On the occasion of the first publication of the Newsletter for the PIPOL 12 blog, we are delighted to unveil its baptismal name. But where does this signifier FaMIL come from, and what does it harbour – it seems enigmatic at first glance and, moreover, is it masculine in gender? [1]
Famil is a neologism coined by Lacan, appearing twice in The Seminar, book XVI : From an Other to the other. Playfully using the word hommelle [2] to write the phallicized mother at play in perversion, Lacan proposes to transform it into famil on the lower level of his graph, on the horizon of the field of neurosis [3].
This term interests us for multiple reasons. It resonates, with the pronoun Il (“he”) like a “flash before our eyes” [4], with the metaphorical function of the family, which endures against all odds, lies in the fundamental transmission of a subjective constitution. At the moment of his find, this is how Lacan situates the true issue of what he calls the “familial drama”: bringing forth the Je (“I”) from this Il (“he”), that is, the child in his initial status as “object a qua liberated” [5]. And what can be described as miraculous, as Jacques-Alain Miller reminds us, is that this real responds when addressed by us from the symbolic [6]. We also know, with Lacan’s Note on the Child, how such an address involves something essential : it is tied to a desire that is not anonymous [7] – which gives a chance of a knotting between the a and the Je at the horizon of neurosis, a function that the family – with a mother, a father, or a parent as instruments – metaphorically fulfils.
So the creation of the word famil astutely unveils a structural insight that the theme of Family and its Discontents will have to explore – particularly in a time when families are increasingly built around the position of the child, with the passions it stirs and their inevitable deadlocks [8]. The selected excerpts from Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s painting Children’s Games that illustrate the Famil blog find their relevance here.
Furthermore, we are inclined to suppose a filiation between this signifier Famil and the famous famil-lionnaire joke, the first one reported by Freud and extensively commented on by Lacan – serving as the starting point for his graph of desire [9]. All these witty formulations, which bring something new into being, serve the cause of the unconscious articulation which is always lodged in the distance between signifier and signified. That the family – the primordial locus of language – can transmit, to the living being it hosts, a subscription to the unconscious, transforming him into a subject, might this not, ultimately, be its highest function? [10]
Let us wager, then, that this neologism, related to a famous joke, will inspire the writing of rich contributions to enliven the PIPOL 12 blog, all the way to the Congress which will take place on July 12 and 13 in Brussels.
In this first issue of FaMIL, you will discover the first two orientation texts for the blog’s sections which will host your expected contributions. Also included is one of the presentations from the epistemic morning of PIPOL 12, held in Brussels last November.
Happy reading!
[1] TN: “famil”, alluding to family, in addition to the “fam” sounding like “femme” woman, contains “il” the third person singular masculine pronoun.
[2] TN: a neologism combining the French homme, man, and elle, she. Translated by Fink in Seminar XVI as Homme-elle.
[3] Lacan J., The Seminar, Book XVI, From an Other to the other, text established by Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Bruce Fink, Polity, Cambridge, 2023, p 254 and p. 291.
[4] Ibid, p. 254.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Miller, J.-A., “L’orientation lacanienne. Du symptôme et fantasme et retour,” lecture given as part of the Department of Psychoanalysis at Paris 8, lesson of May 25, 1983, unpublished.
[7] Lacan, J., “Note on the Child,” trans. Russell Grigg, The Lacanian Review, no. 4 (2018), p.13.
[8] Laurent, É., “L’enfant, le reste ?” La petite Girafe, no. 33, June 2011, p. 12.
[9] Lacan, J., The Seminar, Book V, Formations of the Unconscious, text established by Jacques-Alain Miller, Polity, Cambridge, 2020
[10] Solano-Suárez, E., “Famille et fonction,” Les feuillets du Courtil, 2000.
Translation : Laurence Maman
Proofread : Alasdair Duncan