought, I didn't quite make the connection on how Breakfast on Pluto follows Lancanian theory by re-writing it. WTF?! I did see a few references in Mohon's essay to passages in Breakfast on Pluto and once reading those passages I was able to better understand the theory being presented.
I will say this though, Mohon lost me at the whole "Name of the Father" thing and the suggestion of priviledge of masculinity... While I don't agree, I understand how Lancanian Psycho Theory applies to males, but does such a thing as penis-envy exist in girls?