Hook Derek, Vanheule Stijn
Department of Psychology, Duquesne UniversityPittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of PretoriaPretoria, South Africa.
Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium.
Front Psychol. 2016 Jan 19;6:2028. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02028. eCollection 2015.
The concept of the master-signifier has been subject to a variety of applications in Lacanian forms of political discourse theory and ideology critique. While there is much to be commended in literature of this sort, it often neglects salient issues pertaining to the role of master signifiers in the clinical domain of (individual) psychical economy. The popularity of the concept of the master (or "empty") signifier in political discourse analysis has thus proved a double-edged sword. On the one hand it demonstrates how crucial psychical processes are performed via the operations of the signifier, extending thus the Lacanian thesis that identification is the outcome of linguistic and symbolic as opposed to merely psychological processes. On the other, the use of the master signifier concept within the political realm to track discursive formations tends to distance the term from the dynamics of the unconscious and operation of repression. Accordingly, this paper revisits the master signifier concept, and does so within the socio-political domain, yet while paying particular attention to the functioning of unconscious processes of fantasy and repression. More specifically, it investigates how Nelson Mandela operates as a master signifier in contemporary South Africa, as a vital means of knitting together diverse elements of post-apartheid society, enabling the fantasy of the post-apartheid nation, and holding at bay a whole series of repressed and negated undercurrents.
主人能指的概念在拉康派的政治话语理论和意识形态批判中有多种应用。虽然这类文献有很多值得称赞之处，但它往往忽视了与主人能指在（个体）心理经济临床领域中的作用相关的突出问题。因此，主人（或“空”）能指概念在政治话语分析中的流行已证明是一把双刃剑。一方面，它展示了心理过程是如何通过能指的运作来完成的，从而扩展了拉康的论点，即认同是语言和符号过程而非仅仅是心理过程的结果。另一方面，在政治领域使用主人能指概念来追踪话语构成往往会使该术语与无意识动态和压抑运作相脱节。因此，本文重新审视主人能指概念，并且是在社会政治领域内进行审视，同时特别关注幻想和压抑的无意识过程的运作。更具体地说，它研究纳尔逊·曼德拉在当代南非如何作为一个主人能指发挥作用，作为将后种族隔离社会的各种元素编织在一起的重要手段，促成后种族隔离国家的幻想，并抑制一系列被压抑和否定的暗流。
