Jos de Mul Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's »La trahison des images« Nothing is true about psycho-analysis except its exaggeration. Theodor Adorno Ceci n -&U ficu> wne, pifui. Perhaps psycho-analysis itself is the most suitable case for treatment by psycho-analysis. René Magritte The work of the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte takes us to the bounda- ries of the aesthetics' domain . It forces the observer to abandon his attitude of passive viewing and invites him to reflect upon those questions which, pre- cisely because of their everyday-ness and banality, generally escape our ob- servation. A m o n g such questions is that of visual representation and the rela- tionship between the visual signifier (signifiant) and the signified [signifié]. This epistemological connotat ion of Magritte's work has not escaped philosophi- cal interest. Most especially, the painting La trahison des images f rom 1929 has elicited a large n u m b e r of commentaries, of which Foucault 's Ceci n'est pas une pipe (Foucault, 1973) is perhaps the most well known. That which strikes the reader in the various interpretations is that the title of La trahison des images rarely enters into the discussion. This is remark- able because the titles of Magritte 's works deliver a valuable contribution to the question at issue and for precisely this reason they demand their share in the interpretat ion. However , because of their puzzling character the titles conjure up considerable resistance against their inclusion in the philosophi- cal discussion. Magritte, comment ing about this, said: »The titles of the paint- ings are not explanat ions and the paintings themselves are not mere illustra- tions of the titles. The relationship is poetic, that is, it merely illuminates a n u m b e r of the characteristics of the objects involved, characteristics which are generally ignored by consciousness« (Magritte, 1979, 259). For an analy- sis which is directed at the reception accorded to Magritte's work, the titles offer a tempt ing starting-point precisely because they reveal something about that which remains unconscious in perception. This is especially relevant for Filozofski vestnik, XVII (2/1996), pp. 107-126. Jos de Mu I La trahison des images because the title poin ts to a p r o b l e m which appea r s to be closely connec ted to that of represen ta t ion . T h e title of the pa in t ing of a p ipe which appears no t to be a p ipe br ings us on to the te r ra in of d isavowal : a disavowal of the images is po in ted at.1 The close connect ion be tween r ep re sen t a t i on and disavowal , and the fact that these activities ex tend themselves to the b o u n d a r i e s of our th inking, makes t hem except ional ly difficult to 'mas te r ' . W e exist in the fo r tuna te cir- cumstances , however , of be ing able to m a k e an appea l to psychoana ly t i c theory, in which the en tang lemen t of d isavowal and r ep resen ta t ion h a v e a privi leged position, for our studies of the re la t ionship . T h e texts in which Freud, and in his footsteps the F rench psychoana lys t M a n n o n i , deal t with disavowal (Verleugnung) in the context of fe t ishism especial ly deserve our at- tent ion. 2 These texts will funct ion as a gu id ing th read in the fo l lowing s tudy of the expressive commen ta ry which La trahison des images p rov ides of the re la t ionship be tween disavowal and r ep re sen ta t i on in the expe r i ence of mi- metic fine arts .3 Further , an inverse m o v e m e n t will b e ini t ia ted f r o m the be- ginning of m y a rgument by my use of Magr i t t e ' s c o m m e n t a r y to in te r roga te the psychoanalyt ic concept ion of this re la t ionsh ip f r o m within . M y in te rpre- tation of La trahison des images also bears t races of texts by Der r ida , Barthes , and Irigaray concern ing the quest ion of represen ta t ion . And , jus t as La trahison des images has unavoidab ly inserted itself in to the o rde r ing of language, these spores have carved themselves into the effect ive his tory of the pa in t ing , the never dry ing veneer of the aesthetic image which the pa in t ing embod ie s . 4 1 La trahision des images, sometimes referred to by Magritte as L'usage de la parole, is usually translated as The treachery of images. In the original, however, the French verb trahir also has the meaning of disavowal. Given that, in my subsequent argument, Freud's theory of disavowel is central, I have chosen to use the second translation. - Those texts of Freud to which I refer here are Fetishism (SE XXI, \\l-51),An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (SE XXIII, 139-207), and Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defence (SE XXIII, 271-8). Those works of Mannoni which are especially important are Je sais bien, mais quand même ... and L'illusion comique ou le théâtre du point de vue de l'imaginaire, both published in Mannoni, 1969. 3 Used here the word 'mimetic' is taken in its broadest meaning as the representation of material and immaterial objects. In this sense, a part of abstract art (Mondriaan and Kandinsky, for example) also exhibits a mimetic character to the extent that it points to some kind of reality outside the painted surface. 4 The interpretation nonetheless remains incomplete and imperfect. Imperfect because the context from within which the interpretation occurs constantly remains in move- ment; incomplete because aesthetic ideas which are representations of the power of imagination give much food for thought without being able to be fully expressed and capable of providing insights by our concepts (Kant, 1968, 193). 108 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... I. Magritte's pipe: Yes, I know, but still... In their texts b o t h F reud and M a n n o n i s tand still for a m o m e n t when cons ider ing the r e m a r k a b l e feelings they exper ienced when , for the first t ime, they were c o n f r o n t e d in their psychoanalyt ic practice with the p h e n o m e n o n of disavowal . F reud begins o n e of the articles he wrote about this phenom- e n o n with the words : »1 f ind myself for a m o m e n t in the interesting position of no t k n o w i n g w h e t h e r w h a t I have to say should be regarded as something long famil iar a n d obv ious or as someth ing entirely new and puzzling« (SE X X I I I , 275). M a n n o n i expresses the same m o o d when, in Je sais bien, mais quand même ..., he ma in ta ins that, conf ron ted with the p h e n o m e n o n of disa- vowal, one »feels oneself ca tapul ted be tween a feeling of banali ty and a feel- ing of e x t r e m e surprise« (Mannoni , 1969, 11). It is precisely this feeling we expe r i ence w h e n we are con f ron t ed with La trahison des images for the first t ime. T h e na ive style shows us an unmis takable representa t ion of a pipe, with a text u n d e r n e a t h it r e a d i n g »This is not a pipe«. The shock occasioned when we perce ive this similarly carr ies us into the remarkab le borders of ex t reme banal i ty and al ienation. ' ' T h e shock, namely , resides not only in the first ba- nal a m a z e m e n t c o n c e r n i n g the apparen t contradict ion (that is, that a painted p ipe is actually no t a pipe), b u t it also concerns the fact that we were amazed, that , despi te our knowledge of the fact that a painted p ipe is not actually a p ipe , we were none the les s shocked at the m o m e n t that the paint ing made us aware of this knowledge . 6 W i t h o u t the annota t ion, we realize in surprise, we would be l ieve that wha t we observe really is a pipe. T h e e x p e r i e n c e of La trahison des images makes us conscious of a charac- teristic which we mus t a s sume is inheren t to every aesthetic observat ion of a mimet ic work of art, name ly , the s imul taneous exis tence of two mutual ly exclusive men ta l at t i tudes. In the aesthetic observat ion of these objects we ° The term 'shocking' might appear too emotionally laden in relation to the observa- tion of a painting. However, I use it with the special meaning with which Kaulingfreks accredited it in his book about Magritte: »That which is unexpected about the shock is its quality as a Trojan Horse within the fortress of intellect. The intellect becomes unsettled but recovers and adjusts itself to the disturbance. Thereby, it forgets that the violence of the shift and the events, from their existing character, are gradually and repeatedly set into an hierarchy ... However, the shock as a means of consciousness requires the intellect in order that it remains both unknown and new. It is only shock- ing in relation to a situation wherein it does not fit, and can only be shocking if there is a rational hierarchy« (Kaulingfreks, 1984, 133-4). 6 Cf. the following comment from Magritte: »It isn't about amazing someone, but, rather, about the fact, for example, that one is amazed by one's amazement« (Magritte, 1979, 435). 109 Jos de Mu I know that what we are seeing is unreal, that it is a fiction: simultaneously, we deny this knowledge and abandon ourselves to the reality of that which we are observing. This disavowal of the images (in favour of the real object they signify) brings us to the sine qua non of the mimet ic exper ience . Wi thout the mechanism of the simultaneous existence of a quan tum of knowledge and a belief which is irreconcilable with that knowledge (that is: a particular form of not-knowing), the mimetic exper ience appears to be impossible. If the knowledge component is lacking, then we f ind ourselves in the legendary situation of the observers of the first film pe r fo rmance in Paris' Grand Café who ran in panic f rom the approaching train which they saw on the screen. The knowledge component appears in this instance to have been completely absorbed in the affective component . If the affective c o m p o n e n t is lacking, then we can equally not speak of an aesthetic experience. In Mannoni ' s words: »Anyone who, unprepared, attends a Chinese pe r fo rmance runs the risk of seeing the play as it is and the actors as they are. Viewed objectively, it is certainly theatre, but it is without the theatrical effect« (Mannoni , 1969, 161). An important part of 20th Century fine arts, especially that par t such as abstract non-figurative art which reject the mimetic, appears to unconsciously remove itself f rom the boundaries of the hybr id relat ionship of bel ieving and knowing. The strength of La trahison des images resides in the fact that it makes us conscious of this simultaneous existence of the knowledge and faith com- ponents, and, what is perhaps an even more impor tan t effect, it saturates us with the complete not-self-evidentness of this relat ionship. After all, we are confronted with the question as to how it is possible that two mutual ly exclu- sive attitudes can be simultaneously present in our minds. La trahison des images does not provide an answer to this question. The pleasure which thé painting affords us cannot really be described as anything other than an especially perverse and subversive pleasure. It is a shocking pleasure which does not intend to please and to explain, but, rather, to dis- turb (a pleasure that may be called characteristic for the entire tradition of the no-longer-fine-arts). Magritte's painting is directed at a Verwindung of the mi- metic tradition. It is a deconstructivist practice which, in a shocking manner , makes us conscious of that which must remain partially unconscious in the mimetic experience: the very process of representa t ion. The unref lected con- tinuity of presenting the presence of an absent object by means of a sign forms the condition of the possibility for every mimetic experience. The sub- versive character of Magritte's deconstructivist labour lies in becoming con- scious of this disavowal of representat ion which is so necessary for the mi- metic experience. In this becoming conscious, wherein the two mutual ly ex- clusive attitudes are brought together in one m o v e m e n t of thought, the repre- 110 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... senta t ive a p p e a r a n c e of the mimet i c exper ience is wi thdrawn. 7 T h e mimet ic expe r i ence b e c o m e s - and this differentiates Magri t te 's work f rom non-figu- ra t ive ar t whe re in the mimes i s were ' s imply ' a b a n d o n e d - enerva ted f r o m wi th in . 8 T h e fact tha t La trahison des images p rovides the observer with a certain desire, despi te this Verwindung of mimet ic exper ience , consti tutes its perverse charac te r . This p leasure fo rms an indicat ion of the exis tence of another aes- thet ic ' space ' on bo th sides of tradit ional representa t ion. It is this space, re- vea led by desire , wh ich intr igues me. 2. Sexual and aesthetic disavowal Is it pu re co inc idence tha t Freud, when speaking abou t pervers ion, also b u m p s u p agains t the e n t a n g l e m e n t of disavowal and represen ta t ion? H e worked out several aspects of this relat ionship more closely in his analysis of fet ishism. Fet ishism, in F reud ' s view, is based upon the fact that the analy- sand, a lmos t a lways male , »does not acknowledge that a w o m a n does no t have a penis , s o m e t h i n g which , as proof of the possibili ty of be ing himself cas t ra ted , is mos t u n w e l c o m e « (SE XXIII , 203). The ana lysand , for this rea- son, denies his sensory pe rcep t ion that the female does no t possess a phal lus and main ta ins a f i rm gr ip on the contrary convict ion. Accord ing to Freud, however , the den ied pe rcep t ion cont inues to be influential and, for this rea- son, the fetishist a t t r ibutes the role of the phal lus to someth ing else, ano ther bodi ly par t or an article of clothing. We could express it as follows: the fetish p resen t s the pha l lus as be ing present . In this connect ion , Freud speaks abou t the fo rma t ion of a c o m p r o m i s e be tween two cont radic tory atti tudes which is r e la ted to d r e a m labour . T h e fetish forms a compromise be tween the sensory 7 Here, the word 'representative' is conceived in a double meaning: not only is the mechanism of visual representation enervated from within, but, in addition, it thereby simultaneously loses its exemplary character within the aesthetic domain. Concern- ing the relationship of these different connotation of the term 'representation', see Derrida, 1982. 8 The subversive character of this assault on representation is even more shocking because in La trahisions des images »commonsense is raped in broad daylight« (Thrall- Soby, 1965, 15). Magritte's preference carrying out his subversive activities in »broad daylight« distinguishes him from the French Surrealists who demonstrated a prefer- ence for the night and the occult. In this connection it speaks volumes that Magritte gave the title Le surrealisme en plein soleil to the manifestos he published in 1946. Cf. how this imagery of light and darkness also appears in Mannoni when he speaks of denial. I l l Jos de Mu I perception which establishes the female 's absence of a phallus and the wish to preserve this phallus for perception. The fetish makes it possible that the belief in the presence of a female phallus is »maintained, but also given up« (SE XXI, 154). Octave Mannoni offered the assumption that this fetishization of the absent female (mother) phallus stands »for all forms of belief which, despite falsification by reality, remain intact« (Mannoni , 1969, 12). T h e structural agreement between sexual and aesthetic disavowal is indeed remarkable . After all, in aesthetic perception, one of the forms of belief to which Mannon i re- fers, an object is by a sign equally posited as present on the grounds of its absence. A painted object (for example the pipe in La trahison des images) forms an aesthetic 'fetish', a compromise form be tween knowledge of an ob- ject 's absence and the disavowal of this knowledge, and thereby makes it possible to preserve the absent object for percept ion. In the case of bo th sexual and aesthetic disavowal we travel - the term 'fetish' does not appear to have been arbitrarily chosen - in the terrain of the magical (or, more rigor- ously: that of the 'magic of belief which precedes the 'belief in magic ' - Mannoni , 1969, 29). What is remarkable is that in bo th instances disavowal, despite its irrational character, plays itself out »in full daylight« (Mannoni, 1969, 30). Neither the sexual fetish nor the painted object possess anything mysterious; at the same time, they are able to carry us into a magical experi- ence. In the foregoing comments I remarked , and this appears to call a halt to the specified analogy between sexual and aesthetic disavowal, that, in aes- thetic perception and simultaneously with the exper ience of disavowal (the magical compromise between knowing and wishing), we have access to knowl- edge of the object's absence. In the case of La trahison des images this is the absence of the real pipe. This knowledge, as I also remarked , does not in any way effect aesthetic disavowal. This appears to distinguish aesthetic disavowal f rom sexual disavowal wherein this knowledge-component is absent. In An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, however, Freud points to a s imultaneous existence of disavowal and knowledge in sexual fetishism: »The creation of the fetish emerged f rom the intention to destroy the evidence of possible castration so that one could avoid the fear of castration. W h e n the woman, just as other living beings, possesses a penis, then one does not have to fear the fur ther possession of one's own penis. Now, we encounter fetishists who have devel- oped the same fear of castration as non-fetishists and who thus react in the same manner . In their behaviour they thus express two mutual ly exclusive attitudes: on the one hand they deny the reality of their percept ion of no penis being present with female genitals, and, on the other hand , they ac- 112 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... knowledge a woman 's lack of a penis and draw the correct conclusion from this acknowledgement. Both attitudes exist side-by-side for an entire life with- out their influencing each other« (SE XXIII, 203). The phenomenon of the mutual existence of two mutually exclusive attitudes is presented by Freud with the term 'Ego-splitting' (Ich-spaltung). The emergence of Ego-splitting shows that the disavowal of perception by the fetishist is not complete; the acknowledgement is, after all, present in consciousness. In this case, the fetish(ism) is only partially developed: »It does not control the object-choice with exclusion of everything else, but, rather, leaves room for a more or less normal behaviour and sometimes even re- duces itself to a modest role or a simple announcement of its presence. The distinction between the Ego and reality is, accordingly, never completely successful for the fetishist« (SE XXIII, 203). Aesthetic perception is capable of a similar description. The observer of La trahison des images surrenders to the imaginary presence of the object but, simultaneously, he realizes this sur- render and precisely thereby elevates the experience to an aesthetic one. Just as, according to Freud, sexual fetishism mostly reduces itself to a modest role or simple announcement of itself (and the sexual goal of genital reproduction is preserved), so does the observer who is captured by the aesthetic experi- ence leave open a path for a complete reproduction of knowledge. In this manner , both forms of fetishism remain under the domination of instrumen- tal representation which is in the service of the reality-principle (see SE XII, 213-226). The shock which La trahison des images engenders is only abrupt: the trusted frameworks of perception quickly recover. Awakened from his aesthetic 'd ream' the hand faultlessly goes to the ash-tray and the observer smokes his pipe with satisfaction. When fetishism becomes acute, sexual activity removes itself from re- production. The fetishist pulls himself free from the dominance of the sexual goal. In analogous fashion, the aesthetic observer, when he finds himself in the same situation of acute fetishism, retreats into his 'unselfish pleasure' and thereby escapes f rom the domination of instrumental representation. In both cases, fore-play overmasters after-play and the perception becomes perverse (for the italicized terms, see Freud, SE VII, 209 ff; in relation to the aesthetic Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious, SE VIII). In both cases we can therefore speak of an acute aestheticism. That is: that the pleasure of looking becomes a goal in itself, cut off f rom the everyday practice of looking which is guided by the demands of sexual reproduction and utilitarian representation. A description of these forms of fetishism which, as in the case of Freud, finds its ultimate criterion in the demands of the reality-principle, cannot veil its pejorative tone. However , the pleasure which the fetishist experiences in 113 Jos de Mu I the sexual and aesthetic game can equally not be h idden . But it is a pleasure that cannot be represented in an order where in sexual reproduct ion and utili- tarian representation are the central terms. It is, in the different meanings of the word, a non-representative pleasure. A theoretical approach - assuming, that is, just as Nietzsche argued, that it always finds its origin in the 'factories of use' (KSA 1, 299) - can situate this pleasure at best in an a-topos. T h e theory is here made into a detour, perver ted by its object it can only evoke the pleasure at the moment that it stumbles and sets its unders tand ing teeth into its own tail. Is it only irony that La trahison des images he reby indicates its own tail to theory? 3. The perversion of aestheticism The subversive character of La trahison des images is fo rmed by the fact that the painting breaks through mimetic pleasure. Starting f rom the order of the representation, it is shown that that order is empty. By no longer permit- ting word and image to support each other, the naive-realistic conceptualization of the representat ion is raped f rom within and »in b road daylight«. The signifiers (the image of the pipe, the painted text) only point in a negative manner to each other, and, thereby, they become , as it were, meaningless. The painted sentence does not only make us realize that the image of the pipe is not really a pipe, but, at the same time, it makes us realize that the sentence refers to itself: the painted sentence, too, is not a real pipe. The signified (the 'real' pipe) disappears completely f rom the field of view. Foucault, in his essay concerning Magritte, formulates this as follows: »Magritte per- mits the old space of the exhibition dominate , but only on the surface be- cause it is no more than a flat surface which bears words and images; there is nothing underneath it« (Foucault, 1973, 25). La trahison des images shows us a remarkable characteristic of the sign, about which in structuralist semiology after Saussure, too, there has been substantial speculation. The language-sign was conceived by Saussure as a relation between sound (the signifier) and concept (the signified): the mean- ing-content of a sound is determined by the relation which it maintains with the other sounds which belong to the same system. The definit ion which Saussure gives can be called differential because he conceives of the sign as an internal and external difference: internally, the sign is de te rmined by the difference between the signifier (signifiant) and the signified (signifie); exter- nally, it is determined by the difference between the signifiers and the signifieds themselves. Radicalizing this differential language-defini t ion f rom Saussure, 114 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... post -s t ructura l is ts such as Der r ida , Lacan, and Barthes postula te that the signifier and the signified do n o t fo rm a fundamenta l uni ty of sign, but , rather , tha t the signified e m e r g e d f r o m the art iculation (that is: combinat ion and substi tution) of the signifiers. A signified, it is mainta ined, always points to o ther e lements and the reby also always f inds itself in the posit ion of signifier. A c o n s e q u e n c e of this po in t is that the signified always pos tpones itself: every signified is pa r t of a referent ia l game which never comes to rest. In contrast to wha t the t radi t ional 'me taphys ics of the sign' argues, the signifier, according to post-structuralists , does no t represent a signified which already contains m e a n i n g wi thin itself, but , ra ther , it is a der ived p h e n o m e n o n , an effect of the systemic play of signifiers.9 In La trahison des images one could express this by saying that this refer- ential game b e c o m e s f rant ic , as it were. In the negative reference the referen- tial func t ion of the represen ta t ion , which, following Saussure, is p laced in pa ren theses by the post-structuralists , is complete ly r e m o v e d . 1 0 T h e referen- tial g a m e b e c o m e s an endless repet i t ion wi thout originality, a s imulacrum. T h e obse rve r is invo lved in a d o m a i n f rom which it is impossible to escape. O n a psychic level, this is expressed in the s imultaneous exper ience of the at t i tudes, necessar i ly separa ted for the aesthetic exper ience , of knowing and bel ieving. T h e obse rve r b e c o m e s conscious of his Ego-splitting. Nonetheless , and this is precisely that which is r emarkab le about the exper ience, this be- c o m i n g conscious is not , as one would expect , combined with pain or fear. T h e ' th rea t of cas t ra t ion ' which , in this instance, concerns the object of our exper ience (the ' rea l ' pipe), is, after all, acute in the exper ience of the short- circuit of the s ignif iers in La trahison des images. In cont ras t to this, the decons t ruc t ion del ivers a cer ta in desire, a fo rm of desire with which pe rhaps only pe rvers ion can p rov ide us. D e r r i d a main ta ins : »At the m o m e n t a signifier stops imitating the dan- ger of pe rve rs ion is immedia te ly acute« (1968, 291). W h e n the signifiers no longer r ep resen t the signified, but , ra ther , only and pure ly signify each other (that is, are p r i soners in a p u r e inter-textuality), then they become self-lovers, a fetish. Magri t te , in La trahison des images, completes the transit ion f rom a 9 See for a critical evaluation of this poststructuralist credo: J. de Mul, 1997b, chapter 8. 10 Because structuralist linguistics directs itself at the linguistic system (langue) and ab- stracts from concrete speech (parole) Saussure can, on methodological grounds, leave the referential function of language out of consideration. Among the post-structural- ists, the referential function of language as such appears sometimes to be called into question. This is combined with the ambiguity of the term signifié: on the one hand, this term refers to a (mental) concept; on the other hand, it can also refer to the signified object to which the sign as a totality (sound + concept) refers. 115 Jos de Mu I partial fetishism of the aesthetic expe r i ence to a total fet ishism of aestheti- cism. T h e be l ie f -component is e l imina ted in f avour of a special desire for knowledge of »the slippage (glissement) of m e a n i n g u n d e r the signifier« (Lacan, E 502). T h e dominance of the signified, wh ich is intr insic to na ive real ism, is here forsaken in favour of a desire for the d o m i n a n c e of the signifiers. Speak- ing in the context of a l i terary text conce rn ing p leasure (the sexual jouissance) of a game where in the ul t imate m e a n i n g con t inuous ly re t reats , Bar thes in De l'œuvre au texte says: »The Text , on the cont ra ry , prac t ices the infini te defer - ment of the signified, is delatory; its field is that of the signifier and the signifier must not be conceived of as ' the first stage of m e a n i n g ' , its mater ia l vest ibule , but, in comple te opposi t ion to this, as its deferred action. Similary, the infinity of the signifiers refers no t to some idea of the inef fab le (the u n n a m e a b l e sig- nified) bu t to that of a playing« (Barthes, 1982, 158) O n the terrain of visual signifiers, La trahison des images refers to the extreme limits of this game, this jouissance-, the imaginary turning-point where in that which is signified (signifiance) b e c o m e s s u b m e r g e d in showing the sense- lessness of the representa t ion. T h e mimet ic -aes the t ic expe r i ence , which nec- essarily involves a be l ie f -component , is he re a b a n d o n e d in o rde r that the path be m a d e free for the knowledge of an aes thet ic ism which conce rns itself with all signifiers. Not only the signifiers wh ich are t radi t ional ly p re sen t ed as imaginary or artistic are dragged into this aes thet ic ism: the p ipe in the ash- tray, too, is made into an e lement of a re fe ren t ia l g a m e wi thout any basis. 4. The phallus as transcendental signifier In the foregoing I have been gu ided by the ana logy M a n n o n i n o t e d be tween sexual and aesthetic disavowal. T h r o u g h this reasoning , I came u p o n the trail of a myster ious re la t ionship b e t w e e n sexual and epis temologica l rep- resentation. This relationship, which cont inues to emerge in unexpec t ed places in m o d e r n ph i losophy , 1 1 is also a rgued by Lacan , with a r e f e rence to the 11 In the first place I am thinking here of the in every way bizarre Geschlecht und Charakter by Otto Weininger (1980; first published in 1903). But with Nietzsche, too, sexual metaphors play a constant role (cf., for example, KSA 5, 11; cf. the occasionally dizzying commentary which Derrida (1978) makes of this work). Derrida, inciden- tally, points to the fact that in Heidegger's painstaking interpretation of Nietzsche's Wie die Wahre Welt endlich zur Fabel wurde the passages dealing with the feminine character of the Christian metaphysics belong to the few to which he does not ad- dress himself. In his Nietzschean-inspired deconstruction of Heidegger's Verwindung, Derrida makes this unconsidered metaphor one of his entry-points. 116 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... post-structuralist reading of Freud, on more theoretical grounds. We should briefly follow this detour because it makes it possible to approach La trahison des images f rom a rather different perspective, in the hope that a combination of these perspectives will provide more 'depth ' to the image with which we are concerned. Lacan's return to Freud is strongly influenced by Saussure's structuralist linguistics. This led Lacan to interpret the problematics of castration as a complex which marks the entrance of the individual into the symbolic order. In Lacan's view, the individual, who initially exists in an imaginary order of immediate experience, only receives the status of subject when he enters into the symbolic order. In this chain of terms, the individual and the objects of his experience are represented, proposed as present in their absence. The narcissistic identification with the mirror-image (which ensures that in an imaginary manner one continues to coincide with the Other) is thereby re- lieved by the acknowledgement of the other-ness of the (symbolically articu- lated) Other . The reality (réalité) of the subject is thus already a symbolically marked reality. From this, the post-structuralist character of Lacan's position is apparent : the meaning of an experience is not given in advance, but, rather, it is an effect, a 'precipitation' of the chain of signifiers. The meaning slips, as we have already seen, into the jeu de signifiants, the infinite game of the signifiers. Jus t like Freud, Lacan, too, puts a strong emphasis on the role which the phallus plays in the transition from the imaginary to the symbolic stage. How- ever, he thereby firmly resists a possibly naturalistic interpretation of the cas- tration complex. For Lacan, the phallus is »not a phantasy ... equally not an object ... and even less the organ which it symbolizes« (Lacan, E 690). For him, the phallus is actually the signifier which pre-eminently marks the tran- sition f rom the imaginary to the symbolic stage. According to him, this is also the reason that Freud chose a term for this signifier which points to the simulacrum which, in Antiquity, was the phallus: »After all, it is the signifier, to the extent that it constitutes their possibility-conditions, which is destined to indicate the effects of the signified in their totality« (E 690). The phallus forms the third term which transforms the combatitive rela- tionship of the mirror-stage, which is characteristic of the imaginary order, into the triangular relationship which is characteristic of the symbolic order. It is ' the tiniest difference' which indicates »that which the child is not, what the mother does not have and the father (presumably) does have« (Mooij, 1975, 142). In Mooij 's words, a double distancing emerges: »In the first place, there arises a separation from the initial two-in-one whereby a chasm (une béance) appears between what are now two relations, two terms, and whereby a void [un vide) emerges in the place where originally the two-in-one existed 117 Jos de Mu I (une place vide). Hereby, the lack (le manque) emerges which is in t roduced by the insatiability of desire. In the second place, a separat ion emerges between what is now a relationship between two terms and that which names this relationship. The third term therefore creates a double distinction, internally between the two relations, and externally be tween the relation and its sym- bolic representation. We can summarize this funct ion as: differentiat ing rep- resentation« (Mooij, 1975, 142). Thus, with Lacan, the phallus funct ions as a t ranscendental signifier, that is, as the necessary possibility-condition for every produc t ion of mean- ing. It is the signifier which unlocks the ent rance to the (symbolic) order of representation and thereby introduces a desire which cannot be satisfied. But, simultaneously, for Lacan the phallus also remains the specific symbolic signifier which indicates the penis (cf. Weber , 1978). This explains why Freud - and Lacan with him - gives a privileged role to the castration complex in relation to entering into the symbolic order . Moreover , it explains why, in psychoanalytic theory, the representat ion of bo th sexes and the representa- tion of meaning in general cannot be separated f rom one another . 5. Postmodern schizophrenia Now we return to the pleasure of fetishizing the signifiers. This has be- come clear: it is a paradoxical pleasure. The insight that the signifiers only cherish themselves, that every access to the signified is cut off ( 'castrated'), really makes us suspect the opposite: a cutt ing pain. To place this pleasure we should first actually - a new detour - more closely delineate the distinction between aesthetic belief and aesthetic knowledge. Here, too, it is Mannoni who suggests the direction we should take. He maintains, associating himself with Lacanian topology, that belief continu- ously assumes »the support of the Other« (Mannoni , 1969, 33). In L'illusion comique ou le théâtre du point de vue de l'imaginaire he explicates this through an analysis of the 'primitive' belief in masks and theatrical illusion. In the thea- tre, he argues, everything is done to maintain the theatrical illusion while everyone knows that it is an illusion. Here , the issue is thus one of 'classic' aesthetic disavowal: an ' imaginary creduli ty ' is always present . Concerning this point, Mannoni remarks : »Even though we are not our- selves the victim of a theatrical illusion or of the illusion of masks, it nonethe- less appears that we gladly see someone who believes in such illusion. Every- thing appears to be done to produce this illusion, but it must be by someone else. As if we should conspire with the actors. Here , we see who the 'you ' was 118 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... in 'you could say' whereby the playful illusion is expressed. After all: for- merly, 'one believed in the masks' ... 'Formerly' means, as we could suspect, 'as a child'. An explanation, perhaps rather simplistic but not therefore com- pletely inaccurate, now imposes itself as it were. Something, something from that child that we once were, still lives on in us, somewhere hidden within the Ego, perhaps in that place which Freud, following Fechner, correctly calls the theatre of the dream (and why precisely this metaphor?). This hidden part of our Self could thus be the place of the illusion, that which we actually do not yet really know what it is« (Mannoni, 1969, 164). Although Mannoni here explicitly speaks of the theatre, his description can, without too many problems, be applied to the illusion which appears in the perception of mimetic fine arts. Belief in representation, that is, in the possibility to immediately perceive reality itself through the transparent win- dow of the painting, rests equally upon the credulity of an Other. Of course we know that a painting constitutes an imaginary representation of reality, but we conspire with the painter, as it were, to lead this Other up the garden path, or better: to lead him behind the window. Once again, an irrational process which occurs in broad daylight. If this explanation is correct, then it offers us the opportunity to more closely present the transition from the hybrid coincidence of belief and knowl- edge in aesthetic perception to the 'absolute' knowledge of aestheticism. This transition would occur at the moment that the observer himself takes the place of the Other . Mannoni describes this transition by reference to a pas- sage from Casanova's biography. It is the story of a person who believes in his own fabrications, someone who no longer possesses the phallus by magic but, rather, by deception. According to Mannoni it is precisely here that the transition to complete fetishism occurs and knowledge is completely aban- doned: »We can actually see that the place of the Other is now occupied by the fetish. If this is missing it creates unrest, as occurred with Casanova, when credulity goes by default. But Casanova imagines that he knows who believes and who does not believe. Even if he actually makes a mistake, the problem can still be posed in terms of belief. After the fetish has been established, belief disappears. We then no longer know how the question sounds and we could say that it is precisely the goal of the fetishist to escape from every question. While everyone enters the terrain of belief with the Verleugnung, it is precisely this terrain which those who become fetishists, at least insofar as it involves their fetish, leave« (Mannoni, 1969, 32). We may assume that the perverse power now rests upon the fact that the painting brings the observer into the position wherein he realizes that he is himself credulous. He coincides in an imaginary manner, as it were, with the 119 Jos de Mu I Other to whom he originally ascribed belief and thereby causes the imple- mentation of the fetishism of the signifiers. The signifiers cease to mean the Other . If we remain within Freudian terminology then we cannot fail to con- clude that psychosis is hereby quite close. W e surrender ourselves to an un- verifiable and uncontrollable process of mean ing which must lack an ulti- mate signified [signifié transcendental). W e are conf ron ted with that which Moyaert presented as a schizophrenic discourse: »The schizophrenic discourse cruelly teaches us that our discourse does not derive its suppor t or its mean- ing from the presence of a final signified or an ideal semantic fo rm which can unite all discourse. In a confrontat ion with schizophrenia our discourse, too, is in its turn pulled along with and written into a game of signifiers without any ultimate basis or sense. In this manner , each of his discourses loses every foundation or point of reference. Knowing my discourse collides with a radi- cal not-knowing which ridicules my certainties: the schizophrenic 'futilizes' my knowledge to a game of signifiers« (Moyaert , 1982, 151). In an analogous manner , Magrit te 's La trahison des images could be called a schizophrenic metaphor . In the circular play of the signifiers (the words and the image), every access to the Othe r of the signifiers (the signified, the 'real ' pipe) is cut off. To use another of Moyaer t ' s terms, a de-metaphoricization occurs (Moyaert, 1982, 142). The circular play of the signifiers, the purely negative reference to the words and the image, creates a vacuum where pre- viously belief pointed the Other to 'his ' place. W h e r e first a metaphor ical leap to the other side of the signifiers stood, there now only exists the endless metonymy of signifiers. In other words, La trahison des images surprises us with the realization that the painting (and mimet ic art in general) is not a window through which we can gaze at the Other , but, rather , a glass stained by signifiers which betrays nothing except its one-dimensional surface. With the help of what we have learned so far, let us approach more closely the pleasure of complete fetishism, the aestheticism wherein the ob- server of La trahison des images finds himself. The aestheticism, which permits us once again to coincide with the imaginary Other , removes the fear of castration because thereby the signified disappears completely f rom view and thereby can no longer be experienced as a loss. In this context, with respect to the analogous position wherein schizophrenia finds itself, Moyaer t remarks: »Every possible vulnerability occasioned by the indestructible presence of the Other (or the other) disappears given that his discourse is just as much a code of the message as a message of the code; and this has as consequence the fact that the subject of the psychosis himself takes the place of the Othe r and thus himself becomes the Other . T h e schizophrenic can peaceful ly main- tain himself in a world of signifiers which, in his narcissistically inflated om- 120 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... n ipo tence , he can m a n i p u l a t e freely and wi thout any risk (Moyaert , 1982, 151).1 2 C o m p l e t e fe t i sh ism appea r s in this m a n n e r to be character ized by a d o u b l e p leasure . In the first place, fetishism has the f r e e d o m of the meta- phor ica l leap in the dark: it r emains on the surface, escaping f rom the fear of the loss, the defec t (le manque). Here , pleasure is essentially negative, based u p o n the absence of fear . But, at the same time, there is the other pleasure of man ipu la t ion . It co inc ides with the Other , domina tes the game f r o m within because the fetishist has himself b e c o m e par t of it. Expressed in a classic F r e u d i a n image: he expe r i ences an oceanic relation with the Other . A re turn to ' the pa rad i se of p u r e i m m e d i a c y ' takes place. T h e obse rve r of La trahison des images f inds himself equally, even if only t emporar i ly , in this circular play of the signifiers. H e becomes , as it were, a b s o r b e d into the surface of the canvass. His belief in the signified makes way for an absorp t ion in the process of m e a n i n g (signifiance). T h e knowledge-com- p o n e n t takes the p lace of believing, bu t it is a knowledge of a special sort whe re in the nega t ion (the no t -knowing of belief) is e l iminated. This lack of the nega t ion const i tutes the radical be ing-Other of pleasure which reveals La trahison des images. In Bar thes ' words, it is »a pleasure without separat ion« (Barthes, 1982, 164). H o w e v e r , in terms of psychoanalysis , it is also therefore con t inuous ly an imag ina ry pleasure . For the same reason, it is a pleasure that can neve r be adequa te ly con ta ined within the schemas of representa t ion, just as u l t imate ly the p leasure of sexual fetishism can never be adequately under- s tood f r o m within the s chema ta of sexual reproduct ion . Al though pos tmodern expe r i ence is a paras i te u p o n m o d e r n exper ience , it reveals a pleasure which is neve r comple te ly u n d e r s t a n d a b l e f rom within the perspect ive of the real- i ty-principle . 12 One could refer to this schizophrenic discourse as the post-modern variant of passive nihilism. In my opinion, it is pre-eminently expressed in the writings of Baudrillard. At a theoretical level irony receives here the complete dominance over what, in this context, I would like to call 'the enthusiasm of the signified'. In a recent reading, the American psychiatrist-philosopher Sass has made an interesting attempt to show schizo- phrenia, from within Heidegger's Sein und Zeit, as a radicalized 'theoretical' assess- ment of Being whereby everything (including persons) can be conceived as merely manipulable, immediately available objects. One way of summarizing Sass's argu- ment is to say that the schizophrenic suffers from an extremely deficient mode of understanding Being. Baudrillard's thesis of the obscene transparency of objects ap- pears to me to be an affirmation of that which is criticized with regard to Heidegger: the technical articulation of Being (Heidegger, 1962, 14). 121 Jos de Mu I 6. Superficiality from depth With this last r emark we have r e tu rned to a p lace whe re the de tours h a d already b r o u g h t me, someth ing which makes clear the c i rcular charac te r of these paths. W e have to conf i rm that, in our a t t empts to b r i n g it u n d e r the dominance of our theoret ical Bemachtigungstrieb, we have cons tant ly and re- petitively pushed the pleasure f r o m the o the r - pos tu la ted - aesthet ic o rde r out in f ron t of us. Examin ing it f r o m the o r d e r of the represen ta t ion , tha t which falls outside is literally non-representat ive. 1 3 T h e image which La trahison des images presents to us appears at this po in t to converge with the imag ina ry constructs of the post-structuralists who have crossed our paths . Af ter all, the post-structuralists postulate that an i m m e d i a t e expe r i ence - and must it n o t be admit ted that this exper ience is the imag ina ry travel-goal of m y wander - ings? - is impossible within the symbol ic o rder . H e r e b y , in the last analysis, the fetishistic pleasure is only c o m p r e h e n s i b l e as a regress ion to an imagi- nary past. Lacan does speak, pe rhaps , abou t a th i rd o rde r , tha t of the real (le réel), but it is conceived by h im as the imposs ib le : it is imposs ib le to reach or take on and is ul t imately inaccessible. Does no t Magr i t te a p p e a r to say the same when he magically removes the ' real p ipe ' r ight in f r o n t of our eyes? Nonetheless, this 'psychoanalyt ic ' in te rpre ta t ion does no t appea r to agree with the l ight-footed pleasure which La trahison des images awakens in me . Does not the p ipe appea r p r edominan t l y to s u c c u m b u n d e r the weight of these sombre theories concern ing the Defec t? It is a cha rged in te rpre ta t ion . For this reason it is tempt ing, having ar r ived at this poin t , to con t inue the reverse m o v e m e n t - with Magri t te towards psychoana lys i s - , to ensconce ourselves in the exper ience which La trahison des images offers us, and f r o m this posi t ion to question theory. In the fo rego ing I cal led La trahison des images the e m b o d i m e n t of the limit of the g a m e of signifiers. This limit fo rms the b o u n d a r y be tween the three-d imens ional space of the signifiance (which is constant ly character ized by the me taphor i ca l leap towards the o ther of the signifiers) and the flat surface of the circular (metonymical ) d o m i n a n c e of the signifiers. Magri t te shows us, where post -s t ructura l i sm criticizes the domi- nance of the t ranscendenta l signified, that the ' cha in of signifiers ' is the rat- tling hera ld of a new dominance : that of the t r anscenden ta l signifier and the Eternal Defect . The legitimate quest ion which La trahison des images p re sen t s 13 This is what Friedrich Schlegel presents as a 'cyclical progression'. We return to the place from whence we came, but we now see this place from an ironic distance (see De Mul, 1997a). 122 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... to us is w h e t h e r m a k i n g the signifier absolute is not a new prison, a new c o l u m b a r i u m buil t wi th the rubb le of the old d u n g e o n ? 1 4 T h e pa ths of the d i f fe ren t post-structuralists (whom I have previously too simplist ically s u m m a r i z e d unde r one heading) appear here to separate. If Magr i t t e he re s tands oppos i t e Lacan, then Der r ida and Barthes find them- selves on his side. Samue l W e b e r , in his commen ta ry concern ing the mean- ing of the pha l lus in Lacan ' s work, points, following Der r ida , to the danger of m a k i n g the signifier absolute : »Making the signifier absolute ... removes at the same t ime, however , its specific and de te rmin ing dif ference, and thereby makes it a signified« (Weber , 1978, 124). T h e phallus, the Eternal Defect , m o r e o v e r emerges as a signified to which every signifier ul t imately refers. O n e way of pu t t ing this is to say that at this poin t Lacan ' s sexual me tapho r fossilizes and access to every space outside the phallic representa t ion is made theoret ica l ly imposs ib le . Put ano ther way: when the phal lus disappears as a specific signifier because it is m a d e absolute, then the other of the phal lus also d isappears : desire. A n d it is precisely this desire a round which the circu- lar m o v e m e n t of Magr i t te ' s La trahison des images ' revolves ' . But h o w should this desire be evoked? In any case, Magrit te does not have the des t ruc t ion of represen ta t ion as his goal. In La trahison des images it r ema ins demons t ra t ive ly p resen t - after all, does the naive-realistically pre- sented p ipe no t always r e m a i n a p ipe? It appears that Magri t te he re tries to s u p p o r t D e r r i d a ' s c o m m e n t t h a t it is n o t p o s s i b l e »to a r t i c u l a t e a deconst ruct iv is t p ropos i t ion which has no t already secretely taken over the form, the logic, and the implici t postulates of precisely that which is be ing a t tacked« (Derr ida, 1981, 280-1). Magri t te 's strategy is different: he permits the ins t rumenta l i s t r ep resen ta t ion to s tumble in favour of the acute shock wh ich m o m e n t a r i l y i so la tes the image f r o m the d i f f e r en t i a t i ng chain of s ignif iers . ' 0 At those m o m e n t s the thing, as Kaul ingfreks expresses it in his 14 Owens, in an article concerning the relation between feminism and post-modernism, comes to the same conclusion when he maintains that: »post-modernism unveils the tyranny of the signifier and the violent character of its law« (1983, 59). Given the phallocentric character of Lacan's theory, it is not surprising that this critique is pri- marily expressed by feminist theorists. There is a remarkable parallel here with the tactics which a feminist such as Irigaray uses against Lacan phallocentricism. She, too, in Derrida's line, maintains that every critique absorbs the postulates of that which is criticized: »If it was only her intention to inverse the order of things - if, indeed, that were possible - then ultimately history would arrive at the same point: phallocentricism. Neither her gender, nor her imagi- nary desires, nor her language would therein (re-)find there place« (Irigaray, 1977, 32). A similar tactic would result in »a new dungeon, a new monastery which she would build for herself« (32). The alternative is to sabotage the phallic order from 123 Jos de Mu I study of Magri t te , is » u n d i f f e r e n t i a t e d ^ p resen t , wi thou t de t e rmina t ion . It jus t is there, and hereby , as it were, it is no longer a thing. In its conveyed isolation, in the presence, it emerges as a mystery« (Kaul ingfreks, 1984, 111). Shocked by the negative references of image and cap t ion in La trahison des images (cf. no t e 5, above), we learn du r ing a m o m e n t the mys te ry of »the experient ial g rounds of pu re presence« of the p ipe (Kaul ingfreks, 1984, 45). This mystery forms, to use Heidegger ' s no t ions , the »miracle of miracles : tha t Being exists« (Heidegger, 1955, 47).1 6 Magr i t t e himself c o m m e n t e d a b o u t this mystery: »The mystery is not one of the possibil i t ies of reali ty. T h e mys- tery is that which is absolutely necessary if real i ty is to exist« (quoted by Kaulingfreks, 1984, 46). He reby , if I m a y permi t myself such an express ion , r ep resen ta t ion mo- mentar i ly 'gets wasted' . Or , as one can express it in French , »la representation casse sa pipe«. Al though it is p re -eminen t ly ar t wh ich p rov ides us with this myster ious exper ience , it is not restr ic ted to art: »... the though t whereof a p ipe and the caption 'this is not a p ipe ' a re the te rms ... Such thoughts evoke 'de iure ' the mystery, while 'de facto ' the mys te ry is evoked by a p ipe in an ash-tray« (Magritte, 1979, 530). T h e p ipe is at tha t m o m e n t Lacan ' s object petit a, the first lost partial-object, the - accord ing to Lacan - ' f o r b i d d e n ' last l ink in the chain of desire. Against this, in the expe r i ence of the mys te ry there is no quest ion of a Lack, but , ra ther , of an a b u n d a n c e (a plus-de-jouir). T h e de- sire is not pr imari ly the result of an u n r e m o v a b l e Lack, but , ra ther , the t ran- scendent openness or quality of be ing reso lved (Entschlossenheit) whe re in the world, the Being of being, appears to us. This des i re const i tutes the possibil- i ty-condit ions of the neighbour l iness of th ings w h e r e o v e r Nie tzsche speaks (KSA 8, 588). Breton, at least with respect to this point , was correct : Magr i t te gives lessons in things. All of this appears r emarkab ly superf ic ia l and bana l . But it is p e r h a p s for precisely this reason that it escapes f r o m 'dep th -psycho logy ' . T h e r emarks concern ing banal i ty and al ienat ion by F reud and M a n n o n i a re an ind ica t ion of this point . Magrit te explicates far m o r e explici t ly his view that psychoa- nalysis is not able to explain the mystery : »Art, to the ex ten t tha t I unde r - stand it, r emoves itself f rom psychoanalys is : it evokes tha t mys te ry wi thout which the wor ld would no t be able to exist, tha t is, the mys te ry which one within, comparable with the manner whereby Magritte permits the order of repre- sentation to stumble. The connection which, following Kaulingfreks, I make here between Magritte's view of the mystery and Heidegger's hermeneutic is also discernible in Magritte's texts. Kaulingfreks points to the fact that Magritte knew Heidegger's work and corresponded with Heidegger-experts such as De Waelhens (Kaulingfreks, 1984, 47, note 26). 124 Disavowal and Representation in Magritte's ... must not confuse with any problem, no matter how difficult. No sane person believes that psychoanalysis can explain the mystery of the world. The na- ture of the mystery destroys curiosity. Psychoanalysis has just as little to say about works of art which evoke the mystery of the world« (Magritte, 1979, 558). If this analysis remains on the surface then this is because things show themselves precisely at this point. Perhaps we should also interpret the title of the painting f rom this thought. That which Magritte makes an issue of in La trahison des image is the disavowal of immediate experience, the disavowal of appearance as lustre, as the tempting appearance of being. But, and this too makes the painting clear: afterwards, when theory dominates this experi- ence, the experience is denied and understood as a regression, as a return to an imaginary past. A similar wilful 'superficial' reading of La trahison des im- ages reminds us of Nietzsche's hymn to the Greeks: »O, the Greeks! They knew how to live: therefore the issue is to remain by the superficial, to wor- ship the appearance, to belief in the forms, the sounds, the words, the entire Olympus of appearance! The Greeks were superficial - from depth! And don ' t we come, daredevils of the spirit who have climbed the highest and most dangerous top of current thinking and, looking around from that height, have looked down, there f rom anything new? In this respect, are we not simply - Greeks? 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