1

Gay!Knowledge,!Sad!Truth!
Serge!Cottet!
}ust as the tiuth shoulu not always be saiu, so we shoulun't always iejoice at its
appeaiance.
Nietzsche piophesieu with his Twilight!of!the!Idols!the auvent of a gay knowleuge that
was not weigheu uown by the tiuth. But if the new philosophy biought about a
tiansmutation, it coulu only be in a painful mannei: by blows of the hammei.
"Philosophy", he auus, "is effectively maue to make people sau. 0p till now it has nevei
sauueneu anyone."
Mutatis!mutandis, a similai ieflection conceins psychoanalysis. It too has its twilight of
the iuols: the geneial foimula foi it coulu be the uis-being |destrej of the 0thei anu the
affects it engenueis. It has to be saiu that psychoanalysis possesses a ceitain uuality
with iespect to sauness: on the one hanu, it suspects the "sau" affects of playing a
uouble game, a game of complicity, anu on the othei it biings about the collapse of
semblants, the ones that ienuei imbeciles happy. It biings uespaii to those who bask in
the waim light of a iosy futuie. This is not to say that psychoanalysis causes
unhappiness but that being unhappy is pait of expeiience; how much, when anu how
this is what neeus to be examineu
Noieovei, one can say that the affect of uepiession "ex-sists" foi psychoanalysis, that is,
it uoes not exists without it. Thus, psychoanalysis is not meiely the "explanation" of
sauness, but equally its cause oi its iefutation. This is also in neeu of examination.
Let's stait with a bit of histoiy. Contiaiy to a wiuely helu view, psychoanalysis is veiy
much at ease with the question of uepiession. It is a familiai affect, isolateu veiy eaily
on by Fieuu. Not, it is tiue, as a symptom, but as a tangible, visible, obseivable sign of an
affect. As to its meaning, the affect of uepiession is ambiguous, but leaves no uoubt as to
its cause. Fieuu uses this affect as an aigument in favoui of the existence of psychical
causality, of what he calls, in the 189u's, "soul tieatment", Seelenbehandlung.
1
The young
Fieuu was passionate about states of sauness because they uemonstiate the powei of
the minu ovei the bouy anu theiefoie the powei of psychical tieatment. Fieuu was
inteiesteu in the oiigins of giey haii, neivous fatigue, neuiasthenia, teais foi no ieason,
anu it was fiom a iathei Baiwinian peispective that he became inteiesteu in the
expiession of the emotions. The affect of uepiession is not a clinical type because teais,
foi example, cannot be taken foi an illness, anymoie than one can take a uog that wags
its tail foi an hysteiic. It iemains that the affects of sauness oi joy, ievealeu by theii
signs, aie ueiiveu fiom obseivation when the affecteu subject uoes not always know the
cause of what affects him. This hiatus shoulu wain against thinking of uepiession as a
"liveu expeiience".

1
"Psychical (oi mental) tieatment" (189u), Standard!Edition!7. The ueiman title is "Psychische
Behanulung (Seelenbehanulung)".
2
Noieovei, Fieuu thinks that these states to which he himself is subject (cf Freud"Fliess!
Correspondence) aie pait of the pictuie of eveiy neuiosis, as he shows in Studies!on!
Hysteria.
2

It is theiefoie cuiious to obseive touay that the BSN Iv believes it possible to isolate a
"majoi uepiessive synuiome" unuei the pietext that the signs aie objectifiable anu even
measuiable, quantifiable, in theii intensity. Wheieas Fieuu wanteu to uecoue them
iathei than quantify them, BSN Iv takes its items as pioof that theie is something
beyonu psychical causality. This is to take the sign foi the illness, the fevei foi the
infection.
What is ceitain is that all the affects of uepiession inuicate a withuiawal of libiuo anu it
is these moues of withuiawal, uetachment, sepaiation, iepiession, mouining, that will
pioviue the uiffeient clinical symptoms aiising fiom these affects. We aie familiai, foi
example, with Fieuu's explanation of the so-calleu "actual" neuioses on the basis of an
eneigy conception of libiuo. When libiuo is exhausteu, we have neuiasthenia, when
unueiemployeu, we have anxiety neuiosis, when withhelu, it engenueis fatigue anu
moioseness. In fact, eveiy limit placeu upon jouissance, eveiy iestiiction of jouissance,
piouuces such an affect by viitue of the equation: libiuo = vital eneigy, anu thus the loss
of libiuo implies effects of moitification. 0f couise, this eneigetic anu economic
peispective will be ielayeu by the unconscious conflict, the ego's libiuo, the ueath uiive.
Bowevei, some pait of this voiu, of this hole that coiiesponus to a iemainuei of
jouissance that is without employment, unsatuiateu by the 0thei, will always iemain.
If we iemain in this tians-psychological peispective, that is, beyonu the states of the
soul, we aie leu to this clinic of the voiu oi to the moualities of the expeiience of the
voiu. What uoes this metaphoi covei, exactly, when the BSN Iv takes this signifiei as
valiu cuiiency, as if it signifieu itself. No uistinction is uiawn between the twilight
expeiience of psychoses anu the uiffeient feelings of lack in the neuiotic subject.
Staiting with psychoses, then, which give this clinical appioach of the voiu oi the hole a
ieal weight that piecisely suspenus all metaphoiical tianslation, all tianslation in teims
of feelings. 0ne got a glimpse of this clinical appioach at the beginning of the 2u
th

centuiy, wheie theie is effectively an entiie clinical fielu of the voiu, the feelings of
emptiness that maik uiffeient stages anu uiffeient psychical state that extenu, to quote
}anet, fiom "anxiety to ecstacy"
S
, anu befoie aiiiving at the final stage of beatituue. We
have also passeu via the famous psychasthenic states such as unease, ennui, boieuom,
"the moiose inaffections anu the fatigues", as they saiu at the time, the uelusions of
inaction, iestiaint, etc. We encountei, of couise, melancholic uelusion anu twilight
states, notably the famous uesciiptions by Cotaiu
4
anu by Sglas, of the sentiments
ofunieality oi of the enu of the woilu. Seveial types of voiu aie uistinguisheu: a voiu
that engenueis a sauness without affect, contiasteu with the ennui that is not the ueath
of uesiie but the uesiie foi a uistiaction.
S


2
Standard!edition!2, p. 68.
S
De!langoisse!!lextase:!etudes!sur!les!croyances!et!les!sentiments!(Paiis: Euitions uu CNRS, Repiint,
197S).
4
Contribution!!ltude!smiologique!des!ides!dlirantes!de!ngation (Boiueaux: Cauoiet, 19u4).
S
P. }anet, op.!cit., vol. 2, p. 146.
S
In shoit, we have occasion to emphasise a clinical pictuie of the voiu in contiast with a
clinical pictuie of the lack. The BSN Iv implicitly speculates on this uiffeience when it
consiueis the existence of uepiessive states without guilt, without "states of the soul",
anu without the pain specific to mouining. It woulu have us believe that it is a question
of an entity inuepenuent of oi inteimeuiaiy between mouining anu melancholia,
neithei neuiosis noi psychosis. In ieality, this clinical pictuie of the voiu, which incluues
being voiu of feelings, is nothing othei than the clinical pictuie of psychosis anu
melancholic psychosis in paiticulai. 0ne of }anet's patients uenounces the impostuie of
his fellows at hei husbanu's funeial. Be is ueau, she is sau but not in mouining, iathei,
she is sau ovei not being in mouining anu blames heiself foi it.
6
What }anet attiibutes to
the loss of the fuction of the ieal is explaineu, by us, on the contiaiy as uue to the ieal
fiom which the symbolic link of maiiiage has been evacuateu. As the patient says, she is
sau foi not having been happy like the otheis. The ueception is on the siue of the small
otheis. As foi hei, she is confionteu by the simple voiu, but not the lack. Recall that this
is the keinel of tiuth of melancholia foi Fieuu who uoes not tieat the melancholic's
complaint as puie theatie. Falsely guilty, yes; howevei, one cannot contiauict this pain
of existence by aiguments. "In his self ciiticism, he is iight" Fieuu says. This tiuth is no
uoubt not all. The subject's eiioi is to have taken leave of the 0thei. Be uoes not know
that his complaint is uiiecteu at the 0thei, this is his mistake, anu it is the iejection of
this knowleuge that piouuces his miseiy.
I will contiast this expeiience of psychosis which pioviues the stiuctuial mouel of
uepiession with the states of the soul in neuiosis, which inuicates a moment of the
closuie of the unconscious anu not its iejection. Take the example of Feienczi who, in
1916, in his coiiesponuence with Fieuu, analyses his uepiessive symptom. Feienczi
links, time anu again, the fluctuations of his uepiession to the absence of his futuie wife,
uizella. When his inuecision ovei maiiiage is at its maximum, he wiites, "Yesteiuay,
Sunuay afteinoon, befoie Nauam u. came to my place, state of piofounu uepiession
with an insuimountable tenuency to ciy . . . . This symptom, which coulu be uesciibeu as
hysteiical, has to be inteipieteu as a sign of mouining; these weie expiessions of my
feelings on the occasion of uizella's adieu."
7
Keen obseivei, iemaikable clinician of the
self, Feienczi enumeiates his symptoms the list of which constitutes a poition of an
anthology woithy of an appeaiance in BSN Iv: tachycaiuia, piofounu sauness, bieathing
uistuibances, unstable hungei anu thiist, uisgust foi intellectual activities. Anu, of
couise, "genital libiuo falls silent". To cap it off, a thyioiu illness, Baseuow's uisease. At
the same time Feienczi obseives that "in the company of uizella alone I am in a bettei
moou anu at the same time I feel an inteiest in science." 0ne is pleaseu to leain that the
sciendi!libiuo anu the genital libiuo have embaikeu on the same boat anu that the ietuin
of uesiie is accompanieu by a uesiie to know. The fluctuations continue, howevei. They
give Feienczi the oppoitunity to ienew the uoctiine of manic-uepiessive states. Be tells
Fieuu, "I believe that you will appiove my iuea of ielating the fluctuations of manic-
uepiessive illness to the peiiouicity of the times of iut in oui ancestois."
Fieuu's iesponse was uncompiomising: "You aie using psychoanalysis to muuuy youi
affaiis anu uiag them out." Effectively, the tiansfeience anu the unconscious aie both
useu to ienuei the uecision impossible, Feienczi only wanting to be libeiateu by himself
alone, without any influence by Fieuu. Too much the uupe of the unconscious anu not

6
Ibid.,!p. 46.
7
Fieuu-Feienczi, Correspondance, vol. 2 (Paiis: Calmann-Lvy, 1996), 178.
4
uupeu by the tiansfeience, his uepiessive affects can be uecipheieu in teims of betiayal
of his uesiie; heie the Lacanian expiession of moial cowaiuice is almost iuentical to
Fieuu's. Fieuu iesists the complications of the unconscious anu wilu inteipietation anu
places Feienczi squaiely befoie his own uesiie. Be uiges him to act, to make a uecision,
in a peispective that, heie, is tianspsychological.
Retuining to oui funuamental question: is all sauness moial cowaiuice. Is all moial
pain jouissance. 0bseive that it woulu be incoiiect to wiite the equation "pain =
enjoyment", without any uistinction, oiganisation oi uisciimination, since in oiuei to
justify it it woulu have to be acknowleugeu that a uiive always joins up with what it is
that makes a hole in the ieal: uemanu foi ueath, masochistic satisfaction, complicity
with some moiose pleasuie. It can happen that the 0thei is absent anu psychoanalytic
expeiience is testimony to the fact that its absence is also abanuonment |lchagej anu
cowaiuice |lchetj. This is why, foi the unconscious, the othei is guilty. 0n the
contiaiy, the iejection of the unconscious in melancholia inuuces a uelusional guilt anu
jouissance aiises fiom complaining about it.
We can, once again, uiaw on the opposition between mouining anu melancholia. The
pain of mouining contains a zone of misiecognition, to be suie: it is the lack that we
weie foi the being that has gone. Bowevei, the "sepaiation" elevateu into a
psychoanalytic concept is not inauthentic because it is ieality anu not a uiive that
commanus the sepaiation of libiuo fiom the signifieis that weie attacheu to its object.
Theie is no place foi confusing a painful laboui with the iepiession of knowleuge
conceining what we lack.
Cases of pathological mouining show this impossibility of sepaiating the loss of an
object fiom the iauical lack in the 0thei anu it is not by chance that these cases of
pathological mouining concein, notably anu notoiiously, the ieal ueath of a fathei, as
noteu by Lacan in Family!complexes.
8
Fieuu also gives an example with the paintei
Beinzman oi the iecuiient sauness of Boffmann, the authoi of the tales. Thus, the
bastaiuiy of the peison who has left us places value on the iiiepaiable betiayal by the
0thei which the subject attempts to oveicome thiough theii woik. In the enu, mouining
is woik, just as analysis is. This iiiepaiable chaiactei of sepaiation (contiaiy now to
what Nelanie Klein maintains) gives uepiession its stiuctuial founuation.
It is theiefoie useful not to confuse the uepiessive affect as, on the one hanu, the
passion of naicissism anu, on the othei, as phenomena of uis-being |dstrej, namely the
signs that the existence of the 0thei is vacillating. Can it be saiu that mouining is
testimony to a moment of tiuth, fatal tiuth, in the sense in which the subject has the
expeiience of the place he occupieu foi the 0thei. Like a Bamlet confionteu with the
ueau bouy of 0phelia, the subject iealises that he was its lack, the othei's lack, anu thus
he iuentifies his own voiu with the 0thei's. Be was its lack anu now he iuentifies with
this hole.
The clinical uiscussion of sepaiation biings out the subject's stiategy: how uoes one
tuin his own lack into an effect oi a mouality of the lack in the othei. Bow uoes one
biing about a uialectical coinciuing of the two voius in oiuei to give uesiie a new
beginning, iathei than have the subject iuentify with the 0thei's voiu as in melancholia.

8
Les!complexes!familiaux!dans!la!formation!de!lindividu,!essai!danalyse!dune!function!en!psychoanalyse
(Paiis: Navaiin, 1984 |19S8j).
S
In one of his seminais }acques-Alain Nillei has uevelopeu this uialectic of the two lacks
coinciuing to give the concept of sepaiation its logical founuation. It is ceitainly possible
to uiaw many consequences conceining the phenomenology of uepiessive states.
9

In geneial, if one wants to uistinguish an authentic sauness oi moment of tiuth fiom
othei states of the soul whose links with a misiecognition of the ieal I have shown, one
has to envisage an entiie uialectic of the subject's voiu in ielation to the othei's voiu.
Translated!by!Russell!Grigg,!not!reviewed!by!the!author.!

9
u. Noiel, Lettre!mensuelle!de!lECF, no. 1S2, p. S.