Sokol B J
University of London, Goldsmith's College.
Int J Psychoanal. 1995 Apr;76 ( Pt 2):373-87.
Assessments of psychodynamic structures and processes implicit in 'The Merchant of Venice' vary considerably according to whether Lacanian or object-relations tenets are applied. Aspects of the play resemble a pattern described in Lacan's seminar on E. A. Poe's story 'The purloined letter': the 'itinerary' of the 'signifier' represented by a roving letter in Poe's story closely matches in outline the adventures surrounding roving rings in Shakespeare's play. Using Poe's story as evidence, Lacan's seminar argues that human identity is a product of 'signifiers', and not vice-versa. This conclusion that human subjectivities are constituted by signifiers does not stand up well in relation to the power of the rings and other signifying physical objects appearing in Shakespeare's play and its source stories. Recently expanded understandings of Freud's ideas about fetishism better explain the often malevolent power of the play's many signifying physical objects. In these the essential potential for damage is to sound personal relations with inner and outer objects of love. Explanations emphasising that distorted object relations and damaged subjectivities may be redeemed accord well with the dramatic and poetic patterns of Shakespeare's play, indicating that it, while portraying painful dilemmas, is still a comedy.
根据所应用的是拉康派还是客体关系理论原则，对《威尼斯商人》中隐含的心理动力结构和过程的评估差异很大。该剧的一些方面类似于拉康关于埃德加·爱伦·坡的故事《失窃的信》的研讨班中所描述的一种模式：坡的故事中一封四处移动的信所代表的“能指”的“行程”，在轮廓上与莎士比亚戏剧中围绕四处移动的戒指的情节十分匹配。以坡的故事为证据，拉康的研讨班认为人类身份是“能指”的产物，而非相反。关于人类主体性由能指构成的这一结论，在涉及剧中出现的戒指及其他有象征意义的实物道具以及其源故事时，站不住脚。最近对弗洛伊德关于拜物癖观点的进一步理解，能更好地解释该剧众多有象征意义的实物道具常常具有的恶意力量。在这些实物道具中，造成损害的本质可能性在于破坏与内心及外在爱的对象的亲密关系。强调扭曲的客体关系和受损的主体性可能得到救赎的解释，与莎士比亚戏剧的戏剧和诗意模式非常契合，这表明该剧虽描绘了痛苦的困境，但仍是一部喜剧。
