Sick, Dying, Dead, and Buried…Rotten and Forgotten

This paper explores Lacan’s concept of the second death and its significance for an ethics of psychoanalysis. Between reading Lacan’s seminar on ethics, dealing with the threat of the coronavirus and watching some children playing, I was put in mind of a game I used to play with others as a child. We called it ‘sick, dying, dead and buried’. It works on the principle of players in the game trying to avoid being hit by a ball.…