Alireza Taheri: Psychoanalytic Topology
- Posthuman Art Laboratory
- Sep 13, 2022
- 2 min read
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Lacanian topology is the contemporary heir to speculative philosophy. The Moebius strip, the Torus and the Klein bottle all stage paradoxes for the common understanding (e.g. an object that has its centre of gravity outside itself, a surface with only one side). Only a paradoxical topology can grasp the object in its inherent contradictions. Lacanβs move to topological thinking must be seen as a corrective to both spatial and temporal thought (two aspects of representational thought). An inherent limitation of representational thought is that it depicts contradiction in such a way that βthe contradictory is held external to itself, next to and after itselfβ (Hegel quoted McGowan, 2019, 118). Time and space are ideological categories insofar as they misrecognize the paradoxical unity of an entity by falsely dividing it into disparate moments. Rather than depict one thing that is internally divided, representational thought puts forward two separate self-identical objects conceived as different only from one another. Lacanβs topology corrects this shortcoming and creates a new βimaginaryβ as an endeavour to overcome the limitations of Kantβs transcendental aesthetics: βI maintain that transcendental aesthetics has to be recast in our timesβ (Lacan, 2006). Elsewhere, Lacan (2001) asks: βIs topology not this noβspace [nβespace], into which mathematical discourse leads us and which necessitates a revision of Kantβs transcendental aesthetics?β Similarly, Hegel casts his own speculative philosophy in opposition to Kant. Does this common urge to overcome Kantian ontology not further confirm the kinship between Lacan and Hegel? The Lacanian βNoβspaceβ (as an alternative to Kantian transcendental aesthetics) provides the most current manifestation of the Hegelian project.
References
Lacan, J. (2001) Autres Γcrits. Γditions du Seuil. Paris.
Lacan, J. (2006) Γcrits. Translated by Fink B. In collaboration with Fink, H. and Grigg, R. W.W. Norton and Company. New York and London. Page numbers refer to the French original displayed on the margin of the text.
McGowan, T. (2019) Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution. Columbia University Press. New York.
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