The Letter, Issue 1, Summer 1994, Pages 111 - 114
THE JOUISSANCE OF THE MYSTIC
Helen Sheehan
If, as Lacan says in his Seminar of 1972, Encore, to understand any discourse whatsoever we have to begin with the enunciation that there is no sexual rapport and that from this all other discourses will follow, then this enunciation has profound implications for the jouissance of the mystic. In fact the mystic completely subverts the notion of a discourse because the mystic introduces us into a new kind of knowledge of the Truth about the Reality of Being and so, in a certain way there is no more to be said - but me - myself - not being a mystic I will continue to speak!
The mystic is on the side of Being - and he knows that where there is Being there is a desire for Infinity. The mystic knows that in Truth there is a price to be paid for Being. St. Teresa of Avila knew this. She knew that she had to be saved and that it was only God who could do this "I do not think that you left anything undone to make me Yours, entirely even from my youth"[1].