Let's Dream A Little

Of what will tomorrow be made?

When the pandemic started we were all waiting for sunny days, the virus had to disappear on its own with the appearance of the sun. We know today that this is not the case, that it will not be the case. This hypothesis was based on a belief, on an attempt to make of the virus a same. It would have been like the flu virus because the symptoms were the same. This attempt to inscribe the unknown, the unnameable, the unheard of, in a signifying chain is perhaps the only reflex function of the human being. It is a reflex in the face of the encounter with the absence of guarantee in the Other. In the chapters XIV, XV and XVI of The Ethics of Psychoanalysis[1], Lacan will analyze the consequences of this last statement.

The simple emergence of a pure S1: coronavirus, that is, the attempt to nominate a real which we can clearly see does not name anything at all, launches the automatic production of the S2 that testify above all to the position of the one who produces or repeats them, or modifies or invents them. Above all, it testifies to the attempt to make do with, to elaborate, to lucubrate, a signifying chain that comes to secure this S1 which, so far, has remained all alone to this day. Scientists, the media, politicians and populations, are caught up in a signifying machine aimed at treating this out-of-meaning, from which all kinds of contradictory truths emerge. Is that a problem? We know that it is structural: the truth lies, the real is when one bangs into it. As long as we did not bang into this virus [cognés ce virus], and even if we did, we are delusional – in the sense of Lacan in 1977, we dream: "How does one go about teaching what cannot be taught? This is something Freud ventured into. He thought that all is but a dream and that everyone (if one can say such a thing) , that everyone is mad, that is, delusional"[2]. An S2 is a dream and a dream is an interpretation. We had nothing to say about the virus, except when we banged into the real. In the testimony One-All-Alone, Jean Daniel Matet teaches us about the most singular of a subject grappling with the most radical of his hetero-body[3] and makes the most singular of each reader resonate. In this testimony, psychoanalysis is said [dit], by a psychoanalyst. Delusion is an attempt at cure said Freud[4], an attempt to hold an ego subject to fragmentation.

No, we do not know what tomorrow will be made of, but we know that everyone will continue to dream, to produce symptoms, to enjoy [à jouir], to desire, to have slips, bungled actions, to have certainties, doubts, to ruminate, to complain, to be sick of his thoughts, to question the master, to appeal to the father, to the Other who does not exist, in short to be delusional.

So what remains relevant for us who orient ourselves from psychoanalysis, is Freud, is Lacan, these are the tools they have given us to grasp the present moment. It is the Lacanian orientation of Jacques Alain Miller that offers us as compass the cutting edge and the subversion of psychoanalysis.

The themes of our congresses, study days, teachings, are articulated in the School One. To begin, the theme of congress of the World Association of Psychoanalysis,

scheduled in Buenos Aires from the 14th to 18th of December 2020: Dream, its interpretation and use in Lacanian Treatment. We do not know what tomorrow will be made of, but we do know that this theme is crucial, a hot topic. It is of interest to anyone who wants to orient themselves psychoanalytically. Let's put or put back to work, this theme in all health care facilities, in the regional delegations of the ACF, in the School, launch cartels, produce texts, we will find an outlet for them. Because today the dream still remains the royal road of the unconscious. To put this theme to work is to put a lack of knowledge to work, it is to support our desire via the study of psychoanalysis and at this moment, it is a chance for everyone.

In this issue of the ECF messenger you will find exclusively for the ECF a wonderful text from the President of the WAP[5] who shows that there are others aside from us who think that dreams say something about the present time. So, let's dream a little.