Here we are at the departure gate for the seventh edition of the Famil newsletter. It will enable us to read the world as it is, as well as its consequences for the social bond ; and more specifically, on and within families. Indeed, the constitution of the subject isn’t without the discourse of the Other, which one first encounters in the family. In “Family Complexes…” Jacques Lacan defines the family as the institution that is “predominant in the beginning of education, in the repression of instincts and in the acquisition of the aptly named mother tongue”. [1] Later on, “Dr Lacan substituted the repression of instincts with the function of the regulation of jouissance ” [2] : regulate without resorting to iron rule or re-education for everything and everyone.
Civilisation, as Jacques-Alain Miller [3] defines it, is a system for distributing jouissance on the basis of semblants. During his visit to Brussels, Dominique Carpentier [4] reminded us of this — pointing out that in 2025, a re–organisation of this distribution appears in a striking manner. Inequalities are glaring and the new kings of the world have no use for our civilisation. In the absence of the authority of the Name-of-the-Father, we are witnessing a return to an iron order that is precipitating this transformation without the use of semblants.
This is what we will see unfold in the various stopovers along the way in this newsletter. First of all, three texts, from Spain, France and Poland, approach violence from different angles : “delirious familiarism”, “familicides” in Japan, as well as that of the oppression of the Name-of-the-Father and the imperative of capitalism. Vilma Coccoz’s text underlines the importance of taking the family into account as a way of treating the real. Dealing with family crises, dysfunctions, even abuse and violence, can lead to solutions if we operate from the new social bond offered by the analytic discourse. Martine Revel’s text tells us about the economic politics in Japan, which have led to ever-widening socio-economic disparity and a deep sense of despair. It is in this context that murderous acts are committed in order to spare other family members suffering and shame. The third text, by Olga Sakson-Obada, points out that, in capitalist society, the signifiers associated with consumer objects are both seductive and, above all, oppressive, becoming imperatives.
Next up is an audio stopover, with “PIPOL12 Podcasts”. This week’s podcast features an extract from a lecture given by Éric Laurent entitled “[…] L’enfant, le reste”, [The child, the remainder]. Finally, a bibliographic stopover with a quotation from Lacan – taken from his Seminar, Freud’s Papers on Technique – will bring this journey to a close.
A further little escapade is offered to you ! Accessible by clicking on the link to the website, “Le Pari de la Conversation”, the latest edition of which, “La famille concernée” [5] ties in with and sheds light on the theme of PIPOL12. Enjoy this melting pot of cultures and languages at PIPOL 12 !
[1] Lacan, J., “Les complexes familiaux dans la formation de l’individu…” (1938) in Autres Écrits, Paris, Seuil, 2006, pp. 24-25. [Unpublished in English].
[2] Solano-Suarez, E., “Famille et fonction,” Les feuillets du Courtil, no. 5, September 1992, p. 12. [Our translation]
[3] Cf. Miller, J.-A., “The Other that Does Not Exist and its Ethics Committees,” in Almanac of Psychoanalysis, GIEP, no. 1, 1997, 15.” [“What is a civilisation? Let’s say that it is a system of distribution of jouissance beginning from semblants.”]
[4] Carpentier, D., “Ce qui fait, ou pas, famille,” Presentation given at ACF-Belgium as part of the Seminar, Clinic and Politics of Institutions, on the theme “Families and Institutions,” 6th of February 2025. [Unpublished.]
[5] https://pariconversation.wixsite.com/paridelaconversation/blog/categories/édito
Translation: Ana-Marija Kroker
Proofreading: Raphael Montague
