「拉岡派的笑話」——我們該如何看待大他者的角色

「拉岡派的笑話」《齊澤克笑話大全》（“Žižek's Jokes”, pp. 67-68）

—斯拉沃熱．齊澤克（Slavoj Žižek）

　　數十年來，有個相當經典的笑話在拉岡派門徒間持續流傳⋯⋯為了示範大他者（the Other）的所知（knowledge）所扮演至關重要的角色：有個相信自己是粒稻殼的男人被送進了精神院所，在那邊醫師們費盡心思想說服他，讓他知道他不是粒稻殼而是個人；不料，正當他痊癒（也就是認為他確實是個人不是稻殼）並准許能離開醫院，他沒兩下就回來了，顫抖並害怕著——外頭有隻雞，他深怕被那隻雞當飼料吃了。「親愛的，」醫師向他說「你不是已經清楚明白你不是稻殼而是個人了嗎？」「我當然知道，」患者回應醫師「但那隻雞可知道？」
　　在此之中就隱含了精神分析治療的真正重點：單單向患者說清其徵候的無意識真相是不夠的；無意識本身亦然必須被說服承認這個真相。對於商品拜物教提出的馬克思理論亦然：我們都可以想像一個布爾喬雅主體，參與一門能受知有關商品拜物教的馬克思主義課程。在那門課程後，他跑回來找他的老師，埋怨說他依然是商品拜物教下的受害者。這老師會跟他說「可是你不是已經知道事物成立的本質了，已經知道商品們僅僅只是社會關係的表現形式，已經知道他們之中沒有任何巫術！」對此那名門生會回應道：「當然這些我已經都知道了，但那些我所面對的商品們看起來還不知道這些啊！」這也就是拉岡在他的主張中所欲表達的，唯物論的真正方法並非「上帝並不存在（God doesn’t exist）」，而是「上帝即是無意識／上帝是無意識的（God is unconscious）」。

           FOR decades, a classic joke has been circulating among Lacanians… to exemplify the key role of the Other’s knowledge: a man who believes himself to be a kernel of grain is taken to a mental institution where the doctors do their best to convince him that he is not a kernel of grain but a man; however, when he is cured (convinced that he is not a kernel of grain but a man) and allowed to leave the hospital, he immediately comes back, trembling and very scared—there is a chicken outside the door, and he is afraid it will eat him. “My dear fellow,” says his doctor, “you know very well that you are not a kernel of grain but a man.” “Of course I know,” replies the patient, “but does the chicken?”
           Therein resides the true stake of psychoanalytic treatment: it is not enough to convince the patient about the unconscious truth of his symptoms; the unconscious itself must be brought to assume this truth. The same holds true for the Marxian theory of commodity fetishism: we can imagine a bourgeois subject attending a Marxism course where he is taught about commodity fetishism. After the course, he comes back to his teacher, complaining that he is still the victim of commodity fetishism. The teacher tells him “But you know now how things stand, that commodities are only expressions of social relations, that there is nothing magic about them!” to which the pupil replies: “Of course I know all that, but the commodities I am dealing with seem not to know it!” This is what Lacan aimed at in his claim that the true formula of materialism is not “God doesn’t exist,” but “God is unconscious.”