LOVING THE PERFECT OTHER

Abstract

The article brings together a Charles Bronson false western and Jacques Lacan’s theory of the four discourses in order to illustrate the excessive symbolization of the hysteric jouissance, in its manifestation as a quest against satisfaction, a quest for the perfect Other. Employing Freud’s concepts of death drive and repetition compulsion, the hysteric position is further distinguished from both the obsessional subject and non-hysteric woman, which has access to a non-phallic, supplementary jouissance. A thief that stole a widow’s heart is believed dead, and she uses his death to raise their short relation to a perfect, ideal level. When the thief returns, he is rejected, so that she can maintain the absolute, symbolic love for his dead-perfect alter ego.