ABSTRACT
The book ends with a dream and a clinical vignette to illustrate several points of Lacanian theory in relationship to Buddhist culture. It is a case of the lack of the m(Other), and the appearance of the objet a – where a lack, absence, or emptiness should be – that triggers anxiety for the analysand. In the dream, the imaginary eye of the (m)Other functions as an index of an unbearable emotional life experience of imaginary castration that the mind bears through the dream-work. The persecutory eye in the dream stares at his back or is “on his back.” The mother’s eye in the place where her sex or an absence should be supersedes the calming effect of the father’s gaze. The analysand had tattooed a pair of eyes of Buddha on his back to symbolize what he felt was a poor relationship to his father growing up. The tattoo protects him from the mother’s eye (objet a) identified with an imaginary phallus, while it symbolizes and renders benevolent the lack or emptiness in the mother. With the supplement of the tattoo, the gaze of the symbolic father now “has his back” and protects him from the dangers he cannot see.
