The Letter, Issue 11, Autumn 1997, Pages 76 - 82
AN EX-EYETY: A LACANIAN SIGNIFIER?*
Josette Zouein
In a virtual dictionary of umheimlich, we read the following:
An exciety: Anxiety between vinegar and acid.
An egg-sighty: See 'Histoire de l'oeil, by Georges Bataille;
Anex-eyety: Clairvoyance; Organs donatini.
An ex-eyety: See 'Sandman'; See 'The Merchant and the Genie'.
An ex-sighty: Oedipus; King Lear; Last session of a Lacanian analysis.
An x eye-eaty: See 'The devouring eye’, by Roger Caillois.
An Xeyety: Because artists in general and painters in particular, make it possible to see what is not to be seen.
Un ex-eyety: The ethics in 'The Merchant and the Genie', in 'The Thousand and One Nights'.
’Selon Lacan, ce n ’est pas I ’homo homini lupus mais lajouissance qui constitute le lien le plus primitif entre le sujet et l'Autre... ’M. Safouan.
’The eye is not satisfied with seeing. Ecclesiastes 1:8.
In his commentary on Freud's umheimlich,[1] Lacan notes the importance given by Freud to the linguistic analysis of the concept 'Uncanny'. This is a fact which, from his point of view, justifies the importance which he conferred on the function of the signifier. Here, Lacan seems to be asking, was Freud a Lacanian, avant la lettre?