Revisiting the Master-Signifier, or, Mandela and Repression
The concept of the master-signifier has been subject to a variety of applications in Lacanian forms of political discourse theory and ideology critique. While there is much to be commended in literature of this sort, it often neglects salient issues pertaining to the role of master signifiers in the...
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| Published in: | Frontiers in psychology Vol. 6; p. 2028 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A
19.01.2016
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| Abstract | The concept of the master-signifier has been subject to a variety of applications in Lacanian forms of political discourse theory and ideology critique. While there is much to be commended in literature of this sort, it often neglects salient issues pertaining to the role of master signifiers in the clinical domain of (individual) psychical economy. The popularity of the concept of the master (or "empty") signifier in political discourse analysis has thus proved a double-edged sword. On the one hand it demonstrates how crucial psychical processes are performed via the operations of the signifier, extending thus the Lacanian thesis that identification is the outcome of linguistic and symbolic as opposed to merely psychological processes. On the other, the use of the master signifier concept within the political realm to track discursive formations tends to distance the term from the dynamics of the unconscious and operation of repression. Accordingly, this paper revisits the master signifier concept, and does so within the socio-political domain, yet while paying particular attention to the functioning of unconscious processes of fantasy and repression. More specifically, it investigates how Nelson Mandela operates as a master signifier in contemporary South Africa, as a vital means of knitting together diverse elements of post-apartheid society, enabling the fantasy of the post-apartheid nation, and holding at bay a whole series of repressed and negated undercurrents. |
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| AbstractList | The concept of the master-signifier has been subject to a variety of applications in Lacanian forms of political discourse theory and ideology critique. While there is much to be commended in literature of this sort, it often neglects salient issues pertaining to the role of master signifiers in the clinical domain of (individual) psychical economy. The popularity of the concept of the master (or ‘empty’) signifier in political discourse analysis has thus proved a double-edged sword. On the one hand it demonstrates how crucial psychical processes are performed via the operations of the signifier, extending thus the Lacanian thesis that identification is as much the outcome of linguistic and symbolic as opposed to merely psychological processes. On the other, the use of the master signifier concept within the political realm to track discursive formations tends to distance the term from the dynamics of the unconscious and operation of repression. Accordingly, this paper revisits the master signifier concept, and does so within the socio-political domain, yet while paying particular attention to the functioning of unconscious processes of fantasy and repression. More specifically, it investigates how Nelson Mandela operates as a master signifier in contemporary South Africa, as a vital means of knitting together diverse elements of post-apartheid society, enabling the fantasy of the post-apartheid nation, and holding at bay a whole series of repressed and negated undercurrents. The concept of the master-signifier has been subject to a variety of applications in Lacanian forms of political discourse theory and ideology critique. While there is much to be commended in literature of this sort, it often neglects salient issues pertaining to the role of master signifiers in the clinical domain of (individual) psychical economy. The popularity of the concept of the master (or "empty") signifier in political discourse analysis has thus proved a double-edged sword. On the one hand it demonstrates how crucial psychical processes are performed via the operations of the signifier, extending thus the Lacanian thesis that identification is the outcome of linguistic and symbolic as opposed to merely psychological processes. On the other, the use of the master signifier concept within the political realm to track discursive formations tends to distance the term from the dynamics of the unconscious and operation of repression. Accordingly, this paper revisits the master signifier concept, and does so within the socio-political domain, yet while paying particular attention to the functioning of unconscious processes of fantasy and repression. More specifically, it investigates how Nelson Mandela operates as a master signifier in contemporary South Africa, as a vital means of knitting together diverse elements of post-apartheid society, enabling the fantasy of the post-apartheid nation, and holding at bay a whole series of repressed and negated undercurrents. The concept of the master-signifier has been subject to a variety of applications in Lacanian forms of political discourse theory and ideology critique. While there is much to be commended in literature of this sort, it often neglects salient issues pertaining to the role of master signifiers in the clinical domain of (individual) psychical economy. The popularity of the concept of the master (or "empty") signifier in political discourse analysis has thus proved a double-edged sword. On the one hand it demonstrates how crucial psychical processes are performed via the operations of the signifier, extending thus the Lacanian thesis that identification is the outcome of linguistic and symbolic as opposed to merely psychological processes. On the other, the use of the master signifier concept within the political realm to track discursive formations tends to distance the term from the dynamics of the unconscious and operation of repression. Accordingly, this paper revisits the master signifier concept, and does so within the socio-political domain, yet while paying particular attention to the functioning of unconscious processes of fantasy and repression. More specifically, it investigates how Nelson Mandela operates as a master signifier in contemporary South Africa, as a vital means of knitting together diverse elements of post-apartheid society, enabling the fantasy of the post-apartheid nation, and holding at bay a whole series of repressed and negated undercurrents.The concept of the master-signifier has been subject to a variety of applications in Lacanian forms of political discourse theory and ideology critique. While there is much to be commended in literature of this sort, it often neglects salient issues pertaining to the role of master signifiers in the clinical domain of (individual) psychical economy. The popularity of the concept of the master (or "empty") signifier in political discourse analysis has thus proved a double-edged sword. On the one hand it demonstrates how crucial psychical processes are performed via the operations of the signifier, extending thus the Lacanian thesis that identification is the outcome of linguistic and symbolic as opposed to merely psychological processes. On the other, the use of the master signifier concept within the political realm to track discursive formations tends to distance the term from the dynamics of the unconscious and operation of repression. Accordingly, this paper revisits the master signifier concept, and does so within the socio-political domain, yet while paying particular attention to the functioning of unconscious processes of fantasy and repression. More specifically, it investigates how Nelson Mandela operates as a master signifier in contemporary South Africa, as a vital means of knitting together diverse elements of post-apartheid society, enabling the fantasy of the post-apartheid nation, and holding at bay a whole series of repressed and negated undercurrents. |
| Author | Vanheule, Stijn Hook, Derek |
| AuthorAffiliation | 3 Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium 1 Department of Psychology, Duquesne University Pittsburgh, PA, USA 2 Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa |
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| BackLink | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26834664$$D View this record in MEDLINE/PubMed |
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| Cites_doi | 10.1080/13569319708420763 10.1177/0959354315611263 10.1057/sub.2010.12 10.1177/0959354305051361 10.1080/13569310120053858 |
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| Copyright | Copyright © 2016 Hook and Vanheule. 2016 Hook and Vanheule |
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| Keywords | Mandela Lacanian psychoanalysis discourse of the master repression signifier master-signifier psychoanalysis discourse |
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| References | Mandela (B20) 1994 Bracher (B4) 1994 Lacan (B15) 1993 Glynos (B10) 2001; 6 Miller (B21) 2016 Laclau (B17) 2004 Beresford (B3) 2004; p. 2 Žižek (B29) 1989 Nxumalo (B24) 2013 Stavrakakis (B27) 1997; 2 (B2) 2014 Lacan (B13) 1971 Parker (B25) 2005; 15 Gunkel (B12) 2014 Žižek (B30) 1996 Lacan (B16) 2006 Posel (B26) 2014; 46 Nuttall (B23) 2013 Glynos (B11) 2010; 3 Foucault (B8) 1990 Lacan (B14) 1972 Bailly (B1) 2009 Stavrakakis (B28) 1999 Mngxitama (B22) 2014; p. 21 Feyaerts (B6) 2015; 25 Laclau (B19) 1985 Fink (B7) 1995 Laclau (B18) 2007 Dolar (B5) 1999; 35 Frederickson (B9) 1990 |
| References_xml | – volume: p. 21 year: 2014 ident: B22 article-title: How Malema became Mao'lema publication-title: Mail and Guardian – volume-title: The Lacanian Subject Between Language and Jouissance. year: 1995 ident: B7 – volume: 35 start-page: 79 year: 1999 ident: B5 article-title: Where does power come from? publication-title: New Formations – volume-title: Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela year: 1994 ident: B20 – year: 2013 ident: B24 publication-title: Mandela for blacks is different from Mandela for whites – volume-title: The Sublime Object of Ideology year: 1989 ident: B29 – volume: 2 start-page: 259 year: 1997 ident: B27 article-title: Green ideology: a discursive reading publication-title: J. Polit. Ideol. doi: 10.1080/13569319708420763 – volume-title: Le Séminaire de Jacques Lacan, Livre XVIII, D'un Discours qui ne Serait pas du Semblant year: 1971 ident: B13 – start-page: 107 volume-title: Lacanian Theory of Discourse year: 1994 ident: B4 article-title: On the psychological and social functions of language: Lacan's theory of the four discourses – volume: 25 start-page: 753 year: 2015 ident: B6 article-title: How to return to subjectivity: Natorp, Husserl, and Lacan on the limits of reflection publication-title: Theory Psychol doi: 10.1177/0959354315611263 – start-page: p. 14 year: 2013 ident: B23 article-title: The mortality of Nelson Mandela publication-title: Mail Guardian – volume-title: The Cambridge Companion to Mandela year: 2014 ident: B2 – volume-title: The Indivisible Remainder: On Schelling and Related Matters year: 1996 ident: B30 – volume-title: Lacanian and the Political year: 1999 ident: B28 – start-page: 190 volume-title: The ŽiŽek Dictionary year: 2014 ident: B12 article-title: Master-signifier – volume: 46 start-page: 32 year: 2014 ident: B26 article-title: Julius Malema and the post-apartheid public sphere publication-title: Acta Acad. – volume: 3 start-page: 231 year: 2010 ident: B11 article-title: Politics and the unconscious – An interview with Ernesto Laclau publication-title: Subjectivity doi: 10.1057/sub.2010.12 – start-page: 671 volume-title: Écrits the First Complete Edition in English year: 2006 ident: B16 article-title: The subversion of the subject and the dialectic of desire in the Freudian unconscious – volume-title: Emancipations year: 2007 ident: B18 – start-page: 32 volume-title: Lacan in Italia 1953-1978. En Italie Lacan year: 1972 ident: B14 article-title: Du discours psychanalytique – volume-title: Hegemony and Socialist Strategy year: 1985 ident: B19 – volume: 15 start-page: 163 year: 2005 ident: B25 article-title: Lacanian discourse analysis in psychology: seven theoretical elements publication-title: Theory Psychol. doi: 10.1177/0959354305051361 – volume-title: The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction year: 1990 ident: B8 – volume: p. 2 year: 2004 ident: B3 article-title: Mandela's greatness is from being here publication-title: Mail and Guardian – start-page: p. 8 year: 1990 ident: B9 article-title: The making of mandela publication-title: New York Review of Books – volume: 6 start-page: 191 year: 2001 ident: B10 article-title: The grip of ideology: a Lacanian approach to the theory of ideology publication-title: J. Polit. Ideol. doi: 10.1080/13569310120053858 – volume-title: On Populist Reason year: 2004 ident: B17 – volume-title: Lacan year: 2009 ident: B1 – volume-title: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book III, The Psychoses, 1955–1956 year: 1993 ident: B15 – volume-title: Reading the Écrits – A Guide to Lacan's Works year: 2016 ident: B21 article-title: Psychoanalysis and its Teaching |
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| Title | Revisiting the Master-Signifier, or, Mandela and Repression |
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