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We are not whole and we never will be

Castration is one of the most elusive concepts in Lacanian thought. It’s usually written about in such an abstract way that I find it hard to sit with the affective force of the analysis. In contrast Bruce Fink writes with wonderful clarity about how castration shows up in the clinic as well as what’s involved in “castration-orientated work. From Miss-ing: Psychoanalysis 2.0 by Bruce Fink loc 680-689:

the “bedrock of castration,” which we might characterize as follows in Lacan’s terms:   1) The encounter with the fact that explanations can never be complete, for something is always left unaccounted for and there is always more that could be said 2) There is no such thing as perfect harmony between people, whether of the same or opposite sexes, there always being “a psychological phase-difference” between them (Freud, SE XXII, p. 134), they always being at cross purposes (Lacan, 1998, p. 78) 3) That no one has all the answers, and that no future outcome can be thoroughly predicted in advance—one simply has to choose and make the best of one’s choices 4) That one cannot do or be everything in life—one’s time on earth is limited as is one’s energy and abilities.

Castration means we are not whole, do not have everything we want, cannot be everything we might have wanted to be, cannot do everything we may have wanted to do. We are not omnipotent, omniscient, immortal beings.

It’s not that neurotics ignore castration but rather that fantasies emerge which smooth our confrontation with it. What he terms ‘castration-orientated work’ involves a gradual process of “giv[ing] up old readings, and the fantasies, stances, and satisfactions that go with them” (loc 757). The point is I think that new satisfactions can be found in the confrontation with castration, new ways of tieing together drive and desire in full of the reality of our condition rather than seeking to escape from it. I find it hard to write about this without implying something like authenticity because the thrust of this is to live ‘authentically’ is to recognise that no such thing is possible.

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