Lacan on Perversion (4): Scopic drive, voyeurism, exhibitionism

Описание: We highlight the difference between obsessional neurosis and perversion (in reference to the notion of the Other), consider a distinction between voyeurism and exhibitionism. We ask: what are the particular types of jouissance that the perverse subject attempts to elicit in the Other (anxiety, shame, shock, etc.)? We consider Freud’s ideas on the scopic drive, alongside Clavreul’s assertion that for the perverse subject, the eye assumes the place that “neurotic subjects…reserve for the phallus and loved object” (p. 226). We cite Stephanie Swales who argues that



the exhibitionist’s interest is centered upon the [other] and…[their] reaction…. He gazes at the expression in…[their] eyes and on…[their] face... The exhibitionist’s aim is to provide the Other with jouissance in the form of a shock or feelings of shame, anxiety… The epiphanic moment of the exhibitionist acts occurs when the gaze appears in the [other]… The …. anxiety-filled reaction of the victim is important… it is the sign that [he or] she is experiencing the gaze in [him or] herself… (Swales, 2012, pp. 133-34).



We also quote Tracy McNulty on the topic of ‘The anxiety at the heart of the perverse experience’):



the lived experience of perversion is often one of acute, even debilitating anxiety, frequently aggravated by serious difficulties…encounter[ed] in…attempts to create and maintain an independent life or find an outlet for their own desires… (Tracy McNulty, 2022, p. 135).



We think about the distinction Jacques-Alain Miller draws between: desire, lack and a question (as indicative of neurosis) and jouissance, inertia and an answer (as indicative of perversions). In closing we briefly note the idea of ‘ordinary perversion’.