‘Interpreting (with) Freud’: Laplanche, Hoffmann and the Copernican Birth of Unconscious Drives
Keywords:
Laplanche, Ptolemaic, Copernican, Jewels, Internal Other, Psychoanalysis, Metapsychology, Freud, Other, Seduction Theory, Primal Situation, Primal Scene, Copernican/Copernican Revolution, Hoffmann, Mademoiselle de Scudery, CardillacAbstract
This paper intends to correlate Laplanche’s complex theoretical development of Freud and his creation of a ‘Copernican’ general theory of seduction, focusing on the concept of the ‘enigmatic signifier’ and its relation to a reconceived concept of the drive. This psychoanalytic framework is then applied to E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Mademoiselle de Scudery and the character of master-jeweller René Cardillac. When viewed through a Laplanchian optic, I propose the jewels, a highly psycho-significant object in the novella, particularly in its primal scene, become distinctively re-positioned; re-centered as the mysterious, yet controlling, internal other.
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