Juissance (Enjoyment) of a Christian

Desire is studied by psychoanalysis. We think desire mainly from the perspective of satisfaction. In India, Buddhists think that desire is the cause of all sufferings. Ancient Greek philosophy actually thinks desire from the point of its satisfaction of a lack. The lack that characterizes desire is supposed to refer to the original absence of lack. It presupposes an existence of fullness or paradise and purity. But there came a disruptive fall, hence, the fissure of lack. We can see this fall from a paradise clearly in the work of Plato or the fall of Adam and Eve in Christianity.

Philosophy as love of wisdom becomes the pursuit of fulfilment of a lack. The knowledge that we long for is , thus, thought to give us access to the ground of our being. Socrates says Know thyself. One reaches fulfillment in self Knowledge . In India, there is also a fall. We are born in avidya due to the law of Karma. Mokxa which may be attained through jnana ( Knowledge) is thought to be the return to true self. Self-realization through self-knowledge is also Indian path to the true self.

We can see how religious myths along with philosophy seem to be dominating the Western and Indian traditions. Enjoying wisdom seems to be an ontological ( final) fulfilment in both traditions. We can notice St. Augustine saying, ‘ our hearts are restless until they rest in you’. This means desire is unrest. It is never at rest. This is because it is not at where it has to be. It longs to go where it has to be. Christian desire is restless. It not where it has to be. It has to rest in God. It has to be on the side of God.

We can see this restless desire in the work of both Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Lacan teaches that desire cannot be satisfied. It is incurable unrest. It is never satisfied by any object or original fullness. Our life echoes with this unfulfilled and unfulfillable desire. At least on this side of the grave our desire remains a desire. We remain restless in pursuit of our desire.

Desire follows the order of loss/ death and not that of the market/ life. This means desire is linked to death. Its fulfillment may mean death. Juissance comes close to the satisfaction of desire. Juissance does not obey the principle of profit but the one of loss. Enjoying the ultimate object of one’s desire, one does not gain the object but loses it or losses one’s self in the object.

This loss induced by juissance is an imaginary loss. It is not a loss of one’s real being but loss of one’s grip one has over one’s life. It is a loss in which one no longer has the impression of being a subject of it. Think of someone who went in pursuit of academic degree (maybe abroad). The desire took the person and moved him/her to enjoy his/her quest for an academic degree. The moment the degree is achieved, one often does not feel the pulls and stirs of the old desire. One is no longer the subject of that desire. This would result that one will not pursue any more research. One is lost in one’s enjoyment ( juisanance of achievement) and no longer has grip over one’s life ( intellectual life).

Lacan teaches that enjoyment has the structure of la petite mort (little death). It indicates that on satisfaction on one’s enjoyment, one is no longer able to be present with its juissance. This is why may be Lacanian is saying that on satisfaction of juissance of love, (it) does not realize the unity of the lovers. Love’s juisaance is loss. It is loss of the self . It is not loss into one’s beloved . It is loss that even losses love. This is love is dying for the other. true love involves is a sacrifice. One reaches a peak of undying love by dying to oneself. It is lovers juissance to offer oneself as a gift to the beloved. In love one is ready to be everything/give everything to the point of death.

Perhaps, the best model of undying love lived through death is the love of Jesus. It is paradoxical. Christian iconography portrays it clearly . Love of Jesus is displayed by the crucified Jesus on the cross. It is disappearing (dying) as human or hangs dying on the cross. To Lacan the resurrection is the ultimate loss. He says it is veil that hides the realm of juissance. Lacan does not see the fulfillment of desire as a return to the fullness. To him desire remains unfulfilled. It follows the order of loss / death not the order of market. The order of the market is profit.

We can think that of the juissance of Jesus in Lacanian terms. It would mean that the divine in Jesus becomes fully ( radically) human and cosmic to point of being one with his beloved ( humanity) at resurrection as he joins the order where he transcends his presence in a singular way and comes to his presence in plural way to every human, and the created world. Hence, Christian love also dies to itself and rises to the side of the divinity. This going to the side remains beyond the world of words. Our signifiers collapse at this point while Jesus at resurrection returns to the play of signifiers and becomes a point de capiton that continues our access to God, human and world. This access has a subjective dimension. It makes us reach God, human and the cosmos in our own way. Jesus, therefore is truly our way, truth and life. We can dialogue , remember, live and become Christ as St. Paul would tell us with our uniqueness that is on the side of the divine, human and the cosmos.

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GREETINGS

Attention is a generous gift we can give others.

Attention is love.

- Fr Victor Ferrao