Rosa multiflora: G's understanding and reading of Jacques Lacan ... and using language, When feeling disconnected or alienated ... not necessarily as the on-off switch leading to great happiness neurophysiology but nevertheless language use can help facilitate "weather" changes in those directions

Hi M,

Glad to talk ... hope you have an interesting busy week ahead ...

In terms of dysjunctions or a sense of disconnection of living in a city (for me), for example, I come back in my thinking to G's understanding and reading of Jacques Lacan ... and using language ... For Lacan, loosely paraphrased, the human mind is structured like a language (departing from his predecessors), and he also suggests there are three "registers" in it, a) the mirror, b) the symbolic and c) the real. In his work as a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, and thinker and theorist, in France, - and re developmental psychology/psychoanalysis/theories of the mind, I think he found that the mirror/imaginary stage (which can involve expressions of narcissism for adults, but which little kids are often in a state of and grow out of) resolves itself into the "symbolic" potentially fruitfully ... hence the significance of the use of language for him (and the theorizing of the mind as structured like a language). For the "real," which is hard to get a grasp on in Lacan's writings I think, G used the example of the "table" (which can be solid, actual, physical etc), but in this one minute video on Lacan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwlirZQLAAg - the wolf/beast is used as an example of the real in Lacan's thought - perhaps emblematic (for me) of the predator as "real" in ancestral environments, since the reality of the wolf or the predator isn't nearly so fearsome these days as it might have been centuries ago, when hunger was more familiar, for example. (For Lacan, the real also as a linguistic abstraction becomes much more complex such that it's incomprehensible, too, I think). G was very skillful with language in naming re Lacan - as a kind of speaker of truth - and as a critic, thinker, dissenter, philosopher too, and also was a conscious symbolizer in very multi-faceted and polysemic ways.

Thinking about D (a MD) some these days here (and somewhat in terms of the above) and appreciating his thinking for himself, as an individual, and his instincts in navigating successfully in this world, in society, and his skill with language, and his intelligence, yet also appreciating a kind of understanding of how his mirror/imaginary aspects may have interfaced with his ability to symbolize, and in terms of a whole variety of understandings of the "real."

So, use of language (e.g. either writing or talking with someone) can help with a lot of different things for me when feeling disconnected or alienated ... not necessarily as the on-off switch leading to great happiness neurophysiology but nevertheless can help facilitate "weather" changes in those directions. It's interesting to me to think in terms of theorizing some of this so that I might learn from the dysjunctions and disconnections and deal or cope with them strategically even.

And yet also sociality, re the cabin fever I sometimes experience here in Canyon, can be beneficial. I wonder about you in your house sometimes in terms of sociality - since you are so wonderfully social - and think you will find your ways to further growing your circles of friends into your 100s and beyond, whether you're at home. with neighbors and friends around, or living in a different community. So I hope you can keep cultivating your skillful use of language and symbolizing (e.g. including drawing) while cultivating your great group of friends ("Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold" ... is a nice song :)).

Nice to talk with you last night. (On with a piping lesson with L in 30 minutes - then to wrap up writing my Harbin book by publishing it in the next few weeks).

L,
Scott

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Yet traveling is also so nicely freeing re the above Lacan-informed ideas and re dysjunctions and disconnections for me as well ... And you? ... can especially help re cabin fever ... 4 hour walks idea in ever new areas of one's city or local environment? .... could be great :)

L,

Scott

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ECOLOGY re psychodynamics (possibly a problematic word framing-wise), or linguistic interrelations (flourishing and musical on the positive side of mental health - how? is a goal of mine - but both Lacan, a MD, and G, a MD, were also especially dealing clinically with "mental illness" questions and how to theorize these to help people who were suffering, for example), would be an interesting addition to theorizing all of this further (and there's a vast literature about this already ... so writing would be one way to contribute) ... But how to further theorize this beyond Lacan's ever-so-important (reflexive) language contribution to help inform an unfolding ecological trajectory of Lacan's psychoanalytic thinking/theorizing of the mind, between bodyminds, and add a variety of other kinds of symbolizing re "relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings" as a definition of ecology, but which I'm seeking to apply not initially inter-species wise, but rather between human primate bodyminds ...(and which I haven't seen any germane scientific literature about yet).

What such ecology might be re Harbin, re QMeeting, re Eastern religions, India and Yoga, re socio-culture, re online education for degrees (e.g. CC WUaS accrediting on CC MIT OCW in 7 languages and CC Yale OYC and in CC Wikipedia's 300 languages to start), re what's possible online and virtually in terms of psychiatry, re California's creativity in these spheres, re conscientious objection, re virtual worlds and a universal translator, re humans as primates and re other primate species, our closest genetic relatives with quite similar brains and bodyminds to humans, re John Money, re Omega 3 fatty acids, in terms of inter-linguality and medical/psychological/psychoanalytic theorizing for helping people therapeutically bodymind-wise within the field of licensed clinical medicine are all fascinating questions.

It would be fun to get into a daily singing mode re questions of wisdom, finding and singing songs expressing wisdom ... (Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold ... is a nice wise song :) is a great example ... and it's a round) ... and with my own kids to come ... :)

L,

Scott

Here below are some of my related Lacan blog posts (some of which are interesting)

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/05/swiss-mountains-dr-paul-moncayo.html

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/04/flax-nectar-jacques-lacan-parle-what.html

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2014/05/eastern-cottonhead-rabbit-building-on.html

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/10/sequoiadendron-giganteum-theorizing-and.html

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/04/artocarpus-breadfruit-making-wuas.html

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/04/bumblebee-landing-on-purple-flower.html

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/06/mauve-phyllidiella-pustulosa-jacques.html

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/06/dragonfly-bud-contemporary-discussions.html

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_multiflora

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