The first aim of the thesis is to demonstrate the structural congruence between the discourse theory, as is formulated in the work of political philospoher Ernesto Laclau, and the Lacanian psychoanalytical discouse. Moreover, we claim that any potential attempt to remove or omit the theoretical connection with Lacanian thinking from Laclauan work is illegitimate and thwart a coherence of this work. Through this demonstration we want to reach our second aim, which is to reconstruct a theory of discourse and ideology in particular which can consistently draw upon theories of both Jacques Lacan and Ernesto Laclau. To reinforce our argumentation in context of this second aim, it turned out to be very fruitful to introduce another contemporary thinker, Slavoj Žižek, to our theoretical exposition. Joining these two aims made possible a delineation of post-structurally and at the same time psychoanalytically oriented critical political theory of ideology and society.

Ulf Lundell is one of the most famous songwriters and authors in Sweden. He has written fifteen works of fiction and they’ve all same theme – a lonely man trying to look into his own past life. They are all built on a character, writing from an I-perspective, having a bit of Lundells own biography in there’s personality.  The aim of his thesis is to find out how Ulf Lundell presents him self in his fictive characters, and will trace the authors development from a psychological point of view. The theoretic starting points are Lacans Freudian concepts “idealego”, “egoideal” and “the superego”, describing the psychological alteration at the author.                    The examination contains an analysis of Lundells novels Jack, En varg söker sin flock and Värmen, and throws light on the relationship between the author and his characters, and how it developes and changes with Lundells literary development. In this consideration are narrative theories a basic factor.   This work will also try to illustrate what has inspired Lundell in creating his fiction figures, and finally how he creates his own lived life on these literary characters.

In the 1949 play The Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller depicts a man that goes through life without ever really understanding his own place in it. Willy Loman spends his life chasing a dream yet lacks the ability to achieve it. Instead of trying to learn about himself, his abilities, and find goals more suited for him, he stubbornly insists on chasing grand and misinterpreted dreams woven by others. He commits his life to fantasies and coerces his family to follow him on a course towards failure and tragedy. This thesis seeks to analyze the behavior of the lead character of the play with the help of the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan. The analysis seeks to explain how Willy’s behavior affects the lives of his family members as well as his own, with a focus on the language of the play.

This is an essay about the swedish modernist writer and poet Gösta Oswald’s novel En privatmans vedermödor. The essay focuses on the question about how he uses the modernist language to portray the subject and main character Mr O. Oswald’s novel and his portrayal of the subject is compared and contrasted to earlier ideas about the subject in the modernist and pessimistic traditions presented by philosophers, e g Friedrich Nietzsche. Oswald’s literary style and ideas are also compared to his contemporary modernist writers, for instance Stig Dagerman. Through a psychoanalytical reading of Oswald’s novel using mostly Jacques Lacan’s theories about language the essay argues that it is a story about the nothingness of the subject. It’s also argued that the environment in the novel and Oswald’s use of mythological and classical motifs from Orpheus, Virgil and Dante enhances the themes of nothingness and the bleak outlook on life in the nihilistic post World War II cultural climate. / <p>Slutgiltigt godkännandedatum: 2023-05-30</p>

This thesis explores the role of hope within the Biden administration’s biographical narrative during the year after the Capitol attack on January 6th. The thesis provides for both an exploration of the case and how hope within national identity representations can be analyzed, as well as the value of hope after a disruptive event with consequences for the nation’s self-understanding. Previous research has focused mainly on fear of the outside or internal anxiety as drivers of state identity representations while implicitly assuming the occurrence of universality or a stable identity within the state. Instead, the theorizing on hope proposed by the thesis suggests that the American subject is unfinished and incomplete within its identity representations and requires hope to move forward, while also immunizing notions of fear and anxiety. While a complete identity can never be reached, American identity representations are sustained by manifesting hope for the future. Even though the American collective subject may never reach its desired unity, the hope that it someday might allow for the continuation of identity representations of the striving subject.

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Le présent travail a pour but de mettre en lumière la filiation existant entre les conceptions hégélienne et lacanienne du développement de la subjectivité humaine dans le lien social. En montrant que la conscience de soi n'est qu'en tant que quelque chose de reconnu, Hegel a justifié philosophiquement l'importance décisive du rapport à autrui pour la formation de la subjectivité. Ainsi a-t-il dégagé la structure intersubjective de la reconnaissance qui comporte quatre pôles (conscience de soi en soi, conscience de soi pour soi, l'autre, l'Autre) entre lesquels circule le signifiant de la reconnaissance. Mais de plus, Hegel avait d'ores et déjà pensé cette structure comme intrasubjective . Lacan l'a suivi sur cette voie et importé cette analyse pour la placer au centre de la théorie psychanalytique du sujet. Il s'en est servi tout au long de son oeuvre pour expliquer dans une perspective structurale les différentes pathologies de l'esprit humain (névrose, perversion, psychose).

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud‟s ideas are presented with specific emphasis on the themes presented in Freud‟s (1920a) Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Freud‟s Project for a Scientific Psychology (1950) provides important clues to describe the pleasure principle in terms of Quantity (Q), facilitations [Bahnung] and contact-barriers. Therefore, the implications of the pleasure principle relate greatly to 1) Freud‟s notion of the unconscious, 2) Lacan‟s explanation of das Ding, 3) the difference between jouissance and plaisir, and 4) the relationship between das Ding and the Law. Lacan‟s understanding of the death drive is consequently the culmination of all the topics mentioned and repeated throughout. Lacan‟s description of the death drive is twofold: firstly, the mechanical explanation of the pleasure principle, and secondly, how desire features within the pleasure principle. Lacan‟s description of the death drive encompasses libido, desire, economy, Linguistics, and the Oedipus complex, which illustrates why Freud‟s (1920) Beyond the Pleasure Principle is not only an important text in Freud‟s oeuvre, but also in Lacan‟s. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Jacques Lacan en Sigmund Freud se idees word nagegaan met spesifieke beklemtoning van die temas in Freud (1920a) se Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Freud (1950) se Project for a Scientific Psychology verskaf belangrike wenke vir die beskrywing van die pleasure principle in terme van kwantiteit (Q), fasilitasies (Bahnung) en kontak-versperrings [contact-barriers]. Gevolglik het die implikasies van die pleasure principle betrekking tot 1) Freud se begrip van die onbewussyn, 2) Lacan se verduideliking van das Ding, 3)die verskil tussen jouissance en plaisir, en 4) die verhouding tussen das Ding en die Wet. Lacan se begrip van die doodsdrang (death drive) is gevolglik die toppunt van al die onderwerpe wat deurentyd genoem en herhaal is. Lacan se beskrywing van die doodsdrang is tweedelig: eerstens, die meganiese verduideliking van die pleasure principle en tweedens, die rol van begeerte in die pleasure principle. Lacan se beskrywing van die doodsdrang behels libido, begeerte, ekonomie, Linguistiek, en die Oedipus-kompleks, wat wys hoekom Freud (1920) se Beyond the Pleasure Principle nie net „n belangrike teks in Freud se werke is nie, maar ook in Lacan s‟n.