Premium
The Power of Traces
Author(s) -
Corin Ellen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1111/etho.12255
Subject(s) - psychoanalytic theory , harmony (color) , psychoanalysis , the symbolic , sensibility , aesthetics , epistemology , sociology , psychology , philosophy , art , literature , visual arts
Abstract This article deals with the limits of words, images, and symbols and explores the idea that “residues” or “rests” may surface and rupture the tissue of conventional knowledge. L'Actuel , a notion developed in contemporary French psychoanalysis, serves as a guiding thread for this exploration. It points towards a kind of enigmatic “real” that may surface during the psychoanalytic session, “in presence,” specifically under cover of the transference–countertransference energy. It may either open to the identification and elaboration of an obscure nucleus of experience or surge as pure discharge and endanger the psychoanalytic session. Analogous “residues” resisting symbolic representation and meaning may also be identified at the levels of culture and history. Identifying them and grasping their significance requires a particular sensibility to discrepancy and unexpected recurrences. Breaking with ideas of beauty and harmony, contemporary art offers a privileged avenue for the emergence and treatment of traces haunting us as humans. Freud's notion of kulturarbeit is evoked in that context. [l'actuel; psychoanalytic sessions; cultural residues; hidden history]