ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output The monster within : between the onset and resolu- tion of the oedipal crisis https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40397/ Version: Full Version Citation: Minulescu, Iulia Ruxandra (2019) The monster within : be- tween the onset and resolution of the oedipal crisis. [Thesis] (Unpub- lished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email The monster within: between the onset and resolution of the oedipal crisis Iulia Ruxandra Minulescu PhD Psychosocial Studies Birkbeck, University of London 1 Acknowledgements Doctoral research is often presented as a long, lonely, miserable journey. The fact that, for me, it was an enriching, enjoyable and transformative experience can only be attributed to my supervisors. I am deeply indebted to Amber and Stephen for being unfalteringly supportive and for believing in me and my project even when I had doubts. Their genuine care for students extends beyond what can be expected of a supervisor, and it is difficult to overstate the importance of the safe space they create for students. And, of course, I am grateful to Cris, who has always treated my project as the most important research study undertaken in recorded history. 2 Abstract of thesis This thesis, The monster within: between the onset and resolution of the oedipal crisis, is located at the intersection between psychoanalysis, philosophy and myth, and builds on all three to look at the formation of the psyche. Drawing on Freudian and Lacanian theories, I interrogate the emergence of psychic structures that constitute subjectivity and argue that an un-theorised psychic structure operates at the level of the pre-oedipal and is not assimilated by phallic law. I suggest this element is a fully-formed transcendental ego that is overwritten but not annihilated in the oedipal phase, and continues to exist beneath the constituted ego. I term this a non-Symbolic subject, to show it possesses a transcendental ego and is a subject, but it has not been habituated into phallic norms. I argue the existence of the non- Symbolic subject stems from the primacy given to the father as possessor of the phallus, and the secondary function the mother occupies in psychic development. To support my argument, I use an ancient Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, due to its compartmentalisation of sexual difference and almost dogmatically defined gender roles. Following Irigaray, I return to Greek tragedy to interrogate the male imaginary and identify the elements that structure the psyche. My aim is to argue that the conceptualisation of the subject with which Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis operates is historical, not universal; by positing a pre-phallic subjectivity, I seek to show that subjectivity need not be restricted to the replication of the image of the Father. Using the non-Symbolic subject as a critical tool, I attempt to expand the psychoanalytical theoretical language and help theory move beyond the oedipal, towards a space where subjectification around the Father becomes a historical occurrence, not a condition for existence as a subject to be possible. 3 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................... 6 Overarching aims ...................................................................................................... 6 Main theorists .......................................................................................................... 11 The gap in psychoanalytic theory ............................................................................ 12 The main claim of this thesis ................................................................................... 15 The new theoretical model: non-oedipal subjectivity and the divine feminine .......... 20 Chapter structure .................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 1 - Methodological considerations: psychoanalysis, philosophy and myth ..... 28 Psychoanalysis ....................................................................................................... 28 Philosophy .............................................................................................................. 29 Myth ........................................................................................................................ 29 Allowing the psyche to speak—Freud, Lacan and the unconscious ......................... 30 The problem with mind dualism ........................................................................... 30 Moving on to understanding psychoanalysis as a language ................................. 32 From field of study to discourse of the self: the hold of Lacanian psychoanalysis 35 The birth of the subject—Kant, Foucault, Freud and Lacan on subjectification ........ 39 Using discourse to become a subject: man’s claim to knowledge ........................ 40 Both subject and object: the difficulty with (self)representation ............................ 43 To love and be loved by oneself: modern subjects as products of narcissism ...... 49 Summary of Chapter 1 ............................................................................................ 59 Chapter 2 - Violence shall set you free: Eleutherios as the non-Symbolic subject ....... 60 Why posit the existence of such a subject? ............................................................. 64 The problem of violence and its links to sacrifice ..................................................... 65 Nietzsche and the aesthetics of the Dionysiac ........................................................ 78 Summary of Chapter 2 ............................................................................................ 82 Chapter 3 - God, man and country: limits of feminine agency in the male imaginary ... 83 The psyche and structure: against monadic (mis)representation ............................. 83 The monstrous mother: Dionysus and Agave .......................................................... 90 Klein’s theory of subjectification .............................................................................. 92 Accounts of subjectification: Klein and Lacan .......................................................... 96 The mother and the non-Symbolic subject ............................................................ 102 The mother and the Symbolised subject................................................................ 107 Kinship and tragedy .............................................................................................. 112 Summary of Chapter 3 .......................................................................................... 118 4 Chapter 4 - Little women: femininity in The Bacchae ................................................ 119 The mother-child dyad: Agave and Pentheus ........................................................ 119 Objectification: the Theban women as the structural base of patriarchy ................ 124 The female chorus: the negotiation between the feminine and the masculine ....... 129 The absent mother ................................................................................................ 136 Kinship ties and their opacity in The Bacchae ....................................................... 142 Summary of Chapter 4 .......................................................................................... 147 Chapter 5 - Death, violence and self-harm: the place of the mother .......................... 148 Dionysus as symptom ........................................................................................... 150 The generative mother .......................................................................................... 152 The repression of the mother ................................................................................ 163 Repression and the death drive ............................................................................. 167 Summary of Chapter 5 .......................................................................................... 172 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 174 Summary of the argument ..................................................................................... 174 The drivers of the argument .................................................................................. 176 The achievements of this thesis ............................................................................ 180 The limitations of this thesis .................................................................................. 183 Future steps .......................................................................................................... 186 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 190 5 Introduction The quest to uncover subjectivity, what it is that makes one a subject, has troubled thinkers throughout history, from ancient to modern times. If science has helped us come closer to understanding what the subject is, we are still to elucidate who, how, or, indeed, why he is. I do not claim to be able to answer any of these