Browsing Faculty of Law by Subject "Freud, Sigmund"
Now showing items 1-6 of 6
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De Ville, Jacques (Springer, 2008)[more][less]
Abstract: In this article the author explores Jacques Derrida’s reading in ‘The Purveyor of Truth’ of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Purloined Letter’. In his essay, Derrida proposes a reading which differs markedly from the interpretation proposed by Lacan in his Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’. To appreciate Derrida’s reading, which is not hermeneutic-semantic in nature like that of Lacan, it is necessary to look at the relation of Derrida’s essay to his other texts on psychoanalysis, more specifically insofar as the Freudian death drive is concerned. The present article explores this ‘notion’ as elaborated on by Freud in Beyond the Pleasure Principle as well as Derrida’s reading of this text. It also investigates the importance of the ‘notion’ of the death drive as well as the significance of Derrida’s reading of The Purloined Letter for constitutional interpretation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/300 Files in this item: 1
DeVilleDerridaPurveyorTruth2008.pdf (299.0Kb) -
De Ville, Jacques (Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009)[more][less]
Abstract: In this article, the author proposes a reading of 'Force of Law' from two angles: boundless desire and the ‘law’ of language. The author contends that an analysis from these perspectives casts new light on the notion of the ‘mystical’, as well as repetition, singularity and good/evil as they appear in Derrida’s text. In exploring the ‘notion’ of desire, the article focuses specifically on Derrida’s analysis of Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle in To Speculate – On Freud where the death drive is explored. The author shows the importance of this essay for an understanding of the relation between justice and law. The mystical and justice, the author contends, is to be understood with reference to the death drive, and repetition or law enforcement as its return. Law enforcement could also be viewed in terms of the ‘notion’ of iterability in Derrida’s texts on language. These perspectives furthermore allow for an understanding of singularity in terms of unconditionality and of justice as beyond good and evil. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/302 Files in this item: 1
DeVilleForceofLaw2009.pdf (341.8Kb) -
De Ville, Jacques (Springer, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: In this essay the relation between justice and the gift in Derrida’s thinking is explored. The essay shows that an understanding of the ontological difference or the relation between Being and beings in Heidegger’s thinking as well as Freud’s speculations on the death drive are essential to comprehend the ‘concept’ or ‘notion’ of différance as well as the gift in Derrida’s thinking. The analysis points to the complexity of Derrida’s thinking in his contemplation of the relation between justice and law and the need for a broader investigation to understand what is at stake in this regard. An exploration of the gift shows that Derrida’s thinking on justice is not ‘relativistic’ as is often assumed and that the gift can in a certain way function as a ‘guide’ in questions of constitutional interpretation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/411 Files in this item: 1
DeVilleGivenTime2010.pdf (323.4Kb) -
De Ville, Jacques (Springer, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: In this article the Derrida/Foucault debate is scrutinised with two closely related aims in mind: (1) reconsidering the way in which Foucault’s texts, and especially the more recently published lectures, should be read; and (2) establishing the relation between law and madness. The article firstly calls for a reading of Foucault which exceeds metaphysics with the security it offers, by taking account of Derrida’s reading of Foucault as well as of the heterogeneity of Foucault’s texts. The article reflects in detail on a text of Derrida on Foucault (‘Cogito and the History of Madness’) as well as a text of Foucault on Blanchot (‘Maurice Blanchot: The Thought from Outside’). The latter text shows that Foucault was at times acutely aware of the difficulty involved in exceeding metaphysics and that he realised the importance in this regard of a reflection on literature. These reflections tie in closely with Foucault’s History of Madness as well as with Derrida’s reflections on literature and on madness. Both Derrida and Foucault contend that law has much to learn from literature in understanding the relation between itself and madness. Literature more specifically points to law’s ‘origin’ in madness. The article contends that a failure to take seriously this origin, also in the reading of Foucault’s lectures, would amount to a denial by law of itself. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/313 Files in this item: 2
DeVille2010MadnessCover.pdf (81.85Kb)DeVilleFoucaultMadness-andLaw2010.pdf (274.1Kb) -
De Ville, Jacques (University of California Press, 2011)[more][less]
Abstract: This essay enquires into the depictions of Justice through the ages, as well as the myths surrounding these depictions, more particularly in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as in modern times. The essay departs in significant respects from traditional interpretations by seeking to gain from the insights in relation to mythology and the use of symbols provided by psychoanalysis, structuralism, Heidegger’s thinking on Being, and deconstruction. Insofar as psychoanalysis is concerned, of importance in the present context is Freud’s analysis of symbolism in the interpretation of dreams and in myths, specifically insofar as he contends that the symbols employed there almost invariably have a sexual connotation. The approach of Claude Lévi-Strauss is the focus of the detour through structuralism, with Lévi-Strauss challenging certain of the most prevalent ideas in relation to myth, such as that there is some original version of a myth, usually believed to be the earliest version. In the case of Heidegger, of particular importance is his challenge to us “moderns” to not be too quick in our belief that we understand ancient texts or the ancient conceptions of deities. He more specifically places in question the common belief that the gods and goddesses are persons or that they are abstract personifications of concepts. Derrida, in his analysis of the texts of Freud, Lévi-Strauss and Heidegger, further develops the ideas of each of these thinkers, seeking thereby to go beyond the Oedipus complex, beyond the security of structure, and beyond Being. After an analysis of depictions of the goddesses Ma’at, Themis, Dike and Justitia, based on the insights gained in the preceding analysis, the essay concludes with a reading of the blindfold of Justice in her modern guise which seeks to exceed metaphysics. Drawing specifically on Derrida’s analysis of blindness in drawing, it arrives eventually not at the essence, but the an-essence of justice. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/288 Files in this item: 1
DeVilleMythologyImagesJustice2011.pdf (4.882Mb) -
De Ville, Jacques (Springer, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: In this essay, one of Derrida’s early texts, Plato’s pharmacy, is analysed in detail, more specifically in relation to its reflections on writing and its relation to law. This analysis takes place with reference to a number of Derrida’s other texts, in particular those on Freud. It is especially Freud’s texts on dream interpretation and on the dream-work which are of assistance in understanding the background to Derrida’s analysis of writing in Plato’s pharmacy. The essay shows the close relation between Derrida’s analysis of Plato’s texts and Freud’s study of the dream-work. The forces at work in dreams, it appears, are at play in all texts, which in turn explains Derrida’s contentions in relation to the pharmakon as providing the condition of possibility of Plato’s texts. The essay furthermore points to the continuity between this ‘early’ text of Derrida and his ‘later’, seemingly more politico-legal texts of the 1990s. A close reading of Plato’s pharmacy, with its investigation via ‘writing’ of the foundations of metaphysics, and thus also of the Western concept of law, is obligatory should one wish to comprehend how Derrida attempts to exceed the restricted economy of metaphysics through his analysis of concepts such as justice and hospitality. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/287 Files in this item: 1
DeVilleRevisitingPlatoPharmacy2010.pdf (318.7Kb)
Now showing items 1-6 of 6