THE NOTION OF SEGREGATION: WHAT DOES PSYCHOANALYSIS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to make a brief presentation of what psychoanalytic theory has to say about the notion of segregation, using the bibliographic research methodology. It was found that, for psychoanalysis, the term does not carry only a negative meaning, as presented by common sense. In this research, it was found that there are two aspects regarding segregation: structural segregation and the effects of segregation. Structural segregation refers to a constitutive condition of every subject and every discourse, since they are organized based on the master signifier (S1) and the modes of jouissance. Regarding the effects of segregation, it was possible to observe that there is a crucial difference between what Freudian theory and Lacanian theory expose. Freud shows, from the analysis of his time, that the masses were based on a process of identification common to a certain ideal. What Lacan observes, however, and which serves us for a study of contemporaneity, is a decline in these ideals and the growth of jouissance as a social order. This phenomenon occurs through a type of specific relationship between the discourse of science, which forged the constitution of a universal subject and the discourse of capitalism, which has the consequence of the globalization of a Common Market. This combination has as a residue the subjectification of subjects, who start to organize themselves through camps of concentration of jouissance, where everyone aims to enjoy in a similar and unlimited way. In this way, a whole society is organized on the way to segregation, where the one who enjoys different is segregated. Finally, it is argued that the analyst's discourse offers a different way out of the segregation stalemate, since he is interested in the unique solutions that each subject builds to account for what is unbearable.