Dear Pill, I just posted the link to your video about Deleuze and the Control Society to several Facebook groups to which I belong. To introduce the link I wrote, “I am increasingly impressed by young thinkers who are using RUclips to discuss and explain ideas too easily written off as academic gibberish. Here is a recent discovery.” I get to say “young thinkers” because, while I try to stay mentally active (the hole in myself that needs to be filled), I turned 76 this year. Good work. Keep it up.
When Lacan says that "love is giving that which one does not have", he means the desire-shape hole. In Love, you give the other person your desire, you're basically giving them your desire and finally acknowledging them as a subject that is also an object and you expect the same in return. And this is why you hear Zizek comment on Love every now and then
Id say love is the counteract of desire. You love the lack/split. You do not fill it with your own lack/desire. Expecting the same in return is in oposition to love. You asume the mistake and go to the end as zizek says. You love the shit out of the split. Because all is split and split is all
Also for Zizek (death)drive goes "Beyond the Pleasure Principle"(Desire). Desire springs out of it. So instead of chasing the world mask one should create from drive. From less that nothing.
"Late adolescents who have recently been exposed to existentialism for the first time" oh lord, that made me nostalgic for my senior year of high school. I thought I was so deep.
To take on this task to educate masses of psychoanalysis, it’s nothing short of hero’s journey. I’ve always struggled with Lacan but Explaining it in such simple words, each and every word had impact on me. Thank you for this 💜 please make more like these, you’re such a genius 😎
Hello Vidhi, can you recommend to me some beginner-friendly books to start reading psychoanalysis. I am interested in this subject and want to gain a deeper understanding of things discussed in the video.
You're very humble, comrade! I bet most university professors struggle with this, yet you managed to piece it all together in less than 20mins. Thanks a lot indeed!
My first touch with Lacan. I found it really well explained but most importantly, the video was not boring for a single second. Amazing, considering the topic! Great work!
Tbh your videos have been extremely helpful for understanding myself better somehow. My struggles with alienation, my identity, my self, my interactions. I will seek therapy but this clarifies so much. So thank you
The relationship between the Lacanian mirror stage and social media literally just came to me in a bravewave and thought I'd look it up. I was thinking, in the mirror stage, the subject perceives the ideal-I, themselves as a complete object, just like we try to present ourselves on social media. We try to achieve our ideal-I through a digital projection in this case. Nice video man!
That's some hot analysis, though I think the Lacanian point would be that social media exacerbates the conditions by which we already delineate ourselves. Maybe excesses give us the means to revisit norms?
@@sawtoothiandi In this case you are still desiring an ideal image that you would like to be perceived as by others. Flow of desire is inescapable within human subjectivity, within the framework of psychoanalysis, as it if affects the all typical forms of human consciousness that are able to perceive themselves beyond the mirror stage. You could interpret the attitudes supposed in your statement in such a way as free, uncaring, conscious of their flaws in an ironic way to display the fact that they (the subject) believes that what they post doesn't matter to them and so on however. This still is an image for others to perceive you. There is a phrase which sais: 'No fashion sense is a still a fashion sense' and this means that you will be interpreted and perceived by others by whatever the person decides to wear. Choosing to wear clothes or not is a choice and the type of clothes you wear is also (usually...) a choice. The choices we make depend entirely on how our ideal-i likes to be seen by the fact that we adjust what we do to be seen by the imaginary crowd. This relates back to above when I wrote examples of how we may desire to be observed by other subjects. The only way to truly 'subvert' social media would be to not engage with it or use the platform and not fulfil its intended function, for example posting to 0 followers on a private mode where only you could see your own posts: being completely invisible within a platform which is based around being observed by others. Even someone who is using a platform anonymously still gains satisfaction through the objective amounts of likes one accrues as it feeds their own ego due to them posting something and receiving back likes, there is a multitude of reasons to why someone enjoys posting anonymously due to desire being different for each individual obviously but in lacanian terms the short-term satisfaction that we get from will continue to change shape in line with our ever elusive, interminable, desire (we are stuck in a loop due to how social media demands of us to continually post to remain a desired object amongst others, we have an urge to use it as that is how the desire functions within the frame of social media). If one doesn't use social media, and are affirmative of it to others in our interactions with them that are aware that you do not engage with social media that is still apart of another flow of desire to be seen by the imaginary crowd as a person who doesn't use social media for whatever subjective reason of desire that person has in the real world. As long as 'celebritism' exists we cannot escape everyday/common place/hegemonic attitudes among some people who are within a system as seeing this as one way of living as we usually placate high amounts of social media followers to being desired or more generally, liked and being popular, some people obviously have their premonitions about what a person with a high amount of followers may be like, but this still doesn't derive from the fact that they are still desired, and fulfil a function of how social media is supposed to be used, as part of an object of desire system (social media) to some. The person who has certain premonitions will have their own thoughts about what a 'truer' desired object may exist as, an example of this would be not using the platform and perceiving 'real world' relationships of more importance. Unfortunately, as we approach the real there is no meaning to either of these things and one is no better than the other as it is entirely subjective to the individual, having more interaction with others online or in the real world is still just an objective existence of something which happens and are equivalent in nature as they are both things with a lack of subjectivity in themselves. Finally, the perspective of not wanting to be desired in the 'usual manner' (this would be, as stated in your comment, the subverted use of social media; a differing form of existence to traditional traits of desire) is still desire in itself to be seen as not being wanted in the usual manner, this then leads us to lacan's conclusion that we 'desire the desire of others' as the person wanting to be desired in the unusual manner is desire to being wanted in the unusual manner by others; a desire that has been projected from us. This is the loop that we are stuck in when using a visual desire-seeking platform and it shows just how we try and portray an ideal of us further in a visual form thus making sense within lacan's psychoanalytic ideas of the imaginary register of experience.
@plasticpills Man your witty, nascent, informed, thoughtful, and concise presentations on this channel have really changed my outlook on life generally and philosophy more particularily. I love and hate your channel for introducing me to the finer points of Foucault, Derrida, semiotics, identity, Lacan, psychoanalysis, postmodern thought, etc... My life was much easier when I thought the idea of social constructs was itself a social construct.
As someone who has never read Lacan, but had the pleasure of taking many interesting classes on eastern religion and Buddhism, his work seems to be a very expensive western take on Gautama’s idea of desire and identity through the four Noble truths
Your videos are of an immense value for individuals with a newly found interest in philosophy (newbies, if you will), especially the 20th century less accessible thinkers. Thank you for your effort!
jake trask a lot of Zizek’s material deals with the Real, which as stated in the video isn’t really discussed here. Hence some of the clarity because the Real is really tough to get a handle on, conceptually speaking.
@@jaketrask3931besides that, žižek is a pretty eclectic thinker who doesnt tend to go through any given variable systematically, but rather jumps around to and fro- i think his way of thinking is the proper schizopheric type approach that deluze would bescribe ( or at least, as i understand that deluze term) Personally, i tend to preffer a more systematic approach, but i like encountering eclectic approaches because they tend to be fun to unravel- but this does mean that they take more effort to understand, and sometimes this approach creates inconsistencies and leaps jn logic which though interesting, dont feel particularly well examined by the author. Anyway Have a nice mornight
Thank you so much. I've been reading "beginner" guides to Lacan for a couple of months. I kind of get a very rough gist of Lacan's ideas, but this video has supercharged my understanding (although, being aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect I can't go out and tell all my friends I'm wise to Lacan's ideas). Ironically, my lack is the desire to understand Lacan and your lack is a desire to be seen as understanding Lacan. Thank you Lacan, thank you PlasticPills.
That's great Kevin, I definitely get the sense that Lacanians are a jargony bunch and most are interested in keeping it that way. This is only an intro of course but I'm glad it was useful
this is a very deep and abyssal explanation of subjectivity, desire and image, so lightly expressed. I'm fascinated by your talent, on how you can transform something very dense and thick in something thin and levitating, avoiding banality. Excellent! 😉
i’ve always really struggled with lacan but you really just blew my mind out of my skull with this one and suddenly everything made absolute sense. thank you. your work is very much appreciated. definitely subbing 💗
Really great job with this. I’d love to hear you try to tackle the real in a future episode, but don’t fault you for not undertaking it here. Thank you!
GREAT VIDEO. Thank you soo much for your effort (and succeeding) in explaining one of the most dense and complicated 20th century thinkers. Gracias, and all the best from Mexico.
I was like "damn I should read Lacan", just as you were saying "Lacan is one of the most diffucult theorists to understand". Sticking with the vids for now.
I love this channel so much! It's a antithesis to all populist, trivial, sensationalist shit around social networks. Deep, sharp critical positions, and authentic thinking, in synthesis with knowledge and empirical data, sources...not only scientific, also philosophical, sociological.
Thanks so much for this video! It was so helpful in beginning to understand Lacan, that convoluted bastard. You so effectively managed to make his concepts easily digestible, it's disgusting. Cheers!
You were spot on Paranoia thing,had couple of events myself where I thought all eyes where upon me but than I imagined all of us have some Paranoia and than on that event receded in background. Thanks for detail, Hegel and Lacan I will dedicate my heart to understand them
hey great job on this video! i have been feeling exactly the same about social media, so it's great to see someone apply actual philosophy to this phenomenon. im excited to learn more about Lacan!
A good complement to Lacan is Bracha Ettinger's matrixial theory. It examines the relationship between what would be called the Lacanian objet petite a and the subject, and expands upon the idea of the desire/absence by considering everyone as "partial subjects" that are impulsed toward sharing and negotiating boundaries (and manage anxiety/unheimlich and trauma/phantasy and joy/jouissance) in a joint process of differentiation and jointness. Her theories break down the specifics of how we co-create images and also modify our subjectivity based on who we're interacting with as more of a shared process. I think she breaks things down into real, symbolic, virtual, imaginary and matrixial. Matrix is basically your fundamental predisposition toward connecting with others. She has a matrixial gaze as well, iirc. If Lacan is focused on subjectivity, she explains INTERsubjectivity in the same kind of real/symbolic/etc framework. She has a matrixial counterpart to unheimlich (which she calls compassionate-hospitality, I think?), a counterpart to the Objet petit a (which she calls the m/Other).I wouldn't say she "solves" the desire problem, but she articulates how we collaborate with other subjects to articulate and approximate the fluid process of "solving" this problem. The solution is to share bc we can't help but share. ("The impossibility of not sharing") She doesn't arbitrarily try and force a symmetrical counterpart to every aspect of Lacanian subjectivity, and she also finds (where applicable) counterparts to Freudian things like Oedipal Complex.
I sat there staring at the TV trying to wrap my head around what you just talked about. I can't go from watching mindless drone entertainment and then come to your channel. That shit almost turned me into that dude from Scanners.
I've had a pretty rough life so far and hit rock bottom... twice. My only desire I wanted was to just be happy with myself, and I achieved that many years ago. I haven't actually 'desired' much since then, everything I achieve in my life is literally just the next logical step I feel I need to make, every splurge purchase or life decision that requires money isn't an issue, because I saved for it. I'm not normal. I was once told by a psychiatrist at a party that they'd give me a refund if I came in to talk to them, because I'd probably just sit there for an hour lost in my own thoughts.
I made a habit of watching your videos before starting work in the morning during quarantine. Now my existential crisis and neurosis is amplified but at least I know how to understand them. Thank you very much plastic pills
Amazing video dissecting such dense theory while also applying it to social media. I took a class at nyu on the mirror stage and it's hard to grasp these ideas even over a whole semester. Would love to hear more thoughts on imagos of the fragmented body, something I love thinking about it in context with art history. Great work on this channel, I haven't seen anything quite like it yet!
Just found your channel from a recommendation by epoch philosophy. You truly have the best theory channel in youtube, amazing work. Commenting for the youtube algorithm since i am broke and have no other way of helping you
I don't know if it's because I've already spent the last day or two learning this and trying to comprehend it, or if it's that you did a really good job explaining it, but something got through here. I think it was the latter, because you actually explain the way in which certain words are being used. That's one of the biggest issue for some people trying to explain philosophic ideas, that it appears they assume the viewer is already aware of an alternative meaning to a word. Like, I understood the symbolic before this, but I didn't understand the Lacanian use of the 'imaginary'. I'm finally getting the puzzle together. Thank you for your good work, about to check out the 'real' because I'm lost on that one.
excellent, sir, a brilliant presentation. (as a senior, i did have problem initially with the music. the lacanian concepts, to me, are actually a rich music themselves. but alas!) great work, will take in the others as i work through lacan readings.
not to be tacky , but reading about lacan and his perspective on psychoanalysis was one of the biggest helps i had understanding and moving through my panic disorder currently in remission from the comorbid depression and its fucking gr8
Really interesting stuff. I wonder if the growing popularity of buddhism and stoicism in the west is a reaction to this problem of desire within ourselves
i think you are bang on the money. went down the buddhist path myself about 20 years ago just because of an insight into the impossibility of truly or permanently satisfying desire
_If_ you can stomach it, I'd like you to do Lacan's Real next _and,_ if possible, take this further by diving into Deleuze's schizophrenic subject. Maybe even hit the abyss by smacking some Nick Land in there too, lol
Human subjectivity is synonymous with desire which is fundamentally a lack. To be the object of other's desire requires you to be an object which requires for there to be no lack, as objects don't lack - subjects lack. Social media enhances or exteriorizes (by quantifying) a subject's ability to create an image of itself in a network of subjects. In a way this creates a feedback loop of lacks, which can somehow never be filled. Is this on the right track?
@Jade Oscill agreed. I wonder what's then the quickest way to help point the light of desire towards the inside, i.e. the source or the soul? At some point one does realize that contentment comes not from 'being with' as in possessing something but in 'without being' or a dissolution of the little self. It is such an easy realization, yet so hard to communicate to others who haven't felt it. Perhaps we were lacking the right language, the right tools - but it will be a shame for our generation if even after so much cognitive technology we are unable to expose this simple eternal truth... in my opinion of course. Haha.
@Jade Oscill have you looked at Deleuze and Guattari's criticism of exactly this in their book on anti-oedipus? Their idea of schizoanalysis is the closest I have seen that wants to take the above psychoanalysis project forward.... Again I don't quite get it, but I am curious to hear your thoughts.
@Jade Oscill That's very wise, thank you for sharing that. Very pragmatic! I guess you are right, it doesn't matter what I wish were the case... if the reality of the situation points a certain way, then that's that. It's unsettling though to just ground everything in the lack and just leave it there, but maybe that is the case.
yeah that was really good. I like the deeper dive into theory, and u used plenty of social examples anyway. I would love a few more like this one. And I appreciate the main focus on Freud/Lacan, and not going everywhere/everyone else... tho i like the mentions of Nietzsche and Aristotle, and Sartre.... And this is older than the pandemic so that’s a relief too.
20 mins is a great target. In response to this video, I'd suggest taking a crack at Buddhism's recognition that desire is the root of pain. Alan Watts very eloquently synthesised this Eastern notion with Western sensibilities. Great videos. Much appreciated.
Really excellent explanations. You say that we want "to be our selves" because it would mean an end to the anxiety. Perhaps it is not so much this but rather that it is a special case of desire - the self becomes an imaginary which we direct our desire towards?
Really nicely done! I'm now going to binge all your videos! Be nice to have a relational video which looked at the influence of Lacan on other philosophers; Foucault, Bourdieu, Badiou etc. That way people might have a 'what to watch for when reading...' sort of map.
Beautiful. Jumped back a lot in that video. Lacan is hard. 😅 And I understand what you mean with mental breakdown and anxiety. The moment you realize again, that you might be trapped inside of your own self. 😃👌 But that happens often in philosophy you might have the same moment by reading Descartes Meditationes, when he comes to the conclusion that there is nothing you can be shure about but your own conciousness/ego.
i have had such a moment of vertigo when i realised what i took to be me was a construction, a composite of influences. i call it my dismantled HAL 9000 experience. the terror provoked a rush to forget and reassemble myself. after a 'spiritual' experience however the locus of identity shifted from the ego/language-self to 'pure' awareness. anxiety evaporated.
Bro youre doing enligenment and i trully appriciate that endevor! I have some ideas of making practically fit social patterns based offa these superuseful philosophies to be beat used in the favor of society and you my friend are doing this to me and manny others! Hope you prevail and have milions of subs to get enlightend for the lack of better words .
Your videos are the fuckin best man. I'm a huge fan of Lacan, Derrida, de Certeau, Marx, etc., and I feel like you always nail every aspect of their philosophy. Some professor level shit, always
You are fantastic. Lacan is impossible to read, but you gave me a direction, without Lack it is difficult to understand the modern (or post-modern) world. My opinion only, of course ;)
Watch the better, updated version of this content here: ruclips.net/video/UBhYq7HqLXo/видео.html
I can’t wait to watch the updated version, but know that this video has already helped me *immensely.*
Enjoyed this, video well done,
yo, I want to link this one in an article because I think this is more 'entry level' than the new one. Feel free to convince me otherwise though!
2:46 😂😅😂 2:48 😊 2:51 @@gg_kitty
Dear Pill, I just posted the link to your video about Deleuze and the Control Society to several Facebook groups to which I belong. To introduce the link I wrote, “I am increasingly impressed by young thinkers who are using RUclips to discuss and explain ideas too easily written off as academic gibberish. Here is a recent discovery.” I get to say “young thinkers” because, while I try to stay mentally active (the hole in myself that needs to be filled), I turned 76 this year. Good work. Keep it up.
I liked your comment, it gave me a glimps at a book brain I've never seen before. Thank you for commenting
You are 80 now!
Hope youre alive and well ❤
my neck, my back,
my neurosis and my lack
omg i almost spit my coffee out. thank you for this.
Lmao
hahahaaha damn
The way I screamed...
oy vey
When Lacan says that "love is giving that which one does not have", he means the desire-shape hole. In Love, you give the other person your desire, you're basically giving them your desire and finally acknowledging them as a subject that is also an object and you expect the same in return. And this is why you hear Zizek comment on Love every now and then
Ender Wiggin lovbnthhh iths a catastrbphri!!! Love Zizek
And so on
I just had this idea while watching the video, was going to look fir what lacan said about love, but i then found this comment
Id say love is the counteract of desire. You love the lack/split. You do not fill it with your own lack/desire. Expecting the same in return is in oposition to love. You asume the mistake and go to the end as zizek says. You love the shit out of the split. Because all is split and split is all
Also for Zizek (death)drive goes "Beyond the Pleasure Principle"(Desire). Desire springs out of it. So instead of chasing the world mask one should create from drive. From less that nothing.
"Late adolescents who have recently been exposed to existentialism for the first time" oh lord, that made me nostalgic for my senior year of high school. I thought I was so deep.
wtf I understand lacan now, this is a crisis
I'm gonna buy the new fire emblem game then I'll be fulfilled, fuck you
isn't it actually right to be a paranoiac on social media, lol
wtf I understand the end of evangelion now
Neechay yeah, anno was inspired a lot by Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis
Nigga
"A problem without a solution is the most profitable." Brilliant!
That's truly creepy and unnerving to meditate on
Capitalism coming
this was so good I feel like Zizek and im ready to talk about nothing while simutaniously talking about important stuff
You're genuinely the best philosophy channel I've found on youtube. You're like a breath of fresh air, honestly!
Holy crap, I’ve read so much Žižek, Bruce Fink, Judith Butler... and this is the first time that Lacan has really made sense.
Burger
Wow, how can you so lucidly explain so elusive a concept of Lacan? I am so much impressed by your lecture. Thank you so much!
To take on this task to educate masses of psychoanalysis, it’s nothing short of hero’s journey. I’ve always struggled with Lacan but Explaining it in such simple words, each and every word had impact on me. Thank you for this 💜 please make more like these, you’re such a genius 😎
Hello Vidhi, can you recommend to me some beginner-friendly books to start reading psychoanalysis. I am interested in this subject and want to gain a deeper understanding of things discussed in the video.
@@Rahul-bt5hs Read Bruce Fink's introduction to Lacan.
You desire the desire of others. Yep, Hegel proven right haha
Ender Wiggin Almost always the case lol
the phenomenology of mind!
Rene Girard’s mimetic desire also.
Woooooo🤩 this is a great explanation, thank you sooooo very muuuuch!!! So illustrative 🙌🔥 great effort and talento ti explain and comprehend
@@psirio-psiqueymedicina-8268 but in fact lacon got this idea from Kojève, one of the greatest Hegelians.
You're very humble, comrade! I bet most university professors struggle with this, yet you managed to piece it all together in less than 20mins. Thanks a lot indeed!
My first touch with Lacan. I found it really well explained but most importantly, the video was not boring for a single second. Amazing, considering the topic! Great work!
Tbh your videos have been extremely helpful for understanding myself better somehow. My struggles with alienation, my identity, my self, my interactions.
I will seek therapy but this clarifies so much. So thank you
Im 19 and im from spain, i apreciate a lot your content men, thank u
The relationship between the Lacanian mirror stage and social media literally just came to me in a bravewave and thought I'd look it up.
I was thinking, in the mirror stage, the subject perceives the ideal-I, themselves as a complete object, just like we try to present ourselves on social media. We try to achieve our ideal-I through a digital projection in this case.
Nice video man!
That's some hot analysis, though I think the Lacanian point would be that social media exacerbates the conditions by which we already delineate ourselves. Maybe excesses give us the means to revisit norms?
@@PlasticPillsFully agree with you! the ideal I is always a key driver !
@@PlasticPills what about the attempt to subvert social media by presenting ones flaws? ones failed meal attempts, bad haircuts, flat tires?
@@sawtoothiandi In this case you are still desiring an ideal image that you would like to be perceived as by others. Flow of desire is inescapable within human subjectivity, within the framework of psychoanalysis, as it if affects the all typical forms of human consciousness that are able to perceive themselves beyond the mirror stage. You could interpret the attitudes supposed in your statement in such a way as free, uncaring, conscious of their flaws in an ironic way to display the fact that they (the subject) believes that what they post doesn't matter to them and so on however. This still is an image for others to perceive you.
There is a phrase which sais: 'No fashion sense is a still a fashion sense' and this means that you will be interpreted and perceived by others by whatever the person decides to wear. Choosing to wear clothes or not is a choice and the type of clothes you wear is also (usually...) a choice. The choices we make depend entirely on how our ideal-i likes to be seen by the fact that we adjust what we do to be seen by the imaginary crowd. This relates back to above when I wrote examples of how we may desire to be observed by other subjects.
The only way to truly 'subvert' social media would be to not engage with it or use the platform and not fulfil its intended function, for example posting to 0 followers on a private mode where only you could see your own posts: being completely invisible within a platform which is based around being observed by others. Even someone who is using a platform anonymously still gains satisfaction through the objective amounts of likes one accrues as it feeds their own ego due to them posting something and receiving back likes, there is a multitude of reasons to why someone enjoys posting anonymously due to desire being different for each individual obviously but in lacanian terms the short-term satisfaction that we get from will continue to change shape in line with our ever elusive, interminable, desire (we are stuck in a loop due to how social media demands of us to continually post to remain a desired object amongst others, we have an urge to use it as that is how the desire functions within the frame of social media).
If one doesn't use social media, and are affirmative of it to others in our interactions with them that are aware that you do not engage with social media that is still apart of another flow of desire to be seen by the imaginary crowd as a person who doesn't use social media for whatever subjective reason of desire that person has in the real world.
As long as 'celebritism' exists we cannot escape everyday/common place/hegemonic attitudes among some people who are within a system as seeing this as one way of living as we usually placate high amounts of social media followers to being desired or more generally, liked and being popular, some people obviously have their premonitions about what a person with a high amount of followers may be like, but this still doesn't derive from the fact that they are still desired, and fulfil a function of how social media is supposed to be used, as part of an object of desire system (social media) to some. The person who has certain premonitions will have their own thoughts about what a 'truer' desired object may exist as, an example of this would be not using the platform and perceiving 'real world' relationships of more importance. Unfortunately, as we approach the real there is no meaning to either of these things and one is no better than the other as it is entirely subjective to the individual, having more interaction with others online or in the real world is still just an objective existence of something which happens and are equivalent in nature as they are both things with a lack of subjectivity in themselves.
Finally, the perspective of not wanting to be desired in the 'usual manner' (this would be, as stated in your comment, the subverted use of social media; a differing form of existence to traditional traits of desire) is still desire in itself to be seen as not being wanted in the usual manner, this then leads us to lacan's conclusion that we 'desire the desire of others' as the person wanting to be desired in the unusual manner is desire to being wanted in the unusual manner by others; a desire that has been projected from us. This is the loop that we are stuck in when using a visual desire-seeking platform and it shows just how we try and portray an ideal of us further in a visual form thus making sense within lacan's psychoanalytic ideas of the imaginary register of experience.
@@departingrecords8321 just, wow. Thank you!
This reminds me an awful lot of Buddhist thought on desire. Great video!
@plasticpills
Man your witty, nascent, informed, thoughtful, and concise presentations on this channel have really changed my outlook on life generally and philosophy more particularily.
I love and hate your channel for introducing me to the finer points of Foucault, Derrida, semiotics, identity, Lacan, psychoanalysis, postmodern thought, etc...
My life was much easier when I thought the idea of social constructs was itself a social construct.
As someone who has never read Lacan, but had the pleasure of taking many interesting classes on eastern religion and Buddhism, his work seems to be a very expensive western take on Gautama’s idea of desire and identity through the four Noble truths
Extremely digestible and comprehensible explanation! Thank you very much
this is *by far* the most comprehensive and understandable intro to Lacan its even possible to make, you're amazing
Your videos are of an immense value for individuals with a newly found interest in philosophy (newbies, if you will), especially the 20th century less accessible thinkers. Thank you for your effort!
Where has this channel been my whole life, oh my God this is amazing! I actually understand this stuff now!
This is such a good explanation of Lacan!
Much more intelligible than all that Zizek I've read. Might reread it now,with better understanding.
jake trask a lot of Zizek’s material deals with the Real, which as stated in the video isn’t really discussed here. Hence some of the clarity because the Real is really tough to get a handle on, conceptually speaking.
@@johnterencejr I suppose that is probably part of it. A grasp on the Real quickly gets bogged down by its dual ephemeral/concrete nature.
except that zizek would not agree with this definition of the real
@@jaketrask3931besides that, žižek is a pretty eclectic thinker who doesnt tend to go through any given variable systematically, but rather jumps around to and fro- i think his way of thinking is the proper schizopheric type approach that deluze would bescribe ( or at least, as i understand that deluze term)
Personally, i tend to preffer a more systematic approach, but i like encountering eclectic approaches because they tend to be fun to unravel- but this does mean that they take more effort to understand, and sometimes this approach creates inconsistencies and leaps jn logic which though interesting, dont feel particularly well examined by the author.
Anyway
Have a nice mornight
Thank you so much. I've been reading "beginner" guides to Lacan for a couple of months. I kind of get a very rough gist of Lacan's ideas, but this video has supercharged my understanding (although, being aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect I can't go out and tell all my friends I'm wise to Lacan's ideas). Ironically, my lack is the desire to understand Lacan and your lack is a desire to be seen as understanding Lacan. Thank you Lacan, thank you PlasticPills.
That's great Kevin, I definitely get the sense that Lacanians are a jargony bunch and most are interested in keeping it that way. This is only an intro of course but I'm glad it was useful
I have been thinking about Lacan's desire, but what you explained is more stabbing, i mean your explanation is more radical practically.
this is a very deep and abyssal explanation of subjectivity, desire and image, so lightly expressed. I'm fascinated by your talent, on how you can transform something very dense and thick in something thin and levitating, avoiding banality. Excellent! 😉
Mindblowing
You're the best. Certainly the best video on RUclips to understand the Mirror Stage.
That’s one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen on Lacan.
Thanks for your work
i’ve always really struggled with lacan but you really just blew my mind out of my skull with this one and suddenly everything made absolute sense. thank you. your work is very much appreciated. definitely subbing 💗
consciousness explained by d. dennett is one of the most superfluous takes on the hard problem of consciousness.... basically a carnival act.
I read most of that book waiting for the payout but it never came
Really great job with this. I’d love to hear you try to tackle the real in a future episode, but don’t fault you for not undertaking it here. Thank you!
Working on it--today
GREAT VIDEO. Thank you soo much for your effort (and succeeding) in explaining one of the most dense and complicated 20th century thinkers. Gracias, and all the best from Mexico.
Your videos are simply amazing. I’m spreading them as much as I can in France. You deserve a wider audience.
I was like "damn I should read Lacan", just as you were saying "Lacan is one of the most diffucult theorists to understand". Sticking with the vids for now.
I love this channel so much! It's a antithesis to all populist, trivial, sensationalist shit around social networks. Deep, sharp critical positions, and authentic thinking, in synthesis with knowledge and empirical data, sources...not only scientific, also philosophical, sociological.
God damn. Keep it up, please. The very opposite of boring: high quality stuff.
Thanks so much for this video! It was so helpful in beginning to understand Lacan, that convoluted bastard. You so effectively managed to make his concepts easily digestible, it's disgusting. Cheers!
Really enjoyed this one. Easy to digest without oversimplifying
Thank You, this was the best introduction to Lacan by far.
You were spot on Paranoia thing,had couple of events myself where I thought all eyes where upon me but than I imagined all of us have some Paranoia and than on that event receded in background.
Thanks for detail, Hegel and Lacan I will dedicate my heart to understand them
Thank you for a fantastic video.. This is obviously a dense subject so illustrative clips like this one are great!
hey great job on this video! i have been feeling exactly the same about social media, so it's great to see someone apply actual philosophy to this phenomenon. im excited to learn more about Lacan!
Thank you so much! Needed a crash course on Lacan in my efforts to understand the work of Joan Wallach Scott. This has been super helpful!
Oh man, i wish i could go back in time so i could watch this video at the beginning of my graduation. Awesome content!
A good complement to Lacan is Bracha Ettinger's matrixial theory. It examines the relationship between what would be called the Lacanian objet petite a and the subject, and expands upon the idea of the desire/absence by considering everyone as "partial subjects" that are impulsed toward sharing and negotiating boundaries (and manage anxiety/unheimlich and trauma/phantasy and joy/jouissance) in a joint process of differentiation and jointness. Her theories break down the specifics of how we co-create images and also modify our subjectivity based on who we're interacting with as more of a shared process. I think she breaks things down into real, symbolic, virtual, imaginary and matrixial. Matrix is basically your fundamental predisposition toward connecting with others. She has a matrixial gaze as well, iirc. If Lacan is focused on subjectivity, she explains INTERsubjectivity in the same kind of real/symbolic/etc framework. She has a matrixial counterpart to unheimlich (which she calls compassionate-hospitality, I think?), a counterpart to the Objet petit a (which she calls the m/Other).I wouldn't say she "solves" the desire problem, but she articulates how we collaborate with other subjects to articulate and approximate the fluid process of "solving" this problem.
The solution is to share bc we can't help but share. ("The impossibility of not sharing")
She doesn't arbitrarily try and force a symmetrical counterpart to every aspect of Lacanian subjectivity, and she also finds (where applicable) counterparts to Freudian things like Oedipal Complex.
Sounds like Vygotski: everything and everyone you observe (especially what you interact with) becomes a part of you.
I sat there staring at the TV trying to wrap my head around what you just talked about. I can't go from watching mindless drone entertainment and then come to your channel. That shit almost turned me into that dude from Scanners.
I've had a pretty rough life so far and hit rock bottom... twice. My only desire I wanted was to just be happy with myself, and I achieved that many years ago. I haven't actually 'desired' much since then, everything I achieve in my life is literally just the next logical step I feel I need to make, every splurge purchase or life decision that requires money isn't an issue, because I saved for it.
I'm not normal. I was once told by a psychiatrist at a party that they'd give me a refund if I came in to talk to them, because I'd probably just sit there for an hour lost in my own thoughts.
That Trigger Warning hit me so hard but t´was too late. Im trapped now in an endless void.
Great content and delivery - much better than the university lectures I had on Lacan many moons ago.
Hup holland
I made a habit of watching your videos before starting work in the morning during quarantine.
Now my existential crisis and neurosis is amplified but at least I know how to understand them.
Thank you very much plastic pills
Amazing video dissecting such dense theory while also applying it to social media. I took a class at nyu on the mirror stage and it's hard to grasp these ideas even over a whole semester. Would love to hear more thoughts on imagos of the fragmented body, something I love thinking about it in context with art history. Great work on this channel, I haven't seen anything quite like it yet!
How have i not discovered Lacan till now? This is gold! Thank you so much!
Why has RUclips never recommended me this channel??? Can’t wait to watch more, you broke these concepts down great for an idiot like me.
Just found your channel from a recommendation by epoch philosophy. You truly have the best theory channel in youtube, amazing work. Commenting for the youtube algorithm since i am broke and have no other way of helping you
I feel like I understood this instinctively during a panic attack while tripping but now it has been put into words
I don't know if it's because I've already spent the last day or two learning this and trying to comprehend it, or if it's that you did a really good job explaining it, but something got through here. I think it was the latter, because you actually explain the way in which certain words are being used. That's one of the biggest issue for some people trying to explain philosophic ideas, that it appears they assume the viewer is already aware of an alternative meaning to a word. Like, I understood the symbolic before this, but I didn't understand the Lacanian use of the 'imaginary'. I'm finally getting the puzzle together. Thank you for your good work, about to check out the 'real' because I'm lost on that one.
Nice Lacan primer
A useful intro to Lacan. Thank you very much.
You couldn't have explained this better! Just discovered you and this is one of the reasons why I love RUclips algorithms 😛🤗
excellent, sir, a brilliant presentation. (as a senior, i did have problem initially with the music. the lacanian concepts, to me, are actually a rich music themselves. but alas!) great work, will take in the others as i work through lacan readings.
NOW THIS, IS THEORY!
not to be tacky , but reading about lacan and his perspective on psychoanalysis was one of the biggest helps i had understanding and moving through my panic disorder
currently in remission from the comorbid depression and its fucking gr8
GOD, I FALL IN LOVE WITH THIS CHANNEL!
Love the expression to be seen to be seen!
Really interesting stuff. I wonder if the growing popularity of buddhism and stoicism in the west is a reaction to this problem of desire within ourselves
i think you are bang on the money. went down the buddhist path myself about 20 years ago just because of an insight into the impossibility of truly or permanently satisfying desire
Hedonistic treadmill.
_If_ you can stomach it, I'd like you to do Lacan's Real next _and,_ if possible, take this further by diving into Deleuze's schizophrenic subject.
Maybe even hit the abyss by smacking some Nick Land in there too, lol
You better fn know this whole channel is working up to Deleuze
@@PlasticPills holy shit!
@@PlasticPills I'm a schizophrenic. or at least I used to be. and we are ideologically aligned. hmu if you want
@@vidividivicious there, only took 11 months!
@@PlasticPills The absolute madman
this is excellent, please keep it up man!
Needed this one, thanks for covering this.
such a brilliant video
Excellent explanation and presentation, thank you!
Really really, I can't thank you enough for clarifying lacan 👍👏👌💓🇪🇬
Human subjectivity is synonymous with desire which is fundamentally a lack. To be the object of other's desire requires you to be an object which requires for there to be no lack, as objects don't lack - subjects lack. Social media enhances or exteriorizes (by quantifying) a subject's ability to create an image of itself in a network of subjects. In a way this creates a feedback loop of lacks, which can somehow never be filled.
Is this on the right track?
@Jade Oscill agreed. I wonder what's then the quickest way to help point the light of desire towards the inside, i.e. the source or the soul? At some point one does realize that contentment comes not from 'being with' as in possessing something but in 'without being' or a dissolution of the little self. It is such an easy realization, yet so hard to communicate to others who haven't felt it. Perhaps we were lacking the right language, the right tools - but it will be a shame for our generation if even after so much cognitive technology we are unable to expose this simple eternal truth... in my opinion of course. Haha.
@Jade Oscill have you looked at Deleuze and Guattari's criticism of exactly this in their book on anti-oedipus? Their idea of schizoanalysis is the closest I have seen that wants to take the above psychoanalysis project forward.... Again I don't quite get it, but I am curious to hear your thoughts.
@Jade Oscill That's very wise, thank you for sharing that. Very pragmatic! I guess you are right, it doesn't matter what I wish were the case... if the reality of the situation points a certain way, then that's that. It's unsettling though to just ground everything in the lack and just leave it there, but maybe that is the case.
You explained this so so well! Thank you so much for your page. I really feel like really learned something today.
Big Wreck and Lacan. That's satisfying as fuck.
yeah that was really good. I like the deeper dive into theory, and u used plenty of social examples anyway. I would love a few more like this one. And I appreciate the main focus on Freud/Lacan, and not going everywhere/everyone else... tho i like the mentions of Nietzsche and Aristotle, and Sartre.... And this is older than the pandemic so that’s a relief too.
Thankyou! this was exactly what I was looking for.
Impressive. This is such a difficult set of concepts to understand, let alone articulate, but you've done it well (as far as I can tell!).
Just start reading Lacan, excellent content 🤘🏻
really good video and very good explanation of Lacan. thanks
20 mins is a great target. In response to this video, I'd suggest taking a crack at Buddhism's recognition that desire is the root of pain. Alan Watts very eloquently synthesised this Eastern notion with Western sensibilities. Great videos. Much appreciated.
Really excellent explanations. You say that we want "to be our selves" because it would mean an end to the anxiety. Perhaps it is not so much this but rather that it is a special case of desire - the self becomes an imaginary which we direct our desire towards?
Simplemente espectacular. Placer me produce escucharte💥💥💥
Good explanation of difficult subject matter
Very good explanation of beginning of consciousness
I loved this and get so much from your videos. Love lacan
thanks so much, helped me a lot for my first scientifc essay in Uni!
Amazing breakdown!
Really nicely done! I'm now going to binge all your videos! Be nice to have a relational video which looked at the influence of Lacan on other philosophers; Foucault, Bourdieu, Badiou etc. That way people might have a 'what to watch for when reading...' sort of map.
this is fantastic! Thanks, pal. i'll be watching your vid about the real next. it's 1am now, gotta hit the hay. peace!
Damn well u just saved me time to read for exam thanks. Great video actually
Beautiful. Jumped back a lot in that video. Lacan is hard. 😅
And I understand what you mean with mental breakdown and anxiety. The moment you realize again, that you might be trapped inside of your own self. 😃👌
But that happens often in philosophy you might have the same moment by reading Descartes Meditationes, when he comes to the conclusion that there is nothing you can be shure about but your own conciousness/ego.
i have had such a moment of vertigo when i realised what i took to be me was a construction, a composite of influences. i call it my dismantled HAL 9000 experience. the terror provoked a rush to forget and reassemble myself. after a 'spiritual' experience however the locus of identity shifted from the ego/language-self to 'pure' awareness. anxiety evaporated.
This was great. Easy to understand
so, I'm from Argentina, thank you for making me understand. I don't understand it in other videos in Spanish, but.. you.. are great
Bro youre doing enligenment and i trully appriciate that endevor! I have some ideas of making practically fit social patterns based offa these superuseful philosophies to be beat used in the favor of society and you my friend are doing this to me and manny others! Hope you prevail and have milions of subs to get enlightend for the lack of better words .
Your videos are the fuckin best man. I'm a huge fan of Lacan, Derrida, de Certeau, Marx, etc., and I feel like you always nail every aspect of their philosophy. Some professor level shit, always
You are fantastic. Lacan is impossible to read, but you gave me a direction, without Lack it is difficult to understand the modern (or post-modern) world. My opinion only, of course ;)