3 ms·

Lacan was also abusive to his students and clients, charged them incredible amounts of money, and eventually his psychiatry sessions devolved into being about f

Lacan was also abusive to his students and clients, charged them incredible amounts of money, and eventually his psychiatry sessions devolved into being about five minutes long. He was basically a cult leader. There seemed to be something going on where people are infinitely forgiving of French intellectuals (and other continental philosophers) because they are the most skilled people in the world at having infinitely complicated writing styles. Other episodes in this series include "Althusser kills his wife and communists keep admiringly quoting him", "every 70s French intellectual signs an open letter endorsing pedophilia", and "every department at Cambridge endorses giving Derrida an honorary philosophy degree /except/ the philosophers".

bm3719 1y ago
This stuff is all true. Lacan also had a habit of permanently "borrowing" people's collectible books, charging Felix Guattari to drive Lacan home, sleeping with his female clients, and many, many other despicable things. He was, by all accounts, a complete scumbag. I still read him because his ideas are brilliant and helped me in innumerable ways. He's dead now and his books can't hurt me. They're not even ideological, so you can't make the same case as you could for avoiding, say, a certain Austrian political theorist. However, if we somehow resurrect Lacan, I won't be lending him any first editions from my collection.
- astrange 1y ago
  > He's dead now and his books can't hurt me. They're not even ideological, so you can't make the same case as you could for avoiding, say, a certain Austrian political theorist. If only you hadn't put "political" there I was going to think of a joke about Wittgenstein. Who was possibly the grumpiest Austrian in the world at the time, even considering the other one.
fmajid 1y ago
As we French say, "nul n'est prophète en son pays". I'd never heard of Derrida until I read mention of him in some American academic journal. Writers are the most esteemed of artists in France, but that doesn't mean the French take superficially brilliant nonsense seriously as anything but wordplay.

bm3719 1y ago

This stuff is all true. Lacan also had a habit of permanently "borrowing" people's collectible books, charging Felix Guattari to drive Lacan home, sleeping with his female clients, and many, many other despicable things. He was, by all accounts, a complete scumbag. I still read him because his ideas are brilliant and helped me in innumerable ways. He's dead now and his books can't hurt me. They're not even ideological, so you can't make the same case as you could for avoiding, say, a certain Austrian political theorist. However, if we somehow resurrect Lacan, I won't be lending him any first editions from my collection.

astrange 1y ago
> He's dead now and his books can't hurt me. They're not even ideological, so you can't make the same case as you could for avoiding, say, a certain Austrian political theorist. If only you hadn't put "political" there I was going to think of a joke about Wittgenstein. Who was possibly the grumpiest Austrian in the world at the time, even considering the other one.

fmajid 1y ago

As we French say, "nul n'est prophète en son pays". I'd never heard of Derrida until I read mention of him in some American academic journal. Writers are the most esteemed of artists in France, but that doesn't mean the French take superficially brilliant nonsense seriously as anything but wordplay.