Examen corrigé Université de Montréal Thèse numérique Papyrus ...

274In our daily existence, we are immersed in ‘reality’ (structured and supported by thefantasy), and this immersion is disturbed by symptoms which bear witness to the fact thatanother, repressed, level of our psyche resists this immersion. To ‘traverse the fantasy’therefore, paradoxically, means fully identifying oneself with the fantasynamely, withthe fantasy which structures the excess that resists our immersion in daily reality. (17)What we have is a missed encounter between fantasies. Fantasies are there as defensemechanisms against the intrusion of the desire of the Other. The Lacanian lesson is that fantasydetermines one’s reality. 76 That is the only way that promises the domestication of jouissance.However, this domestication is structured around a fantasy and therefore it cannot pin downjouissance. Let us go back to the Real and pose the Lacanian question: “what does the Other wantfrom me?” (Écrits 693). What determines the encounter, to adjust Lacan’s question, betweenAmerica and it Other(s)?What we have here is a fear of the Other stealing one’s jouissance. This, in fact,determines much of today’s encounters or rather missed encounters. There is always a fear of theOther who might intrude in our reality and rob us of our fantasy. The recurrent phrase of GeorgeW. Bush, “you are either with us or against us,” is in fact a call to join our fantasy against theirs.Their jouissance is different from ours and they are not like usthis is what we always hear andwatch when it comes to dealing with the Other. 77 This tension, Žižek purports, is caused byideology and globalization. The investment of the Real in ideology and capitalism, which isbeyond the scope of this dissertation, explains many aspects of the missed encounter. To avoidthe clash between the “I” and the Other, fantasy should, in Lacanian terms, be traversed. For ourpresent purpose, it is enough to mention that what we have is a war of fantasiesa clash of