ABSTRACT
With the expression “Lacanian affects,” I designate both the Lacanian conception of affect and the highly original series of affects established by Lacan in Television, 1 considering them to be relevant to the psychoanalysis of his time. Most of the affects I will mention here have already been extensively discussed in literature or philosophy. This is true of sadness, guilt, and shame. But my goal here is not to provide a compendium and I examine here only what Lacan himself contributed to our understanding of them. His contribution consists essentially of locating their causes – the unconscious and the effects of language – without ever contenting himself with a simple phenomenological description.
