causa sui, lack of being, the Other, self-sufficiency, phantasy

Abstract

Drawing on Lacan’s seminar, Les non-dupes errent, this article is an attempt at re-thinking the impasses of the subjective position of a non-dupe whose differentia specifica consists in a refusal of the unconscious. The question this article addresses is that of the role of the Other in the non-dupe’s fantasy of self-sufficiency which prompts a non-dupe to pose him/herself as a causa sui. By contrasting Rousseau’s and Sartre’s autobiographies, the author investigates the theoretical arguments concerning the affinity between the lack of being and a desire to create.