ABSTRACT
Both J. Lacan and Georges Bataille confirm Mauss’ argument against the primacy in human interaction of redressing a need or deficit. Speech is posited by Lacan as a gift of language; while speech itself is also the gift: it is in the gift of speech that all the reality of its effects resides; for it is by way of this gift that all reality has come to man and it is by his continued act that he maintains it. The gift of speech and all the reality that it creates appearing in many respects to be refused. Ambivalence over receiving and giving speech, more the province of the neurotic, evinces both affirmation and negation, desire and hostility. More striking than neurotic ambivalence, the psychotic’s response in the instances is suggestive of a primary difficulty with assuming the conventions involved in speaking with others, and no less with those involved in giving and receiving.
