Difference between revisions of "Seduction"

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Since ''l'[[objet petit a]]'' is the object of [[psychoanalysis]], no wonder that we encounter a parallax gap in the very core of psychoanalytic experience. When [[Jean Laplanche]] elaborates the impasses of the Freudian topic of [[seduction]], he effectively reproduces the precise structure of a [[Kant]]ian [[antinomy]]. On the one hand, there is the brutal empirical realism of the parental seduction: the ultimate cause of later [[trauma]]s and [[pathology|pathologies]] is that children effectively were seduced and molested by adults; on the other hand, there is the (in)famous reduction of the seduction scene to the patient's [[fantasy]]. As Laplanche points out, the ultimate irony is that the dismissal of seduction as fantasy passes today for the "realistic" stance, while those who insist on the [[reality]] of seduction end up advocating all kind of molestations, up to satanic rites and extra-terrestrial harassments... Laplanche's solution is precisely the transcendental one: while "seduction" cannot be reduced just to subject's fantasy, while it does refer to a traumatic encounter of the other's "enigmatic message," bearing witness to the other's [[unconscious]], it also cannot be reduced to an event in the reality of the actual interaction between child and his/her adults. Seduction is rather a kind of transcendental [[structure]], the minimal a priori formal constellation of the child confronted with the impenetrable acts of the Other which bear witness to the Other's unconscious - and we are never dealing here with simple "facts," but always with facts located into the space of indeterminacy between "too soon" and "too late": the child is originally [[helpless]], thrown into the world when unable to take care of itself, i.e., his/her surviving skills develop too late; at the same time, the encounter of the sexualized [[Other]] always, by a structural necessity, comes "too soon," as an unexpected shock which cannot ever be properly symbolized, translated into the universe of [[meaning]].<ref>See Jean Laplanche, New Foundations for Psychoanalysis, Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1989.</ref>  The fact of seduction is thus that of the Kantian transcendental X, a structurally-necessary transcendental illusion.<ref>[[The Parallax View]]</blockquote>
 
Since ''l'[[objet petit a]]'' is the object of [[psychoanalysis]], no wonder that we encounter a parallax gap in the very core of psychoanalytic experience. When [[Jean Laplanche]] elaborates the impasses of the Freudian topic of [[seduction]], he effectively reproduces the precise structure of a [[Kant]]ian [[antinomy]]. On the one hand, there is the brutal empirical realism of the parental seduction: the ultimate cause of later [[trauma]]s and [[pathology|pathologies]] is that children effectively were seduced and molested by adults; on the other hand, there is the (in)famous reduction of the seduction scene to the patient's [[fantasy]]. As Laplanche points out, the ultimate irony is that the dismissal of seduction as fantasy passes today for the "realistic" stance, while those who insist on the [[reality]] of seduction end up advocating all kind of molestations, up to satanic rites and extra-terrestrial harassments... Laplanche's solution is precisely the transcendental one: while "seduction" cannot be reduced just to subject's fantasy, while it does refer to a traumatic encounter of the other's "enigmatic message," bearing witness to the other's [[unconscious]], it also cannot be reduced to an event in the reality of the actual interaction between child and his/her adults. Seduction is rather a kind of transcendental [[structure]], the minimal a priori formal constellation of the child confronted with the impenetrable acts of the Other which bear witness to the Other's unconscious - and we are never dealing here with simple "facts," but always with facts located into the space of indeterminacy between "too soon" and "too late": the child is originally [[helpless]], thrown into the world when unable to take care of itself, i.e., his/her surviving skills develop too late; at the same time, the encounter of the sexualized [[Other]] always, by a structural necessity, comes "too soon," as an unexpected shock which cannot ever be properly symbolized, translated into the universe of [[meaning]].<ref>See Jean Laplanche, New Foundations for Psychoanalysis, Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1989.</ref>  The fact of seduction is thus that of the Kantian transcendental X, a structurally-necessary transcendental illusion.<ref>[[The Parallax View]]</blockquote>
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==def==
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The "scene of seduction" connotes attempts at seduction, real or fantasied, in the form of advances, incitations, manipulations, or suggestions that are actively initiated by an adult vis-à-vis a child who is passive, even frightened.
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The "theory of seduction" was a metapsychological model worked out by Sigmund Freud between 1895 and 1897 and then abandoned; it assigned an etiological role in the production of psychoneuroses to memories of actual seduction attempts. In 1893, bolstered by the accounts given him by his patients, Freud...
  
 
[[Category:Terms]]
 
[[Category:Terms]]

Revision as of 07:00, 18 May 2006

Since l'objet petit a is the object of psychoanalysis, no wonder that we encounter a parallax gap in the very core of psychoanalytic experience. When Jean Laplanche elaborates the impasses of the Freudian topic of seduction, he effectively reproduces the precise structure of a Kantian antinomy. On the one hand, there is the brutal empirical realism of the parental seduction: the ultimate cause of later traumas and pathologies is that children effectively were seduced and molested by adults; on the other hand, there is the (in)famous reduction of the seduction scene to the patient's fantasy. As Laplanche points out, the ultimate irony is that the dismissal of seduction as fantasy passes today for the "realistic" stance, while those who insist on the reality of seduction end up advocating all kind of molestations, up to satanic rites and extra-terrestrial harassments... Laplanche's solution is precisely the transcendental one: while "seduction" cannot be reduced just to subject's fantasy, while it does refer to a traumatic encounter of the other's "enigmatic message," bearing witness to the other's unconscious, it also cannot be reduced to an event in the reality of the actual interaction between child and his/her adults. Seduction is rather a kind of transcendental structure, the minimal a priori formal constellation of the child confronted with the impenetrable acts of the Other which bear witness to the Other's unconscious - and we are never dealing here with simple "facts," but always with facts located into the space of indeterminacy between "too soon" and "too late": the child is originally helpless, thrown into the world when unable to take care of itself, i.e., his/her surviving skills develop too late; at the same time, the encounter of the sexualized Other always, by a structural necessity, comes "too soon," as an unexpected shock which cannot ever be properly symbolized, translated into the universe of meaning.[1] The fact of seduction is thus that of the Kantian transcendental X, a structurally-necessary transcendental illusion.[2]

  1. See Jean Laplanche, New Foundations for Psychoanalysis, Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1989.
  2. The Parallax View

    def

    The "scene of seduction" connotes attempts at seduction, real or fantasied, in the form of advances, incitations, manipulations, or suggestions that are actively initiated by an adult vis-à-vis a child who is passive, even frightened. The "theory of seduction" was a metapsychological model worked out by Sigmund Freud between 1895 and 1897 and then abandoned; it assigned an etiological role in the production of psychoneuroses to memories of actual seduction attempts. In 1893, bolstered by the accounts given him by his patients, Freud...

    References

    1. See Jean Laplanche, New Foundations for Psychoanalysis, Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1989.
    2. The Parallax View

      def

      The "scene of seduction" connotes attempts at seduction, real or fantasied, in the form of advances, incitations, manipulations, or suggestions that are actively initiated by an adult vis-à-vis a child who is passive, even frightened. The "theory of seduction" was a metapsychological model worked out by Sigmund Freud between 1895 and 1897 and then abandoned; it assigned an etiological role in the production of psychoneuroses to memories of actual seduction attempts. In 1893, bolstered by the accounts given him by his patients, Freud...

      References

      <references/>