LACAN’ S ENCOUNTER WITH BUDDHISM IN THE SEMINAR ON ANXIETY
Anna McLellan
In the Seminar on Anxiety Lacan has made use of Judaism and its practices, and of Christianity; and finally he will make use of Buddhism in his effort to explore the question of desire in its relation to the Other, and of the fundamental position of anxiety in these encounters.
In Judaism the Other – God – is an exteriority, a residue of the first identification with the father, a subject that Freud explores in “ Moses and Monotheism” . This God is positioned in a particular structural relation whose purpose is to minimize anxiety; in particular the super-egoic function which Lacan links to the invocatory drive – God speaks to Moses – and to the all-seeing eye of God inherent in the scopic drive. The sacrifice of God’ s son for mankind shifts the Christian’ s position to the Other – subduing this arbitrary power- thus shifting his relation to anxiety, which Lacan describes as now ‘ provoking the anxiety of the other’ .
In May of 1963, the week after his return from a visit to a Buddhist shrine in Japan, Lacan declares his intent to use his experience at this monastery to advance his teaching on “ the point where the dialectic of anxiety takes place, namely the question of desire” . He begins by reminding us of the hypocracy of the Westerner in the belief that the Oriental is lacking in subjectivity. Lacan is emphasizing that anxiety must be understood in relation to the desire of the Other, and that this is a structural position and has little to do with ‘ depth’ or ‘ heart’ . Read the rest of this entry »
