Conclusion
Schaulust, Sigmund Freud’s term, should replace Scopophilia and Voyeurism which are James Strachey’s translations. Jacques Lacan encourages this on 13th May 1964.
***
Index
Jacques Lacan statement on Schaulust, 13th May 1964
Some German-English translations
Sigmund Freud’s use of Schaulust in Three Essays on Sexuality, 1905
Jacques Lacan’s earlier comments on Schaulust, scopophilia, voyeurism
Jacques Lacan’s clinical example, Little Hans, with introduction by Jean Clavreuil
***
Jacques Lacan’s statement on Schaulust, 13th May 1964
Session of Seminar XI The partial drive & its circuit : 13th May 1964 : Jacques Lacan, see this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19640513)
P178 of Alan Sheridan’s translation,
It is remarkable that Freud can designate these two poles simply by using something that is the verb. Beschauen und beschaut werden, to see and to be seen, quälen and gequält werden, to torment and to be tormented. This is because, from the outset, Freud takes it as understood that no part of this distance covered can be separated from its outwards-and-back movement, from its fundamental reversion, from the circular character of the path of the drive.
Similarly, it is remarkable that, in order to illustrate the
DIAGRAM MISSING
dimension of this Verkehrung, he should choose Schaulust, the lust pleasure of seeing, and what he cannot designate other than by the combination of two terms in sado-masochism.
English translations of the German
Beschauen und beschaut werden, to see and to be seen,
quälen and gequält werden, to torment and to be tormented
Verkehrung, reversion or inversion – internet translation
Schaulust, the lust of seeing,
Three examples of Sigmund Freud using Schaulust
From Essay I The Sexual Aberration : 1905 : Sigmund Freud, see this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19050101 A)
Essay I The Sexual Aberrations, SE VII p156
James Strachey’s translation, The progressive concealment of the body which goes along with civilization keeps sexual curiosity awake. This curiosity seeks to complete the sexual object by revealing its hidden parts. It can, however, be diverted (‘sublimated’) in the direction of art, if its interest can be shifted away from the genitals on to the shape of the body as a whole.’ It is usual for most normal people to linger to some extent over the intermediate sexual aim of a looking that has a sexual tinge to it; indeed, this offers them a possibility of directing some proportion of their libido on to higher artistic aims. On the other hand, this pleasure in Schulust scopophilia becomes a perversion …
Freud, Die mit der Kultur fortschreitende Verhüllung des Körpérs hält die sexuelle Neugierde wach, welche danach strebt, sich das Sexualobjekt durch Enthüllung der verborgenen Teile zu ergänzen, die aber ins Künstlerische abgelenkt (»sublimiert«) werden kann, wenn man ihr Interesse von den Genitalien weg auf die Körperbildung im ganzen zu lenken vermag?. Ein Verweilen bei diesem intermediären Sexualziel des sexuell betonten Schauens kommt in gewissem Grade den meisten Normalen zu, ja es gibt ihnen die Möglichkeit, einen gewissen Betrag ihrer Libido auf höhere künstlerische Ziele zu richten. Zur Perversion wird die Schaulust im Gegenteil, …
Internet translation, The progressive concealment of the body, which is part of culture, keeps sexual curiosity alive, which strives to complement the sexual object by revealing its hidden parts, but which can be diverted (“sublimated”) into the artistic if one can direct its interest away from the genitals and toward the body as a whole. To a certain extent, most normal people are able to dwell on this intermediate sexual goal of sexually emphasized viewing; indeed, it gives them the opportunity to direct a certain amount of their libido toward higher artistic goals. On the contrary, schaulust voyeurism becomes a perversion…
…
Essay I The Sexual Aberrations, SE VII P157
James Strachey’s translation, Continued from above quote, James Strachey’s translation, In the perversions which are directed towards looking and being looked at, we come across a very remarkable characteristic with which we shall be still more intensely concerned in the aberration that we shall consider next: in these perversions the sexual aim occurs in two forms, an active and a passive one.
The force which opposes Schaulust scopophilia, but which may be overridden by it (in a manner parallel to what we have previously seen in the case of disgust), is shame.
Freud, Bei der Perversion, deren Streben das Schauen und Beschautwerden ist, tritt ein sehr merkwürdiger Charakter hervor, der uns bei der nächst-folgenden Abirrung noch intensiver beschäftigen wird. Das Sexualziel ist hiebei nämlich in zweifacher Ausbildung vorhanden, in aktiver und in passiver Form.
Die Macht, welche der Schaulust: entgegensteht und eventuell durch sie aufgehoben wird, ist die Scham (wie vorhin der Ekel).
Internet translation, In the perversion whose aim is to look and be looked at, a very strange characteristic emerges, which will concern us even more intensively in the next deviation. The sexual goal is present in two forms: active and passive.
The power that opposes Schaulust the desire to look and is eventually counteracted by it is shame (like disgust before).
…
Essay I The Sexual Aberrations, SE VII p166
James Strachey’s translation, (c) An especially prominent part is played as factors in the formation of symptoms in psychoneuroses by the partial drives component instincts,’ which emerge for the most part as pairs of opposites and which we have met with as introducing new sexual aims—the Schaulust scopophilic drive instinct and exhibitionism and the active and passive forms of the drive instinct for cruelty. The contribution made by the last of these is essential to the understanding of the fact that symptoms involve suffering, and it almost invariably dominates a part of the patient’s social behaviour.
Freud, (c) Eine ganz hervorragende Rolle unter den Symptombildnern der Psychoneurosen spielen die zumeist in Gegensatzpaaren auftretenden Partialtriebe?, die wir als Bringer neuer Sexualziele kennengèlernt haben, der Trieb der Schaulust und der Exhibition und der aktiv und passiv ausgebildete Trieb zur Grausamkeit. Der Beitrag des letzteren ist zum Verständnis der Leidensnatur der: Symptome unentbehrlich und beherrscht fast regelmäßig ein Stück des sozialen Verhaltens der Kranken
Internet translation, (c) A most prominent role among the symptom-formers of psychoneuroses is played by the partial drives, which mostly appear in pairs of opposites and which we have come to know as the bringers of new sexual aims: the drive of Schualust voyeurism and exhibitionism, and the actively and passively developed instinct of cruelty. The contribution of the latter is indispensable to understanding the nature of the symptoms and almost always dominates a part of the social behaviour of the patient.
Jacques Lacan’s earlier comment on Schaulust, scopophilia, voyeurism
6th February 1957 p2 of EC Collective’s translation,
see Session of Seminar IV Identification with the Phallus : 6th February 1957 : Jacques Lacan at this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19570206 or 19561121)
Conversely, what is always understood as self-explanatory in a kind of rough usage of ‘the Schaulust scopophilic relation’[2], [3] – that showing oneself is correlative to the activity of ‘seeing’, Schaulust voyeurism – is also a dimension that is readily forgotten[4]. It allows us to say that the subject does not always simply let himself be ‘seen’ insofar as what is at stake here is the correlative, corresponding relation to this activity of ‘seeing’, the implication of the subject in the ebb and flow of visual captivation. In Schaulust scopophilia, there is also this supplementary dimension of the implication [of the subject] that is expressed in the use of language by the presence of the reflexive form, the same as the one used in other forms of the verb, and other languages which have it, that is, ‘giving oneself to be seen’ [se donner à voir][5]. And if you combine these two dimensions, what the subject gives to be seen – in a type of activity which is here[6] confused with the relation of voyeurism Schaulust-exhibitionism[7] – what the subject [l’autre] is giving to be seen when he shows himself is something other than what he is showing, which gets buried in the rough usage of ‘Schaulust scopophilic relation’. The authors* who are, despite their apparent clarity, very bad theorists, such as Fenichel, but who nonetheless have analytic experience, have indeed noticed this. If you read articles in which the theoretical effort ends in desperate failure, like some of Fenichel’s articles[8], you will sometimes find clinical gems, and even a feeling or an intuition that a whole series of facts must be grouped together. They are grouped together with a sort of flair which the analyst fortunately gets from his experience, around a selected theme or branch of the analytic articulation of the fundamental imaginary relation.
Footnotes
2 Probably a reference to Freud S. 1905(d), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, SE VII pp. 123-245. See quotation above from Essay I The Sexual Aberrations, SE VII p166. Also Essay I The Sexual Aberration : 1905 : Sigmund Freud, at this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19050101)
3 Jacques Lacan seems to be using ‘relation’ in the mathematical sense, thus it is translated as ‘relation’
4 Fenichel (1930) p. 226. Otto Fenichel : The Psychology of Transvestism : 31st July 1929 (Oxford). See this site /5 Authors A-Z (Fenichel or Index of Authors’ texts)
5 Ibid p. 225.
6 Ibid p. 226.
7 Ibid p. 226.
* The ‘Authors’ refer to Sacha Nacht who edited the ‘collection’ –
La psychanalyse d’aujourd’hui: P.U.F ; 1956,
A collection published under Sacha Nacht’s direction, with M. Bouvet, R. Diatkine, A. Doumic, J. Favreau, M. Held, S. Lebovici, P. Luquet, P. Luquet-Parat, P. Male, J. Mallet, F. Pasche, M. Renaud, Preface by Ernest Jones
Mostly, this is not translated into English. However, some texts may be found at this site /5 Authors A-Z (Nacht, Bouvet, etc or in Index of Authors’ texts)
8 Fenichel, O. (1949) The Symbolic Equation – Girl = Phallus. See Otto Fenichel : The Symbolic Equation – Girl = Phallus : 1936. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Fenichel or Index of Authors’ texts)
(cont.) On the topic of Schaulust scopophilic transvestism, where the author senses – in a more or less obscure way – a kinship, a common bunch of stems[9] [tiges groupées], you can see, in fact, events which are extremely well distinguished from one another. And in particular this is how, in the process of learning about this vast and insipid literature – which allowed me to realise to what extent analysts have attained a true articulation of these facts – I recently became interested in one of Fenichel’s articles which appeared in Psychoanalytical Journal, about what he calls the ‘girl = phallus’ equivalence. He himself authorised us to make these kinds of equivalences in the well known series of equations, ‘faeces = child = penis’. This is, in fact, an interesting equation that does have some bearing on the equation that Fenichel is trying to offer us, the ‘girl = phallus’[10].
[9] Apparently ’tiges groupées’ can be bought from flower shops – like a bunch of roses.
[10] Fenichel, O. (1949) Op. Cit. See Otto Fenichel : The Symbolic Equation – Girl = Phallus : 1936. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Fenichel or Index of Authors’ texts)
Jacques Lacan’s clinical example, Little Hans with Jean Clavreuil’s introduction
The Perverse Couple : 1967 : Jean Clavreuil, see this site /5 Authors A-Z (Claveul),
P226 of Jean Claveuil, translated by Stuart Schneiderman,
We return to the interpretation of the scene where the young child discovers the absence of the penis in his mother, since we must elucidate the very important question that P. Aulagnier has rightly posed: with what eye does the mother see her child, who looks at her? It is here that we find the question, left to the side for a moment, of the Schaulust scopophilic drive, of the look.
-An example of this, and there may be others…, is in Seminar IV & Jacques Lacan’s analysis of Little Hans, See Seminar IV The Relation from Object (La relation d’objet) & Freudian Structures (1956-1957) : from 21st November 1956 : Jacques Lacan at this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19570313 or 19561121)
13th March 1957 : Jacques Lacan, p6-7 of EC Collectives’ translation,
You have seen the pertinent remarks concerning the order of the child, but within the order, it is to his mother, first of all, that he asks the question: “Do you also have a “fait-pipi [wee-wee maker]”?
What his mother says to him we’ll talk about later, and Hans blurts out at this point: “Yes, I had only thought…”[11], that is to say that, not bad at all, he is actually in the process of simmering some stuff.
He then re-asks his father the question[12], he revels [se rejouit] after having viewed the lion’s wee-wee maker [13] which is not entirely through chance, and from that moment on, that is to say before the onset of the phobia, he clearly indicates that if his mother must have this wee-wee-maker as she asserts this to him – not in my opinion without some impudence – it should show itself.
For one evening, which is not very far from the time of this questioning, he literally stalks her in the process of undressing, pointing out that if she had one, it should be as big as the one of a horse[14].
Footnotes
[11] SE X p7 Hans: ‘I was only just thinking.’ (James Strachey’s translation) See Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy – ‘Little Hans’: 1909 : Sigmund Freud on this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19090101 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts)
[12] SE X p9 Hans (aged three and three-quarters): ‘Daddy, have you got a widdler too?’
[13] SE X p9 At about the same age (three and a half), standing in front of the lions’ cage, at Schönbrunn, little Hans called out in a joyful and excited voice: ‘I saw the lion’s widdler.’
[14] SE X p9-10 Another time he was looking on intently while his mother undressed before going to bed. ‘What are you staring like that for?’ she asked.
Hans: ‘I was only looking to see if you’d got a widdler too.’
Mother: “Of course. Didn’t you know that?’
Hans: ‘No. I thought you were so big you’d have a widdler like a horse.’
This expectation of little Hans’s deserves to be borne in mind; it will become important later on.