I Am Not A Muse: Disappearance of the Hysteric Today

Abstract

‘Where is she? Where has she gone?’ they ask as if a question of presence or the evocation of absence surrounds her, such that, watched by their vigilant gaze, it can finally be resolved. But that’s just the psychoanalysts muttering to themselves, an equally questionable clan with troubles similar to the ones mumbled about— Where are we? Are we on our way out? Who wants us anymore? These questions are so difficult because they seem so obvious, because they seem like they deserve a simple answer. And all the anxiety about disappearance, elusiveness, and ambiguity is concealed in this demand. Does she even want to be found or found out? Freud wrote, in Civilization and its Discontents, “writing to begin with was the voice of the absent”. Contrast this with his famous statement about ‘the finding of an object always being a refinding.’ In order to refind her, perhaps we have to allow her to write this voice of absence. There is something to be learned from the disappearance of the hysteric today.

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