LOVING THE PERFECT OTHER
LOVING THE PERFECT OTHER

Summary/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.

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