Title: On Psychoanalytic Discourse
Given by Jacques Lacan at the University of Milan on 12th May 1972
Translated by Jack W. Stone.
Published by the University of Missouri, http://web.missouri.edu/~stonej/t67894312xxxv.html as Lacan’s “On Psychoanalytic Discourse,” Milan, May 12, 1972.
Or at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /Lacan
– now available bilingual, translated by Jack W. Stone, www.Freud2Lacan.com /Lacan (198. Discours de Jacques Lacan à l’Université de Milan (The Capitalist Discourse), 1972, May 12)
In Italian:
Published in the bilingual work: Lacan in Italia, 1953-1978: En Italie Lacan, Milan: Publisher, La Salmandra: 1978 pp. 32-55.
In French
Published at www.ecole-lacanienne.net, at Pas-tout Lacan https://ecole-lacanienne.net/bibliolacan/pas-tout-lacan/ : as 1972-05-12 : Du discours psychanalytique. Conférence à Milan (18 p.) at https://ecole-lacanienne.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/1972-05-12-Du-discours-psychanalytique-Conference-a-Milan.pdf
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Citation
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General citation
Theo Reeves-Evison : After Transgression: Ethics Under a Different Master : 1st June 2013,
From within a Seminar VII Reading Group, see this site /Authors A-Z (Reeves-Evison or Index of Authors’ texts)
Reeves-Evison, In Seminar XVII he identifies four types of social link – the discourse of the university, the hysteric, the analyst and the master – and two years later in a paper delivered in Milan he identifies a fifth: the discourse of Capitalism.
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P20 of www.Freud2Lacan.org
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– Fascism, a new perfume by Claudia Iddan, 3rd April 2019 :
See https://www.amp-nls.org/lro/fascism-a-new-perfume/
Circulated on NLS-Messager, (New Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis)
see http://www.amp-nls.org/page/gb/49/nls-messager,
Subject: [nls-messager] 3065.en/ Lacanian Review Online: Smells like Segregation, Date : 3 April 2019
Quote Iddan, At a conference in Milan in 1972,Lacan spoked about a “fifth discourse” based on that of the master, in fact substituting for the master discourse. This change is produced by a small inversion between the element situated in the master discourse in the position of agent and the other element situated at the place of the truth. In other words, an inversion between the master signifier and the divided subject.
Lacan said about this discourse that it is “follement astucieux” [‘madly’ or ‘devilishly’ astute]. He says : « Ça marche comme sur des roulettes, ça ne peut pas marcher mieux, mais justement ça marche trop vite, ça se consomme, ça se consomme si bien que ça se consume. » [“It runs like clockwork, it couldn’t go better, but it just goes too fast, it is consumed, it is consumed so well that it consumes itself”].
Quote : Iddan’s conclusion, Politics here uses ideas from capitalistic discourse, especially in order to encourage consumption, thereby reinforcing the addictive power at the place of a symbolic identification with an Ideal. Lacan teaches us about the ascension of the little object a to the social zenith. Indeed, it is the object which determines the subject and his will: the magnificent perfume “Fascism” as the supreme social value.
This clip introduces a powerful way of resisting the other, creating a new product in the market of ideas, a fragrance, smelling only of segregation. It is a condensate of explosive Hate, which can lead to the worst.
Quote from p10-11 of Jack W. Stone’s translation, p20 www.Freud2Lacan.com /Lacan :
. . . the crisis, not of the master discourse, but of capitalist discourse, which is its substitute, is overt (ouverte).
I am not at all saying to you that capitalist discourse is rotten, on the contrary, it is something wildly clever, eh?
Wildly clever, but headed for a blowout.
After all, it is the cleverest discourse that we have made. It is no less headed for a blowout. This is because it is untenable. It is untenable . . . in a thing that I could explain to you . . . because capitalist discourse is here, you see . . . [indicates the formula on the board] . . . a little inversion simply between the S1 and the S . . . which is the subject . . . it suffices so that that goes on casters (ça marche comme sur des roulettes), indeed that cannot go better, but that goes too fast, that consumes itself, that consumes itself so that is consumed (ça se consomme, ça se consomme si bien que ça se consume)
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– The Empty Subject: Un-Triggered Psychoses in the New Forms of the Symptom : 1998-1999 : Massimo Recalcati, see this site /5 Authors A-Z (Recalcati or Index of Authors’ texts)
Recalcati, p11-12, In Lacanian terms, we could argue that this “other nothingness” is not related to the Other—as in the classical doctrine—but to the Thing.
This new classification of nothingness also constitutes the logical principle of the capitalist discourse articulated by Lacan in 1972. [23] In this discourse “everything is
consumed,” on one hand the lack of the subject is constantly recycled and covered by the consumption of the object, and on the other hand the lack of the subject is endlessly kept alive by way of the continuous offering of new objects of consumption. So that the recycling of the lost object leads to a progressive absorption of the lack in the demand. The age of the capitalist discourse is our age, working as background and determining the apparition of new forms of the symptom that manifest the pathological drift of the accentuation of the convulsive and infinite character of the demand.
[23]Lacan, J., “Del discorso psicoanalitico,” Milano, 05/12/1972, in Lacan in Italia, Milano: La Salamandra, 1978.
P20 of www.Freud2Lacan.com, translated by J. Stone, because capitalist discourse is here, you see . . . [indicates the formula on the board] . . . a little inversion simply between the S1 and the S . . . which is the subject . . . it suffices so that that goes on casters (ça marche comme sur des roulettes), indeed that cannot go better, but that goes too fast, that consumes itself, that consumes itself so that is consumed (ça se consomme, ça se consomme si bien que ça se consume)
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