Summary Dominique Pagani takes above all one formula from Lacan, which he quotes year after year: "before signifying something, all speech signifies for someone." He sees in it the priority of the relation to the other and stresses the word "before"1 . He applies it to Racine, where the addressee becomes co-author, and later to Kant. In the Écrits he reads closely the Rome discourse, "The Function and Field of Speech and Language," a "masterpiece" written in the style of a "sub-Mallarmé"2 . He also comments on the seminar on "The Purloined Letter," its triangle and the dream of seeing without being seen. He links Lacan to Hegel for the specular relation to the other and for the mirror stage3 . At the same time he places him among the structuralists, who give primacy to the signifier and evacuate the subject4 . He includes the individual unconscious within the historico-social unconscious, which class struggle precedes5 . Finally, he mentions Clouscard's hostility to "Lacanitude" and the Lacan who treated Althusser in the Luberon.
1 From Copernicus to Lenin: revolution! 28 Aug 2026 · 7:46 2 #6.1 Prelude: Lacan, “Function and field of speech and language” 10 Nov 2019 · 16:03 3 Hegel on the Beach 4/5 2 Feb 2016 · 53:32 4 The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society 9 Aug 2025 · 56:26 5 Wagner and his interpreters, approaching Clouscard, Marx = Theseus? 31 Mar 2021 · 1:14:15 Summary produced automatically from 98 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Who is this? Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (UK:, US: lə-KAHN; French:; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave annual seminars in Paris from 1952 to 1980 and published papers that were later collected in the book Écrits. Transcriptions of the seminars 1953–1980 were published. His work made a significant impact on continental philosophy and cultural theory in areas such as post-structuralism, critical theory, feminist theory and film theory, as well as on the practice of psychoanalysis itself. […]
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Cycle 6 · 10 Nov 2019 #6.1 Prelude: Lacan, “Function and field of speech and language”3:02 The Function and Field of Speech and Language Reaffirms the importance of the symbolic function in Freud's message.16:03 The Function and Field of Speech and Language In the Rome discourse, he settles his scores with institutionalized psychoanalysis, which has drifted away from language; a "sub-Mallarmé" style but a masterpiece.24:22 The Function and Field of Speech and Language Commentary on the formula: before signifying something, all speech signifies for someone.28:07 The Function and Field of Speech and Language Reading: the patient's speech is the sole medium of analysis, and all speech calls for a response, even silence.38:10 Passage listed. Cycle 6 · 23 Oct 2019 #6.1 The logic of the subject37:33 Writings "The subject finally in question" and the Rome discourse, "The Function and Field of Speech and Language," to be read for the seminar.42:57 Before signifying something, all speech signifies for someone. Cycle 15 · 28 Aug 2026 From Copernicus to Lenin: revolution!7:46 His sentence "before signifying something, every word signifies for someone" is for him one of the most fundamental; the key word is "before." 21:08 The sentence applies to Kant, who addresses the educated public of the Enlightenment. Series · 6 Jul 2026 From Plato to Proust23:52 "There is no sexual relation" in the sense of a relation between genital organs: the relation aims at souls. Cycle 11 · 18 Mar 2023 A springtime of the peoples?1:16:24 The unity of the body overcomes the dread of fragmentation through the relation to the other: the mirror stage. Cycle 11 · 28 Sept 2022 And what about the subject in all this? Hölderlin, Mallarmé and Baudelaire1:27:44 Before signifying something, every word signifies for someone; the example of the soldier on the train. Series · 20 Jul 2022 Wagner: the truth of pure music7:29 A great Freudian for whom, before signifying something, all speech signifies for someone. Series · 6 Jun 2021 #3 Nomad or sedentary? The case of Nerval1:22:49 In his commentary on The Purloined Letter, the minister, as soon as he possesses the letter, becomes prey to the signifier and feminizes himself. Series · 25 Mar 2021 #17 Interpretation1:21:49 For him, identification with the other's thought remains imaginary; the example of Richter nonetheless shows a universal. Cycle 6 · 29 Mar 2020 #6.6 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism1:26:43 Develops the imaginary model of the self. 1:31:47 Seminar on "The Purloined Letter" Imaginary identification: personality is made by another and for another, alienated from the start.Cycle 6 · 19 Feb 2020 #6.5 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism33:40 Passage listed. 36:55 His operative concept of the chain of the signifier: to move from one signifier to another, deferring the signified to later. Cycle 6 · 3 Dec 2019 #6.2 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism24:50 Reference for the symbolic order. 37:38 Prince of intellectual Paris, an avowed conservative; he justifies the time devoted to Lacan despite Clouscard's hostility to lacanitude. Cycle 5.2 · 29 Jul 2019 #5.9 Kafka, “An Imperial Message”10:18 Showed the stakes of "The Purloined Letter." 29:58 Hero of structuralism in spite of himself: before signifying something, every word signifies for someone. Cycle 5.2 · 4 Feb 2019 #5.4 Nature or landscape?22:21 Speech signifies for someone; so does decor. 42:42 Before signifying something, every utterance signifies for someone; the addressee is co-author. Cycle 5.1 · 31 Dec 2018 #5.3 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought1:31:15 "The non-duped err." 1:39:14 Access to the symbolic order. 1:49:46 Before signifying something, all speech signifies for someone. Talks · 2 Jul 2018 The Phenomenology of Spirit1:43:40 A fervent Hegelian, he traced the neurosis of the petty bourgeoisie to the confusion of the imaginary and the symbolic. Cycle 2 · 15 Feb 2016 #2.1 Between crisis and war: philosophising?29:32 Pun on "ostrich policy": denial, relation to the other, Freud's Austria. 1:20:53 The real, the imaginary and the symbolic that structures them. Series · 2 Feb 2016 Hegel on the Beach 5/558:52 Before signifying something, all speech signifies for someone. 1:02:07 The binary relation is specular. Series · 2 Feb 2016 Hegel on the Beach 4/553:32 Fascinated by these pages of Hegel: the imaginary relation to the little other, a mirror relation. 57:37 His analysis of the odd-or-even game based on 'The Purloined Letter.' Cycle 1 · 10 Dec 2015 #1.4 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1:31:32 "Before signifying something, every word signifies for someone": priority of the relation to the other. Cycle 1 · 14 Sept 2015 #1.2 Between crisis and war: philosophising?43:09 "Before signifying something, every speech signifies for someone": speech establishes a relation. Talks · 23 May 2026 Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: is Michel Clouscard still relevant?19:55 The Maoist slogan "we are not castrated" came out of his seminar. Cycle 14 · 21 Oct 2025 The silences of the media uproar: the Atlanticist re-Nazification29:01 A true philosopher of structuralism in the analytic field. Cycle 14 · 9 Aug 2025 The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society56:26 Writings His chapter "Subversion of the Subject and Dialectic of Desire" partakes of the evacuation of the subject.Talks · 7 Feb 2025 Michel Clouscard and the betrayal of May 6814:52 The Lacanian unconscious, which class struggle precedes. Cycle 13 · 17 Dec 2024 The essence of evil: innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!53:57 "There is no sexual relation": the true relation is between souls. Cycle 12 · 22 Dec 2023 Birth and carnage: the Massacre of the Innocents1:39:26 His pun on the "stern father." Cycle 11 · 3 Sept 2023 Worldliness in Clouscard: desiring what? Through whom?2:11:17 Cited by Althusser in Reading Capital. Cycle 11 · 12 Dec 2022 Hesitation fascinated by hearing and by sight: Siegfried and Perceval54:25 His pun on the name of the father and the non-dupes who err. Cycle 11 · 13 Nov 2022 Dialectics of hesitation and decision7:37 Cited among those some take as an absolute reference. Cycle 10 · 10 Jun 2022 #14 Caves of yesterday and today: from Plato to modernity1:44:01 Favorite formula: before signifying something, every word of speech signifies for someone. Cycle 10 · 7 Apr 2022 #12 From Kafka to Proust, the dialectical passage from the intermezzo to the perpetuated edge2:01:39 Real, imaginary, symbolic: one need not be a Lacanian to distinguish these orders. Cycle 10 · 24 Mar 2022 #11 Ukraine: mathematics unites men, politics divides them (Aristotle)25:54 Cites the Jewish story of the traveler between Warsaw and Lemberg, an example of Central European humor. Series · 14 Jul 2021 Everything is allowed, nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68 and the capitalism of seduction29:49 He treats Althusser in the Luberon. Series · 14 Jul 2021 Everything's allowed, but nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68, French theory and capitalism29:49 He treats Althusser's depression in the Luberon. Cycle 9.2 · 3 Apr 2021 #9.18 Twilight of the Gods, or from repetition to liberation24:09 Author of the famous commentary on The Purloined Letter. Series · 31 Mar 2021 Wagner and his interpreters, approaching Clouscard, Marx = Theseus?1:06:35 The importance of language in desire. 1:14:15 The individual unconscious he addresses is included within the historico-social unconscious. Series · 10 Mar 2021 #16 Programme music, pure music42:57 Invoked for attention to the detail of the signifier. Cycle 9.2 · 18 Feb 2021 #9.15 How can sciences of history be real?57:07 The Function and Field of Speech and Language Reference to an earlier video devoted to this chapter of the Écrits, in which Brünnhilde's punishment had been discussed.Series · 24 Jan 2021 #11 Modal and tonal music1:04 Distinction between enunciation and statement. Series · 11 Jan 2021 #8 Happiness and unhappiness in music1:13:32 Associated with the Luberon, along with Althusser, pope of intellectual Parisianism. Series · 17 Dec 2020 #7 The Greeks, myth and music37:22 Distinguishes the statement, on the written side, from the utterance, on the speech side. Cycle 9.1 · 17 Dec 2020 #9 Benefits and harms of amnesia…1:43:49 A listener in Singapore knows his work well. Series · 15 Dec 2020 #6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven1:00:33 Would say that an involuntary slip is intentional. Talks · 5 Oct 2020 Calves and Things (2): ecologism, the highest stage of capitalism?24:06 The Lacanian period, shorter, after the Sartrean period. Talks · 4 Oct 2020 Calves and Things: the preface9:19 The symbolic order: speaking "on Lacan's side of things." Cycle 8 · 11 Jun 2020 #10 Return to the logics of the subject15:22 Writings His seminar on "The Purloined Letter" opens his Écrits.Cycle 7 · 17 May 2020 #8 Harnessed to confinitude1:44:45 Every word, before signifying something, signifies for someone. Cycle 7 · 26 Apr 2020 #6 Harnessed to confinitude55:50 Often cites Bosch. 1:04:27 Speaks of the fantasy of the dismembered body. Cycle 6 · 30 Jan 2020 #6.4 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism33:58 Writings Recommended for "The Function and Field of Speech and Language," a difficult text on the subject.Cycle 6 · 8 Jan 2020 #6.3 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism19:24 Another "god of Paris" after Sartre. Series · 10 Sept 2019 M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)40:46 The word "signifier" is Clouscard's own, not a Lacanian annexation. Series · 23 Aug 2019 M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (1987)17:50 Proto-Mallarméan stylist. 1:06:31 Cited among the structuralists. Series · 2 May 2019 Michel Foucault9:49 Invoked for the primacy of the signifier in structuralism. Cycle 5.2 · 25 Jan 2019 #5.4 Introduction: nature or landscape?31:59 Anecdote about Gordes, where Lacan reportedly treated Althusser. Cycle 5.1 · 21 Nov 2018 #5.2 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought1:32:16 Attached great importance to Hegel. Cycle 5.1 · 24 Oct 2018 #5.1 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought17:45 The Purloined Letter: the king who sees nothing, the position of the pervert. Series · 5 Jul 2018 Being and Code15:32 With him one loses the referent; the real is defined negatively. 31:40 He treated Althusser. Talks · 2 Jul 2018 Tribute to Domenico Losurdo11:52 Althusser sometimes links Marx to Lacan. Cycle 4 · 15 Mar 2018 #4.6 Angélique (by Nerval)1:10:39 The triangle of The Purloined Letter. Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017 #3.4 From Ulysses to Daedalus32:49 Refers Freud's discoveries back to linguistics and figures of speech. Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017 #3.6 From Ulysses to Daedalus1:19:54 Evoked in the anecdote about Clouscard. Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017 #3.1 From Ulysses to Daedalus1:04:56 Writings "The instance of the letter in the unconscious": of the letter, not of the word.Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017 #2.6 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1:29:21 Associated with structuralist formalism. Talks · 17 Jun 2017 Adotevi: Negritude and negrologists (1)1:05:31 Evoked with regard to Althusser's illness. Talks · 9 Mar 2017 Is history a subject?33:00 Every word signifies for someone before it signifies something. Talks · 19 Jun 2016 At the bistro (part 2)8:33 Lacanian triangle between Henri IV, Gabrielle and Rousseau. Series · 2 Feb 2016 Hegel on the Beach 3/558:35 Hegel foreshadows the most contemporary psychoanalysis. 2:25:47 Psychoanalysis subverts the notion of the subject. Series · 1 Feb 2016 Hegel on the Beach 2/51:58:17 Before signifying something, all speech signifies for someone. Series · 1 Feb 2016 Marx on the Beach 1/234:58 The names of the Father. 40:38 Developed in "The Purloined Letter" the dream of seeing without being seen. 1:06:00 Showed in part the distress into which man is born. Series · 29 Jan 2016 What is to be done? 1/313:37 The triangle of the king, the queen and a third person in the purloined letter. Series · 29 Jan 2016 What is to be done? 3/336:29 Rousseau's text goes against this reading. Series · 29 Jan 2016 What is to be done? 2/335:13 Recalls that the guests at the Symposium are forty-year-old men in front of their favorites. Series · 8 Dec 2015 Michel Clouscard, the paths of praxis (1/2)12:18 His Writings open with Buffon's formula "the style is the man." Series · 31 Dec 2014 Q for Quality10:38 The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious Cited regarding letters that intertwine to form words and speeches.Series · 29 Dec 2014 O for Opposition16:32 Emphasized the incompleteness of the human infant at birth. Series · 7 Jul 2012 Radio Galère: Michel Clouscard (2)44:54 Treated Althusser's depression in the Luberon. 
Cycle 6 · 10 Nov 2019#6.1 Prelude: Lacan, “Function and field of speech and language”
