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| − | [[act]] ([[French]]: ''[[acte]]'')
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| − | ==Behavior==
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| − | [[Lacan]] draws a distinction between mere "[[behavior]]" - which all animals engage in - and an "[[act]]" - which (is [[symbolic]] and) can only be ascribed to human subjects.<ref>{{S11}} p.50</ref>
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| − | ==Responsibility==
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| − | A fundamental quality of an [[act]] is that the actor can be held [[responsible]] for it; the concept of the [[act]] is thus an [[ethical]] [[concept]].
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| − | The [[psychoanalytic]] concept of [[responsibility]] is complicated in [[psychoanalysis]] by the discovery that, in addition to his [[conscious]] plans, the [[subject]] also has [[unconscious]] intentions.
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| − | ==Parapraxes==
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| − | Hence someone may well commit an act which he claims was unintentional, but which [[analysis]] reveals to be the expression of an [[unconscious]] [[desire]].
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| − | [[Freud]] called these acts '[[parapraxes]]', or '[[bungled actions]]'.
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| − | They are 'bungled' only from the point of view of the conscious intention, since they are successful in expressing an unconscious desire.<ref>see Freud, 1901b</ref>
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| − | ==Responsibility==
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| − | In [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] the [[subject]] is faced with the [[ethical]] [[duty]] of assuming responsibility even for the [[unconscious]] [[desire]]s expressed in his [[action]]s.
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| − | He must recognise even apparently accidental [[action]]s as true [[act]]s which express an intention, albeit [[unconscious]], and assume this intention as his own.
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| − | Neither [[acting out]] or a [[passage to the act]] are true [[act]]s, since the [[subject]] does not assume [[responsibility]] for his [[desire]] in these [[action]]s.
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| − | == Ethics of Psychoanalysis ==
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| − | The [[ethics]] of [[psychoanalysis]] enjoin the [[analyst]] to assume [[responsibility]] for his or her [[act]]s (i.e. interventions in the [[treatment]]).
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| − | The [[analyst]] must be guided (in these interventions) by an appropriate [[desire]], which [[Lacan]] calls the [[desire of the analyst]].
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| − | An intervention is a '[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] [[act]]'
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| − | A '[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] [[act]]' is an intervenion that succeeds in expressing the [[desire of the analyst]] - that is, when it helps the [[analysand]] to move towards the [[end of analysis]].
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| − | Lacan dedicates a year of his seminar to discussing further the nature of the psychoanalytic act.<ref>Lacan, 1967-8</ref>
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| − | A bungled action is, as has been stated, successful from the point of view of the unconscious.
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| − | Nevertheless, this success is only partial because the unconscious desire is expressed in a distorted form.
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| − | It follows that, when it is fully and consciously assumed, 'suicide is the only completely successful act'<ref>Lacan, 1973a: 66-7</ref>, since it then expresses completely an intention which is both conscious and unconscious, the conscious assumption of the unconscious death drive (on the other hand, a sudden impulsive suicide attempt is not a true act, but probably a passage to the act).
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| − | The death drive is thus closely connected with the ethical domain in Lacan's thought.
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| − | ==Examples==
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| − | It is not self-evident what constitutes an 'event' (or an
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| − | 'act').
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| − | Examples of what Zižek calls 'acts' vary widely in scope and
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| − | impact.
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| − | At the lowest level of agape there is a kind of Pollyanna-ish
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| − | 'saying "Yes!" to life in its mysterious synchronic multitude' (Fragile Absolute, 103; also Fright, 172; cf. Ticklish Subject, 150).
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| − | Some characters in works of literature or film b- perform an 'act' when they sacrifice what they hold dearest, committing what Zižek calls 'a strike against the self'.
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| − | An example is Kevin Spacey's shooting of his own wife and daughter, who are being held hostage by rival gangsters, in The Usual Suspects.<ref>(Fragile Absolute, 149-50)</ref>
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| − | Others literary characters, like Antigone and Sygne,<ref>(Enjoy!, 70ff)</ref>, act in such a way are substitutes for the enigmatic [[objet petit a]]
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| − | Because desire comes to us from the Other, it is a mistake to think of it as subversive; on the contrary, it is banal in the extreme.
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| − | ==More==
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| − | In The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology, this negative subject-concept is brought to bear on the issue of the "ethical act" - a political act transgressing the rules of the established social order.
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| − | == References ==
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| − | <references/>
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| − | {{Footer Kid A}}
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| − | [[Category:Kid A In Alphabet Land]]
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