ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a true twenty-first century concept, “Ordinary Psychosis,” which—while a vital concept in the work of the Lacanian orientation now—cannot be found in Lacan’s work itself. In fact, Ordinary Psychosis is a new concept, introduced publically by Jacques-Alain Miller on September 19, 1998. The psychotic subject forecloses—rejects or refuses in a most radical way—the signifier of the Name of the Father. This lack of Name of the Father, under a certain condition that triggers a psychosis, correlates with a lack of paternal signification, whose consequences are most evident in the Symbolic language disturbances in psychosis, and a lack of Phallic signification, with consequences in the Imaginary on the representation of the body and also with regard to sexuality. As Ellman’s biography reveals, Joyce had many, many encounters with editors, publishers, creditors, employers, and friends in his life, any one of which certainly could have triggered a psychosis.
