Sade and Psychoanalysis
Resource
中外文學, 43(2), 129-151
Journal
中外文學
Journal Volume
43
Journal Issue
2
Pages
129-151
Date Issued
2014-06
Date
2014-06
Author(s)
Abstract
In the literary world of France, the impact of Marquis de Sade’s works
has long held sway. Sade is undeniably the pioneer in the writings on perverse
behavior, and only much later did Sigmund Freud appear. Sade’s perverse
fantasy is something beyond imaginary: an unfaltering willpower seems to
stand behind the fantasy. Jacques Lacan’s reading of Sade, however, is an
attempt to probe for the “rational” base behind such obscure force. For Lacan,
Sade’s La philosophie dans le boudoir is itself a rational assertion written in
response to Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason. Sade goes even
further to supplement and illustrate the truth of rationality, thus making his
book completely and innovatively subversive. Thus, in his psychoanalytic
study of “desire,” Lacan puts Sade and Kant together instead of Freud. His
assigning Sade as the successor of Kant as well as the critical turning point of
traditional ethics has led psychoanalysis, as a result, on the road to a subversion
of ethics. Before Lacan, the experiences and works of Sade were never weighed
and considered in an ethical light. This paper traces Lacan’s reading of Sade
together with Kant by inspecting their symbiotic relationship, the connection
between moral principles and jouissance, and finally the mystic analogy
between Sade’s “second death” and Freud’s “death drive.”
Subjects
薩德，康德，佛洛依德，拉岡，倫理學，絕爽，死亡欲力
Sade, Kant, Freud, Lacan, ethics, jouissance, death drive
Type
journal article