Josette Zouein – An Ex-Eyety – A Lacanian Signifier
 
THE LETTER 11 (Autumn 1997) pages 76-82
 
In a virtual dictionary of umheimlich, we read the following:
 
An exciety:                       Anxiety between vinegar and acid.
 
An egg-sighty:                  See ‘Histoire de VoeiV, 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 la jouissance 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, 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? …