by Kris Pint | Vol 21 (3/4) 2003
In this article, the reader is introduced to the fascinating fictional universe created by the Dutch writer Gerard Reve. Far from searching for the person behind the work, we examine how Reve creates his personality through his fiction, how he forges a new language for his (homosexual) desire: a mixture of irony and religious piety, of romantic and vulgar idioms, of fairy tales and memories, a language that enables him to cope with his fears and his disturbed relationship with his parents. It is argued, with reference to the theoretical framework of Kristeva, that Reve’s work helps to assure his subjectivity, to protect him from “going mad” as he puts it, but at the same time also provides a place where, via the irony, the metaphors, the style, the humour, via everything that defies the symbolic law, the writer celebrates the jouissance of the Other, in the text.
by Nelle Van Damme | Vol 30 (2) 2012
This article outlines the possibility of a psychoanalytic clinic within a forensic setting. It is difficult to provide treatment within a judicial discourse, which leaves no room for the subject of the patient but only for their status as defined by the law and its enforcement. However, psychoanalysis can still provide an opening for the patient to speak despite this prevailing discourse. The singular position of the analyst will be especially crucial. Firstly, transference as working tool is actively used via a treatment of the Other (l’Autre), to establish changes in the relationship of the patient to the other (l’autre). Secondly, the setting and the specificity of volatile patients within a clinic of the Real with accompanying acts, aggression and crises, require a creative form of intervention. A recognition of the suffering of the patient is thereby necessary. The casuistry throws light on the clinical as well as the forensic aspects of the patient.
by Rose-Marie François | Vol 29 (3/4) 2011
The English poet Sir Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) claimed that something of him was to be found in The Lady of Shalott (first version in 1832, second version in 1842). A close reading of some stanzas shows that several translations miss the key-moment of the poem. If we consider the contemporary painting inspired by the poem and approach the writing of poetry as speech on the edge of the unconscious as explored by psychoanalysis, we can apprehend more clearly the significance of the Lady’s destiny seeing her working at a loom, as a metaphor for the poet’s creative process, himself a “translator” of experiences and sounds which he does not quite understand. The evolution of gender roles in our society, as revealed by some poems, legends or fairy tales, sharpens our perception of the main character.
by Pat Jacops | Vol 23 (3/4) 2005
This article is the result of a collaboration between the author and the Kunstarbeidergezelschap of Ghent on “Maulwerke” by the contemporary composer Dieter Schnebel. It outlines briefly the importance of the figure Dieter Schnebel for contemporary experimental music and the idea behind his “Maulwerke”. The “Maulwerke” (1968-1974), generally considered to be his masterpiece, was written during the period that Schnebel undertook his analysis. Schnebel calls this work the product of his analysis and it is here he introduces his concept of “psychoanalytic music”. The author explores the meaning of “psychoanalytic music” and asks whether the psychoanalytic framework can help us to understand something of the gripping character of this musical work.
by Sarah Willems | Vol 26 (1/2) 2008
In this contribution the work of Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky is analysed from an interdisciplinary perspective. First, within the perspective of art history, the author traces the trajectory of the artist starting from his encounters with the Cobra movement, the Chinese artist Walasse Ting and the Japanese calligraphers, to the use of acrylic during the elaboration of a painted handwriting that characterises his work and that is partially determined by childhood experiences. Then, the author delves deeper into this work by elaborating a psychoanalytic hypothesis. Starting from the insistence of the signifier “graph” in the artistic trajectory and in the discourse of the artist, and using the method proposed by Freud in his essay on Leonardo da Vinci and the paradigm of dream interpretation, the hypothesis is formulated that, during the elaboration process of his own painted handwriting, the artist identifies himself with the desire of his mother, who had a passion for graphology. Moreover, it is argued that the left-handed “written” paintings take root in the unconscious of the left-handed Alechinsky.
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