God and the Jouissance of the Woman: a summary

1. God and the Jouissanceof the Woman: a summary Jessica Yang 497200762

2. OUTLINE • Introduction/Background • Summary of text • Discussion of text and questions "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

3. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

4. BACKGROUND INFORMATION • “The Significance of the Phallus” as a “prequel” • “sexuality for human beings is nothing but semblant or make-believe” (Brousse) • Paradox of how “the Other does not have what it provides” (Liu – lecture) • “sexual satisfaction is phallic,” (Brousse) and so is satisfaction in speaking • “God and the Jouissance of the Woman” and going beyond Freud "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

5. VOCABULARY • What is jouissance? • ménage à trois • secouer vs secourir • Eros vs Thanatos • The philosophers & Thomas • bourgeoise "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

6. TEXT SUMMARY "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

7. “THERE IS SOMETHING OF ONE” • “there is something of One” – there is only one sex for speaking beings • Problem: there are “two sexes” • The phallic function and its four counterparts: • The phallus as signifier, negation, to have, and to be • This theory proposes a symmetry between man and woman, and deals only with the unconscious "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

8. What is Eros? • Freud: a fusion of the two sexes, making one out of two • Thanatos (Θάνατος) • the death drive to Eros’ life instinct • Freud: the dark side of Eros, the Unity? • Lacan: “There is no Other of the Other.” • “There is only one Other—the Other of language.” From that, there is One. We are subjects; we are consequences. (Brousse) "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

9. BACK TO “SOMETHING OF ONE”… • There is only One language, One unconscious • “If the unconscious is indeed what I say it is, as being structured like a language, then it is on the level of language that we must interrogate this One.” (Lacan 139) "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

10. THE “OTHER” • The “Other,” God, and Materialism • Materialism: pure philosophy • God: “dominated in philosophy the whole debate about love” • The Other: not God itself but functions to exorcise “God” • Courtly love and feudalism • God, Man, and Woman as a ménage à trois "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

11. THE PHILOSOPHERS • Plato • Idealism and the theory of Forms • Aristotle • Logical reasoning and the theory of Universals • Democritus • “Father of modern science” • St. Thomas • “Doubting Thomas” "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

12. BACK TO “SOMETHING OF ONE” AGAIN… • There is only One, but there is always two parts (like Eros and Thanatos) • Freud: the phallic side only; the “masculine sexuality” • The problem: this makes us see the world through the eyes of the male sexuality because “there is something of One, [only] one sex for all of us.” • So what about the feminine sexuality? "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

13. THE PHALLIC FUNCTION • Freud has only dealt with one side of the function. • There is no difference between the male and female except for the position; the presence of the phallus • Lacan: “there are phallic women and the phallic function does not prevent men from being homosexual.” (143) "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

14. “The Woman” • “the” is the signifier; “the woman as being not all;” (144) “there is no such thing as the woman since of her essence, she is not all.” • A different type of castration • “feminine sexuality is related to castration in itself, but not to castration as embodied, veiled by the object with phallic signification.” (Brousse) • Her “relation with the Other is linked with sacrifice.” (Brousse) • The “jouissance beyond the phallus” (Lacan 145) • “supplementary” jouissance, not “complementary” (Lacan 144) "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

15. THE FEMALE JOUISSANCE • “the woman knows nothing of this jouissance” (Lacan 146) • “I believe in the jouissance of the woman insofar as it is something more” (Lacan 147) • Jouissance is not a fantasy (as fantasies are perversities of men) • Jouissance in love, not desire • there is the Other, and there is the principle of sacrifice • “Love without desire, oriented by sacrifice” (Brousse) "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

16. “it is not by chance that Kierkegaard discovered existence in a little tale of seduction. It is by being castrated, by renouncing love that he believes he accedes to it.” (Lacan 147-8) • “A love beyond the father, but not beyond castration, where the name of the lack is never phallicized.” (Brousse) • “all we lack and lose can be or take on a phallic value.” (Brousse) "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

17. TEXT DISCUSSION & QUESTIONS "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

18. THANK YOU. "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"

19. REFERENCES AND WORKS CITED • Brousse, Marie-Hélène. “God and the Jouissance of the Woman.” London. 12 June 1993. Print. • “Jouissance.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 January 2011. Web. 08 March 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jouissance> • “Jouissance – Lacan in the 1970s: Masculine and Feminine Jouissance.” Net Industries. 2011. Web. 08 March 2011. <http://science.jrank.org/pages/9860/Jouissance- Lacan-in-1970s-Masculine-Feminine-Jouissances.html> • Lacan, Jacques. “God and the Jouissance of the Woman.” Ed. Juliet Mitchell & Jacqueline Rose. W. W. Norton & Company. New York: 1985. Print. 138-148. • “Thanatos.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 07 March 2011. Web. 10 March 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanatos> "God and the Jouissance of the Woman"