The real is not merely the excess that invades or overwhelms us; it is also what is not perceived as not having been sufficiently given and which always eludes us. On the individual and collective scale, it takes the form of economic rationale and unrealistic positivism.
Art, as a falsification of the real, is a useful remedy, or even a rescue, in helping to ward off the prevailing economism that disenchants our reality by enabling a reinvention of oneself and the world. But it veers into absurdity and destructiveness if it does not remain tangential to the external and internal limits of the real. There can be only one indication for psychoanalysis today: disenchantment in the face of the real. It offers an adventure it offers to the subject who wishes to taste the vitality of truth and freedom, to be free to confront pain and surmount it in order not to be “really” afraid.
This article will try to pinpoint the conditions leading to the emergence of Islamic fanaticism in Europe. The fascination Islamism exerts over the Old World here designates both the attraction to jihad and intellectual blindness in the face of the phenomenon. This symptom of contemporary life will be interpreted in light of the effects of “historical truth” caused in the people involved, while the issues this presents for the work of human culture will be explored.
In psychoanalysis, the distinction between truth and knowledge has implications beyond the theoretical sphere. It is also essential in the clinical context. The adolescent crisis, as Lacan following in Freud’s footsteps suggests, involves « questioning truth as though it were knowledge ». This sort of questioning allows a young person at an impasse to use knowledge in order to produce a new formalization.
Adolescence, 2016, 34, 2, 279-287.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7