Biopolitics and presence of the bodies
Frank Rollier
Lacan reminds us that the Imperative is “what is most original in speech”[1] and that it belongs to the very structure of the discourse of the master. In these times of pandemic and triumphant biopolitics, the imperatives of a master subjected to the evaluations of sanitary committees give our lives their rhythm.
The lockout and the social barriers constrain the bodies: everywhere the virtual mode has become imperative: teleworking, leisure on the web, videoconferences. This new use of speech in defiance of flesh and blood encounters produces effects of mortification and jouissance on the body such as: isolation, anxiety, overcoming by the imaginary, weariness.
With the soaring of analytical or supervision sessions by phone or Skype, the lesser of two evils as we call it and most likely preferable to no sessions at all, our very practice lets itself be worn down by this unreal uncorporeal mode. Lacan identifies the discourse to an epidemic[2] and we know that such drift which is already the norm in other longitudes has become viral itself.
Some patients say how happy they are to get out of home to move to their session. We know that only the presence of the bodies between four walls meant to “ encircle a hole”[3] enables speech “regarded as a drive”[4] to unfurl, silence to resound and make the absence of sexual rapport writable. A session of bodies in presence, a new agalma ?
Translated by Catherine Massol
References
[1] Lacan J. : « Conférence à Genève sur le symptôme ». La cause du désir N° 95, p. 7-22.
[2] Laurent E. : « Les biopolitiques de la pandémie et le corps, matière de l’angoisse », Lacan Quotidien N° 892.
[3] Lacan J. : « Je parle aux murs », Paris, Seuil, 2011, p 87.
[4] Miller J.-A. : L'orientation lacanienne, « Le tout dernier Lacan », 13 décembre 2006, inédit.