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Representations.
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CAROLYN
DEAN
-Paul Schiff,
"Les Anormauxdevantla refontedu Code Penal,"
L'Evolutionpsychiatrique
4 (1934)
Le manuscrit
de "WC."a brute,ce n'estpas dommage
etantdonnema tristesse
actuelle:c'etaitun crid'horreur
(horreur
de moi,nonde ma debauche,maisde la tWte
dephilosophe
ou depuis. . . commec'esttriste!).
-Georges Bataille,Le Petit(1943)1
corporal dismemberment,and mutilation have been common metaphors used by practitionersof contemporary
antihumanistliterarycriticism,such as Jacques Derrida and Julia Kristeva,to
disarticulatethe Enlightenmentconcept of the rational,stable self. Such metaphors are ofteninspiredby psychoanalysis,and frompsychoanalytictheorythey
often derive their "authority"as representationsof an alternativeconcept of a
subjectivityin flux. Derrida, in his discussion of Phillipe Sollers, for example,
claims that "the operation of reading/writing
goes by way of the blade of a red
knife."2Reading and writingare formsof decapitationand/orcastration,forms
of a "cut" in which the "presence" of the text paradoxically establishesitself.
There is, he goes on, a "relationbetween a certain brandished erection and a
certainhead or speech thatis cut off,the brand or the pole ... unable to present
themselvesotherwisethanin the play... of thecut."3Decapitationand castration,
linked by Freud in his essayMedusas Head, are thus,for Derrida, "decentering"
operations in which an anatomical mutilation-a "cut"-symbolizes a mutilated
The presence of reading and writing-the presence,in otherwords,
subjectivity.
of civilizationitself-requires, paradoxically,an absence, a wound. Textual productiondepends on a mutilatedauthor,on a process of cuttingratherthan on a
IMAGES
42
REPRESENTATIONS
OF DECAPITATION,
13 * Winter1986?
OF CALIFORNIA
43
I
forhis or her crimehad
Determininga criminal'sactual responsibility
been a controversialissue withinthe psychiatricprofession since 1907, when
were asked to take a greater role in judicial decision making-to
psychiatrists
translatecomplex medical terminologyintoa comprehensiblelegal vocabularyat the same timethatmedical indecisionhad created what Robert Nye has called
a "crisis"in public and judicial confidence in expert medical testimony.7The
and
contradictionbetween the increasingdemands being made on psychiatrists
can
be
explained by the
the increasing lack of confidence in their expertise
expanding categoriesof mental illness,which had become more complex since
Jean Etienne Esquirol's"monomaniacs"-one-time criminalswho wereotherwise
in 1820. By the earlytwentieth
perfectlyrational-had confounded psychiatrists
so
had
become
complex that psychiatristswere
century,psychiatricnosology
required to clarifyits categories forjuries tryingto decide whether or not a
criminalcould be held responsibleforhis or her crimeat the same timethatthis
themselves.
verycomplexitywas overwhelmingpsychiatrists
the 1838 law,whichestabconcerning
reforms
Firstproposed in 1907, penal
lished under which conditions an individual could be interned in an asylum,
attemptedto make legal definitionsof responsibilitycorrespond to advances in
psychiatryand criminologyat the same timethattheymaintaineda French traand
ditioncombiningpositivistideas about punishmentwithmoral responsibility
free will. In this"tradition"punishmentwas seen as a means of rehabilitationif
44
REPRESENTATIONS
45
REPRESENTATIONS
47
48
REPRESENTATIONS
49
50
REPRESENTATIONS
in 1930-31,
In an article published in the Revuefranfaisede psychanalyse
Angelo Hesnard and Rene Laforgue wrote:
importance
... of
itis theincontestable
ofpsychoanalysis,
Amongtherecentacquisitions
comon our psychological
reverberated
in humanlifethathasmostseriously
autopunition
The study[ofautoattitudein particular.
in generaland on our therapeutic
prehension
punition]has evenappearedso capitalto someof us thatwe expectof it ... a veritable
modifythe
... of our youngscience,of a naturethatwillprofoundly
transformation
and of pathology
ofcriminology,
of neuroses,of psychiatry,
teachings
of thepsychology
in general.29
among
This attitudeis representativeof a widespread interestin autopunition
French psychoanalysts.Hesnard and Laforgue published a long articlethatlater
in 1931. AllendywroteLa
de l'autopunition
became a book entitledLes Mecanismes
on the same subject; a whole issue of the Revuefranfaisede psyJusticeinterieure
chanalysewas devoted to explaining human societyin termsof the paradoxical
and numerous other articlescontributedto
psychicmovementsof autopunition;
itsgeneral diffusion.It is no coincidence thatMarie Bonaparte diagnosed Mme.
Lefebvre'scrimeas motivatedby the need to punish herself,and Lacan himself,
afterFreud'swritingson paranoia, explained the inexplicablemurdercommitted
necessitatedby the
by the von Papin sistersin 1931 as a formof self-punishment
irrepressibleguiltyfeelingsattached to theirlatenthomosexuality.30
itselfwas originallyconceived by Freud in his
The concept of autopunition
attemptto understandthe dynamicconnectionbetweenthesatisfactionof desires
thathe feltoftenmotivatedcriminalbehavior.
and the need forself-punishment
He had distinguishedbetween crimescomprehensibleto normal psychologyof vengeance, of passion, of economic desperation-and crimesconditionedby
neurosis,characterizedby a conflictbetween the id and the superego of which
the main consequence was the individual'sneed to punish himself.Many French
to explain the "unmotipsychoanalystsused Freud's conception of autopunition
vated" crime.31 Incomprehensiblecrimes,theyargued, were actuallythe result
of unconscious desires to be punished, and hence theirmotivationswere to be
sought in unconscious mental processes often difficultto detect or recognize.
The criminal,according to Freud, unconsciouslysought society'swrath. This
desire to be punished derived from the guilt provoked by the satisfactionof
forbiddendesires that,even when it took place on a symboliclevel veilingthe
real fulfillment
obtained,awakened in theego a fearof thesuperego.Autopunition
was thus the unconscious fearof the conscience. However,it simultaneouslysuspended the inhibitinganxiety derived from fear of the superego: ultimately,
justifiedthe injusticeperpetratedbythe ego and so eliminatedguilty
autopunition
feelings,permittingdesires to be satisfiedunaccompanied by a sense of guilt.In
is a symbolictranspositionof desire thatneutralizesculpability
short,autopunition
Lawand Sacrifice
51
REPRESENTATIONS
adequate scientificterms,then the conceptual problem confrontingboth psyinterestedin discoveringitsorigins-its raisond'&reand psychoanalysts
chiatrists
in order to make punishmentmore efficaciouscould not be resolved on a practical (e.g., legal) or theoretical(i.e., epistemological)level. Since crimewas not a
symbolictranspositionof autodestructiveforces,the existence of those forces
could not be verifiedby a psychoanalyticdecoding of symbolicmeaning,and the
originsof incomprehensiblecrime remained essentiallyspeculativeand incomprehensible.If a diagnosiswas impossible,no cure could be administered.Crime,
like Mme. Lefebvre'sact of murder,could not be accommodated by any legal
discourse or legal solutions.
II
paranoiaquedans ses rapportsavec la
Lacan's 1932 these,De la psychose
personalit,was an effortto understand what motivateda young woman in full
possession of her intellectualfaculties,and withno explicable rationale,to tryto
murderan actresswithwhom she had never had any personal contact.His 1933
articleentitled"Le Crime paranoiaque" similarlyconcerned the incomprehensiblecrimeof the celebratedvon Papin sisters,who had killedand mutilatedtheir
and her daughter.By analyzingthequestionsposed byapparentlyunmopatronne
tivatedcrime,Lacan triedto approach themore generalepistemologicalproblem
in psychiatricstudycreated by the absence of a necessarycorrelationbetween
whatlie called a specific"characterology"(i.e., clinicalsymptoms)and thesubject's
"personality"(his broader psychologicalmakeup). He argued thatall psychiatric
discourse concerningparanoia had been primarilydescriptive,classifyingparanoid deliriumaccording to clinicalsymptomsand explaining its actual causes in
termsof a particular"constitution"that marked an individual'sorganic predispositionto paranoia.36
While the notion of a constitutioncorresponded to a clinicalreality,it only
described the form of the delirium withoutexplaining the organization of its
content.For example, Aimee, the subjectof Lacan's case study,had no clinically
observablememoryproblems,and yetmemoryloss was an importantcomponent
of her delirium. As long as the notion of a constitutioncould not explain the
discrepancybetweenclinicallyobservable symptomsand the actual structureof
the delirium,it would be impossible to designate a specificset of symptomsas
paranoid except on a superficial,descriptivebasis lacking empirical rigor.The
idea of a constitution,in short,could not explain what motivatedthe apparently
fortuitouscrimes of paranoids because it conceived them as secondary,as the
of organic factorsprovokingpsychological"errors."37
consequences
Lacan claimed thatwhile constitutionalfactorshad to be takeninto account
onlypsychoanalysis,which
in understandingthe originsof any psychopathology,
understood the delirium as a form of significant,autonomous representation
Law and Sacrifice
53
(instead of as an impoverishedformof normality),could demonstratethe relationship between the causes and symptomsof paranoia. Psychoanalysisalone
could contributeto the psychiatricstudy of paranoia because it explored the
deliriumas a representationalstructure,as a complex of psychicresistancesto a
specificsocial and psychologicalcontext.The crimes of Aimee and of the von
Papin sisters,Lacan argued in thisvein, were caused by theirspecificrelationto
a particularset of circumstancesthat was expressed in a delirium realizing an
The conceptof autopunition
was the only
unconsciousdesire forself-punishment.
wayto explain Aimee's "cure" and Christineand Lea von Papin'stranquilityafter
havingcommittedtheircrimes.These cures were not possible accordingto constitutionalist
theories,whichclaimed thatorganicand psychologicaldefectscould
be remedied but never eliminated. Furthermore,such crimes did not fall into
the categoryof "crimes passionels" because neither Aimee nor the von Papin
sisterswere plagued by the remorse thatweighed so heavilyon the perpetrator
of a "one-time"passionatecrime.Psychoanalysis,however,byshowinghow crime
could resolvethecause-and-effect
problem
functionedas a formof self-punishment,
raised by supposedly inexplicablecrimes: "What seems originaland precious in
is that it permitsus to establisha determinism
such a theory[i.e., autopunition]
in certain phenomena of psychologicalorigin and of social signification,those
we defineas phenomena of the personality.... Such an hypothesis... explains
the sensof the delirium.The tendencytoward self-punishmentexpresses itself
The criminalbothstrikesin hisor her victim
somewhatdirectlyin thedelirium."38
an ideal of him or herselfthat has been exteriorizedand brings upon himself
society'swrath.Using in thiswaythe psychoanalyticconcept of self-punishment,
Lacan reconceptualizedthe relationshipbetweencause and effectin psychiatry.
Armed withpsychoanalytictheory,he supported the penal reformsbeing proposed at the timeas remedyingoverzealous and oftenmisappliedpunishment.39
In his essay "La Causalite psychique,"Lacan statesthat"loin que la foliesoit
le faitcontingentdes fragilitesde son organisme,elle est la virtualitepermanente
d'une faille ouverte dans son essence" (Madness, far from being an accident
of a rift
befallingan organism due to its frailties,is the permanentLvirtuality
is
a
rift"
in
Madness
because
its
its
"opening
very
essence).40
perpetually
opened
reason-its causalityor purpose-constantly slips into the permanent discordance between realityand an ideal to which the madman aspires. Madness seeks
an impossiblereconciliationbetween the real and the ideal. It is thisattempted
reconciliationthatconstitutesthe motivebehind "unmotivated"or "inexplicable"
crime,one that liberatesthe criminalfrom his madness at the same time as it
perpetuatesthe discrepancybetweenwho he is and who he wantsto be thatis at
the originof hisfoliein the firstplace. For the crime,in fact,markswhat Lacan
calls interchangeablythe limitsof resistance(in the case of Aimee) or the limits
of signification:4'itis thepassagea l'actebywhichthecriminalmovesfrompathology to "cure"-from the delirium,which is a mode of psychicresistance(dene54
REPRESENTATIONS
55
brings her no relief. Nevertheless,with the same blow that makes her guilty
beforethe law,Aimee strikesherselfand feelsthe satisfactionof an accomplished
desire: the delirium,havingbecome useless, vanishes."45
The criminalact, therefore because it is a formof self-punishment,
necessarilvfailsto reconcile the paranoid withhis ideal, though thatreconciliationis
its "purpose" withinthe psychologicalstructureof paranoia. The crime, parabetweenthe real and
doxically,renderspermanentlyimpossibletheidentification
the ideal because, while it liberatesthe paranoid fromthe unconscious guilt at
the originof his delirium,while it "cures" him,it revealsthe absence at the heart
is only a continuous
of the ego thatconstituteshis subjectivity,
since subjectivity
series of failed attemptsto identifywithan ideal.46 His subjectivityis a fundamental emptinessperpetuallyreplenished by the delirium-by a symbolicrepresentation-that triesto deny thatemptiness.47
Crime functionsas a "cure" by "desublimating"the unconscious desire for
self-punishment;thus crime designates the "limitsof signification"-thelimits,
that is, of the various representationalstructuresthat constitutethe self. The
cause of crime is consequentlyan attemptedcure that is alwaysalready a form
of pathology,always already a slippage of subjectivityinto the "open rift"of
madness,which,in itsendless attemptto reconcilerealityand an ideal, endlessly
"re-presents"a subjectivity
sans fond. This madness to create a presence when in
factno originarypresenceexistsformsthecrux of an epistemologythatquestions
the very possibilityof epistemology:an incurable madness paradoxicallyconstitutes the rationale behind human action. The criminalact marks the limitsof
knowledge,of signification.Causalityis located on the edge of those limits,the
purpose of crime being an impossible identificationbetween real and idealbeing,in fact,purposeless.This is whycrimecannot be explained in a traditional
vocabulary of utility:"The thought of penologists hesitatesbefore the crime
where appears the instinctsof which the nature escapes a utilitarianregister.'48
Crime marks the limitsof human subjectivityat the same time as it represents
its dissimulation.
III
Chezlesobsedks,
lesobsedes
la signification
surtout
revet
genitaux,
[automutilation]
d'uneauto-punition,
surtout
chezlessujetstourmentes
pardesscruples
religieux;
elle
devient
alorsungesteauto-punitif
deculpabilitg.
-A. Porot,"Auto-mutilation;"
in Manuelalphabetique
depsychiatrie
(Paris,1952)
II estexactquelemasochisme
desinstincts
lajouissance
sociauxarrivea transfirer
de
lafautedesiree
subie.
a la punition
-Rene Allendy,La Justiceintgrieure
(Paris, 193 1)
56
REPRESENTATIONS
57
REPRESENTATIONS
59
Notes
I would like to thankProfessorsMartinJay,Denis Hollier,Sarah Maza, and especially
Lynn Hunt for theiruseful criticismsof earlier versionsof thisarticle.
1. In Georges Bataille, Oeuvrescompletes,9 vols. (Paris, 1971), 3:59; hereaftercited as
oC.
(Chicago, 1981), 301.
2. Jacques Derrida, Dissemination
4. Ibid.
3. Ibid., 302.
5. Elisabeth Roudinesco, in her pioneering studyof the French psychoanalyticmovement,labels the more unorthodox members withinthe Societe psychanalytiquede
Paris (SPP) as "minoritaires"because of their"spiritualtendencies."In general, they
repudiated Freudian orthodoxy.While she representsaccuratelytheirposition,she
does not analyze the contentof theirwork. Consequently,she claims it was perhaps
not a coincidence that Adrien Borel, one of the SPP's foundersand a "minoritaire'
wrotean articleabout the strugglebetweentheJansenistsand theJesuits.However,
in 1935, was an
the article in question, which appeared in L'Evolutionpsychiatrique
articleabout collectivehysteriaof whichthe"convulsionnaires"(who became an object
of focus forJesuitshostileto Jansenism)were only a case study.The articleis not so
muchabout religionas itis about collectivepsychology(hardlya "spiritualist"subject).
Borel's articleinstead reflectsa general interestwithinthe SPP in unusual collective
behavior,an interestthat manifesteditselfin a linkage between psychoanalysisand
French ethnography,the exploration of which would require another article. See
en France,vol.
Elisabeth Roudinesco, La Bataille de centans: Histoirede la psychanalyse
1, 1885-1939 (Paris, 1982), 358-60.
6. Along withBorel, Schiff,and Rene Allendyamong other psychoanalystsand anthropologists,Bataille and Michel Leiris formed a Societe de psychologiecollectivein
April 1937. This group published an articleon circumcisionthatappeared in L'Hygiene mentalein 1938, a journal that,after 1925, had become a supplement to L'Encphale, the most receptive of all established medical journals to psychoanalysisin
France. Allendy,who had writtenseveral articleson the death instinctas well as on
was a regular at Bataille'sconferencesat the College de
criminalityand autopunition,
sociologie,founded by Bataille, Leiris,and Roger Caillois in 1937. There is, further-
60
REPRESENTATIONS
more, strong reason to believe that Bataille attended the conferencesgiven at the
Groupe d'6tudes philosophiques et scientifiquespour l'examen des tendances nouvelles formed by Allendy in 1920, a group thatacted as an importantorgan of diffusionfor psychoanalyticideas.
7. Robert Nye, Crime,Madness,and Politicsin ModernFrance (Princeton, N.J., 1984),
230-33.
and Liberty(Oxford, 1983), 175.
8. Gordon Wright,BetweentheGuillotine
9. Ibid., 176.
des alienisteset des
10. Edouard Toulouse, "A propos d'un proces recent,"L'Informateur
neurologistes
7 (July-August 1924): 168-69.
11. Roger Dupouy, "L'Internabilit6des malades mentaux et l'internementdes alienes,"
La Consultation
(December 1924), 234.
12. A criminalact was considered to be a psychopathicact.
2 (March 1931): 265.
L'Evolution
psychiatrique
13. Paul Guiraud, "Les Meurtresimmotives,"
14. Henri Claude, Psychiatrie
medico-legale
(Paris, 1932), 43-44.
(July
15. Paul Courbon, "La Lucidit6 et la validit6mentales,"Annalesmedico-psychologiques
1924), 111-14. Hereaftercited as AMP
16. Marie-Therese Lacroix-Dupouy,"Les Services ouverts dans les asiles,"Thesede Paris
(1926), 25, 88-100.
17. Jacques Lacan, J. Levy-Valensi,and Pierre Migault,"Ecrits'inspires':Schizographie,
AMP (December 1931).
18. Michel Foucault,Disciplineand Punish(New York, 1977).
19. Rene Charpentier,"A propos de la reformedu Code Penal,"AMP 2 (October 1933):
354.
20. The reformscan in part be seen as an attemptto controlmarginalcriminalsneither
internablenor imprisonable,such as alcoholics. It is preciselythiscategoryof "criminals" thatwas becoming increasinglyproblematicat thattime,reflectedby criminal
statisticsshowingan increase in "minor"crimes-theft, etc.-committed byjust such
men and women.
21. Rene Allendy,"Le Crimeet les perversionsinstinctives,"
(May 1938), 11-12.
Crapouillet
22. In France, psychoanalysiswas so marginalizedthat,as Jean-PierreMordier claims,a
psychoanalyticperspectivewas not even considered in the postwardiscussionabout
war neuroses and shell shock. In England, however,it was preciselythe debate about
shell shock that opened the door of the medical profession to psychoanalysis.
en France,1895-1926 (Paris,
See Jean-PierreMordier,Les Debutsde la psychanalyse
1981), 132.
23. See Rene Allendy,La Justiceinterieure
(Paris, 1931); Henri Codet and Rene Laforgue,
"Echecs sociaux et besoin inconscientd'autopunition' Revuefranfaisede psychanalyse
3 (1929; hereaftercitedas RFP); Angelo Hesnard and Rene Laforgue,"Les Processus
d'auto-punitionen psychologiedes nevroses et des psychoses,en psychologiecriminelle et en pathologie generale,"RFP 1 (1930): 3-80; Rene Laforgue, "Sur la psychologie de l'angoisse,"Le Medecind'Alsaceet de Lorraine7 (April 1930); Paul Schiff,
"Psychanalyseet paranoia,"RFP (1935); Hugo Staub, "Psychanalyseet criminalite',"
RFP 3 (1934). These are only among the most relevant.
24. Genil-Perrin,"La Psychanalyseen medecine legale,"Annalesde medecine
legalede crietde policescientifique
(May 1932), 274 - 371.
minologie
25. "Psychanalyseet criminalite' reviewarticle,Paris medical(July-August 1932), 41.
26. Hugo Staub and Franz Alexander,Le Crimineletsesjuges(Paris, 1934); Genil-Perrin,
"La Psychanalyseen medecine legale,"274-75.
Law and Sacrifice
61
3 (May-June 1927):
Etudescriminologiques
27. Paul Provent,"Freudismeet criminologie,"
71.
28. Marie Bonaparte, "Le Cas de Mme. Lefebvre,'RFP 1 (1927): 194 - 98. For a discussion
of the case fromanotherpointof viewthan Bonaparte's,see Paul Voivenel,Les BellesMerestragiques(Paris, 1927): Voivenel'sbook traces the disagreementamong psychiatristsover whetherMme. Lefebvre was responsible for her crime or not fromthe
beginningto the end of the trial.He was himselfa psychiatric"expert"in the case.
29. Hesnard and Laforgue, "Les Processus d'auto-punition,"4.
30. Jacques Lacan, "Motifsdu crime paranoiaque,' Minotaure3 -4 (1933): 25-28.
31. See note 23.
appliquee (Paris, 1952), 112-36.
32. Sigmund Freud, Essais depsychanalyse
33. Hesnard and Laforgue, "Les Processus d'auto-punition,"84.
34. Ibid., 70 - 84.
35. Alexander and Staub,Le Crimineletsesjuges,209.
avecla personalite
(Paris,1980),
paranoiaquedanssesrapports
36. Jacques Lacan, De la psychose
53.
38. Ibid., 252.
39. Ibid., 303.
37. Ibid., 74-75.
40. Jacques Lacan, Ecrits(Paris, 1966), 176.
paranoiaque,168.
41. Lacan, De la psychose
42. Denis Hollier,"La Tragedie de Gilles de Rais,"L'Arc44 (1971): 85.
43. Lacan, De la psychose
paranoiaque,253.
44. Lacan,Ecrits, 172-73.
paranoiaque,253.
45. Ibid., 175; and De la psychose
48. Ibid., 134.
47. Ibid., 188.
46. Ibid.,Ecrits,187.
49. Bataille, OC, 3:60.
51. Ibid., 3:493.
50. Ibid., 1:644.
52. Ibid., 1:500.
53. Ibid., 259. See also Henri Claude, Adrien Borel, and Gilbert Robin, "Une Automutilationrevelatriced'un etatschizomaniaque, AMP 1 (March 1924): 334, 336, 338.
334. It should be remarked that
54. Claude, Borel, and Robin, "Une Auto-mutilation,"
these threeauthorswere primarilyresponsiblefora critiqueof Eugen Bleuler's conceptionof schizophreniaas itwas diffusedin France. As such,theybecame theauthors
of one of the main sources of continuitybetweenFrench psychiatryand psychoanalysis (i.e., througha discussionabout schizophrenia).
55. Bataille, OC, 3:41. For an interestingdiscussionof crimein Bataille'sworksee Denis
Hollier,"La Tragedie de Gilles de Rais,"77-86.
62
REPRESENTATIONS