On 23 Oct 2000, at 9:24, Marshall Grossman, misconstruing in
typical postmodernist fashion a rational argument for railing at the
sacred ox, states that
> ... The brain it seems to me is the vehicle of the mind
> but the mind's experience is qualitative and the brain's
> function is quantitative and, as the thoroughly discredited
> Marx, building on the absurd Hegel, tells us, the
> transition from quantity to quality is a tricky business.
Who said otherwise? I said that a psychiatrist who claims to
practice some form of psychological science, but bases much of it
on the most outdated and discredited linguistics, should not be
accorded any more respect than a shaman. I also said that we
ought to draw a distinction about what can and cannot be
understood by empirical analysis. For generations Freud's
misguided notions about schizophrenia--as about much else in
mental illness--caused enormous harm. Should we just tolerate
more of the same from Lacan because American literary critics,
almost alone, like to appropriate him?
> I think those who find Lacan et al interesting should read
> them and those who don't should let us be, but those who
> want to charge us with some imperial crime for indulging
> our interest, should be under some obligation to read what
> they hate too and not rely on secondary and tertiary
> sources.
Been there, done that. Very desiccating.
Is this a plea to place some region of intellectual activity beyond
criticism in a protected sanctuary? Derrida likes to do that. Lacan
has been raised on this list, quite unnecessarily so far as I can see,
as a kind of medieval authority to explain the emotional and
rhetorical consequences of things like the future tense. All linguists
would find this ludicrous, of course, and I see no reason why
Lacanians should have a free lunch.
==============================================
Steven J. Willett
University of Shizuoka, Hamamatsu Campus
2-3 Nunohashi 3-chome, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan 432-8012
Voice and Fax: (053) 457-4514
Japan email: [log in to unmask]
US email: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|