Renard is just like this. He blames others for his discontentment (at one point telling Pedott he must have been born under a bad zodiac sign or something). He refuses to take responsibility for his desire. He may be obsessed with material goods, and thus be greedy, but his problem is not just his greed; it’s his refusal to confront that he wants to keep on being unsatisfied, wants to keep finding new things, more things. His goal is not satisfaction, but to keep on wanting, and that’s why Pedott can’t help him.
One might say, in closing, and to take us back to the beginning, that Lacan offers the problem and Thomas Merton something like the solution:
Knowledge isn’t the thing we think it is. In the words of critical theorist Todd McGowan, psychoanalysis conceives “of the subject as a subject of desire rather than as a subject of knowledge.” In other words desire is what leads us. If true, this poses a major problem for political movements and social justice activists. It means that their view of change is far too optimistic. However focused social justice work is on the woes of the world, the implicit message is, If we could just get culture and economics all tidied up, then everything would be all right! This would depend on knowledge being the center of humanity, not desire. If everyone just woke up to new knowledge and awareness of what was “really happening” in the world, the world would be better.
The counter-notion of psychoanalysis is that people don’t want to change, even if they say they do. They don’t want to change because their destructive behavior — destructive to themselves and others — is giving them something that they desire. And to make matters more complicated, in Lacan’s play on words, “There isn’t the slightest desire to know.” Everyone’s world view hinges on keeping behaviors and excuses and explanations as they are. Desiring and knowing are at odds with each other.
What’s more, desire isn’t what it seems. Desire is an active organizing principle. It exists before the object of desire. Put simply, desire is happening in us all the time, arranging our personality, world view, and behavior. We experience our desire when it finds something to focus on. It could be a new car or a big bicep or a word of approval. When we get what we desire, we’re frustrated, because desire can’t be ameliorated. You probably know someone who has gotten her dream job, only to find herself frustrated with it. Or someone who keeps moving to new locations, believing that surely this will be the perfect place for him, only to find himself drawn again to a new perfect spot. When it comes to sexual experiences, they may be pleasurable, but now think of how frustrating they are when we expect them to satisfy our desire for sexual experiences or to be a cosmic encounter where all we feel is love and transcendent ecstasy.
In other words, once we get what we want, we can’t want it anymore.
Or we see that it’s not really what we wanted after all. Either way, disappointment, and we search again. (Conner Habib)
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (Thomas Merton)
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