Pornography and the Paradoxes of Pleasure – On the ‘Identity of Perception’
“It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I’d ever come...
Inside Out and the ‘Science’ of Emotions
No film in recent years has had quite as much input from the field of psychology as Disney and Pixar’s latest offering, Inside Out. Charming though the film is,...
On Absent Mothers
Hip hop, it is sometimes claimed, is born of an absent father. If this is true perhaps rock music is born of an absent mother. John Lennon, Paul McCartney,...
The Deepest Secret
In The Question of Lay Analysis from 1926, Freud imagined himself being asked by an ‘Impartial Person’ whether psychoanalysis is a confession. He imagines the following question being thrown...
Lacan avec Funakoshi
From the symptom to the sinthome The title of this short article will resonate with readers of the Écrits,but rather than Kant or Sade here I am going to...
5 Lacanian Cinematic Clichés that Hollywood Loves – V
5. Men in Love Case in point: Friends with Benefits ‘There is no such thing as a sexual relationship’ is a slightly odd translation of Lacan’s well-known maxim Il...
5 Lacanian Cinematic Clichés that Hollywood Loves – IV
4. The Subject Supposed to Know and the ‘Magical Negro’ The ‘Magical Negro’ is a cinematic cliché in itself. The term was coined by director Spike Lee to denote...
5 Lacanian Cinematic Clichés that Hollywood Loves – III
3. Horror Movies and the Mirror Image Here’s a horror story in just two sentences: This sends a chill down most spines. The ideas that it plays on –...
5 Lacanian Cinematic Clichés that Hollywood Loves – II
2. The Male Exception Case in point: Zodiac, The Usual Suspects, all Bond films, almost all movies about unsolved murders committed by men, and virtually any superhero film of the...
5 Lacanian Cinematic Clichés that Hollywood Loves – I
1. The Absent Father Case in point: Man of Steel I start this short series with what is perhaps the most consistently ubiquitous and easily noticeable of all cinematic...