Interpassivity

Abstract

The paper develops the idea of interpassivity, a new concept coined on the model of interactivity and which covers a number of phenomena where the subject delegates his/her passivity and enjoyment on to another person or device. The starting point is a text by Villiers de l'lsle-Adam (written in 1874) which can be seen as possibly the birthplace of that idea. It develops the notion of the claque (the hired applause) and proposes its extension into a mechanical device (prefiguring the phenomenon of'the canned laughter' on television). The present paper tries to demonstrate that the notion of the claque can be seen as a pattern for the functioning of desire and its inherent interactivity, while the clue to interpassivity lies in a dimension which inherently differs from and contrasts with desire, and which Freud has pinpointed as the drive. While desire is maintained by its perpetual non-satisfaction, the drive is rather always satisfied, it procures the subject with enjoyment against which desire tries to protect him/her. Psychoanalysis can thus be seen as the process leading from the structures of desire to those of the drive.