Ros McCarthy – We See in Hysteria Something which is a Defence against Dissatisfaction
 
The Letter Issue 66-67 (Autumn 2017/Spring 2018) Pages 11-18
 
Hysterical discourse is an attempt at creating a rapport with the Real of the body. The body’s expression of symptoms comes from the Real, a body disposed to jouissance. For the hysteric, it is a jouissance deprived of the phallic signifier. The pseudo original signifier replacing S is foundational and gives rise to a new moral order. The pseudo signifier and S will organise a gap, which will maintain a dissatisfaction. At the core of the hysteric’s discourse, the subject supports himself only by dissatisfaction as a result of the failure to seize the lost object through the signifier. Objet a as cause of desire is subsumed under an object as lost as if it were another human being. This is defended against through insistent demand. 
 
Keywords: Hysteria; loss; jouissance; signifier; drive; Other