The Split Collector
[excerpt]

Gérard Wajcman

translated by Asunción Alvarez

 

 

Jacques Lacan was a collector. Rather than sketching Lacan out as a worthy follower of Freud, this statement constitutes a break, for, despite a common misconception, Freud was not a collector.

[...]

Lacan, thus, was a collector. But a non-conformist collector. It can be said that this is the law of the genre, that, leaving coin and stamp collectors—these accountants of jouissance—aside, all collectors worthy of the name are non-conformist. But no doubt Lacan was more non-conformist than the others. He was nonconformist even towards non-conformist collectors. It must be said that the nature of his collection set him somewhat, or even clearly apart from the nonetheless rather disparate whole of collectors.

[...]

But Lacan's true collection is not imaginary. It is of course made of material objects, just a bit sophisticated. Let us name the object in question straight away: Lacan was a split collector. What can be more real than a split? (Even if it's not always easy to hang on the wall). [...]

 

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