ABSTRACT
Lacan rightly pointed out the irony of this shoddy Eden, which is not without a certain piquancy, because of the anecdote about Marie-Antoinette’s cynical remark that starving peasants should eat cake. In German, the term “Kultur” condenses the art of history and the history of art, while the French terms, “civilisation” and “culture” keep these elements distinct. Psychoanalysis can maintain that this combination of civilisation and culture is inevitable, because of an axiom that author shall state immediately. In 1975–1976, in his seminar on James Joyce and related writings, Lacan (2005b) distinguished between a “symptom” and a “sinthome”. Its primary function is to provide an alternative to what presents itself as an action that claims to be taken in the name of the Other; this is what occurs when the Name-of-the-Father has been established or made up for.
