Difference between revisions of "Beautiful soul"

Revision as of 07:57, 15 June 2006

beautiful soul (belle ‚me) The beautiful soul (Ger. schˆne Seele) is a

stage in the dialectic of self-consciousness which Hegel describes in the

Phenomenology of Spirit (Hegel, 1807). The beautiful soul projects its own

disorder onto the world and attempts to cure this disorder by imposing 'the law

  of the heart'    on everyone else. For Lacan, the beautiful soul is           a perfect

metaphor for the ego; 'the ego of modern man . . . has taken on its form in

the dialectical impasse of the belle ‚me who does not recognise his very own

  raison d'Ítre in the disorder that he denounces in the world' (E, 70). In a more

  extreme way, the beautiful soul also illustrates the structure of paranoiac

misrecognition (see M…CONNAISSANCE) (Ec, 172-3).

     The concept of the beautiful soul illustrates the way that neurotics often

deny their own responsibility for what is going on around them (see AcT). The

ethics of psychoanalysis enjoin analysands to recognise their own part in their

sufferings. Thus when Dora complains about being treated as an object of

exchange by the men around her, Freud's first intervention is to confront her

with her own complicity in this exchange (Ec, 218-19; see Freud, 1905e).

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+beautiful soul (belle ‚me)                     The beautiful soul (Ger. schˆne Seele) is a
+stage in the dialectic of self-consciousness which Hegel describes in the
+Phenomenology of Spirit (Hegel, 1807). The beautiful soul projects its own
+disorder onto the world and attempts to cure this disorder by imposing 'the law
+   of the heart'    on everyone else. For Lacan, the beautiful soul is           a perfect
+metaphor for the ego; 'the ego of modern man        .  . . has taken on its form in
+the dialectical impasse of the belle ‚me who does not recognise his very own
+   raison d'Ítre in the disorder that he denounces in the world' (E, 70). In a more
+   extreme way, the beautiful soul also illustrates the structure of paranoiac
+misrecognition (see M…CONNAISSANCE) (Ec, 172-3).
+      The concept of the beautiful soul illustrates the way that neurotics often
+deny their own responsibility for what is going on around them (see AcT). The
+ethics of psychoanalysis enjoin analysands to recognise their own part in their
+sufferings. Thus when Dora complains about being treated as an object of
+exchange by the men around her, Freud's first intervention is to confront her
+with her own complicity in this exchange (Ec, 218-19; see Freud, 1905e).
 [[Category:Politics]]
 [[Category:Jacques Lacan]]