Freud and the Scene of Writing Author(s): Jacques Derrida and Jeffrey Mehlman Reviewed work(s): Source: Yale

French Studies, No. 48, French Freud: Structural Studies in Psychoanalysis (1972), pp. 74-117 Published by: Yale University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929625 . Accessed: 18/01/2012 08:05
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Yale French Studies

future translators theProjectmight well to translate of do Bahnung fraying: as the word wears remarkably well. d) Differance a neologism-byvirtue thea-combining the temporal is of to to modes of difference a in (differer, defer)and spatial (differer, differ) movement which is neitheractive nor passive. It is this differential play, as (re)producing present the secondarily its effect, whichis the (utopian)focus of Derrida's undertaking. We have retainedthe French neologismin our translation. e) Supplement. The untranslatable verb suppleermeans at once to complete (or supplement) and to replace (an absence). In Rousseau's writing, in which Derrida has delineatedmost extensively logic of the supplement, the thereis something inherently awryin the author'suse of the word supple'er whicha com(De la grammatologie, Paris, 1967). For the kind of plenitude pletingsupplement with the secondarystatus mightbring is incompatible To the impliedby any "replacement." rephrase paradox in Rousseau's terms: to it is as though "obstacle"werealreadyintrinsic a primal"transparency." the Were we, like the dream-work, forge our own idiomatictranslation to

sion, would degenerate into a blind complacency reasonable translation (a for Rousseau's amour propre); the "displacement" the heart of every in would pass unperceived. Derrida's(Rousseau's? Freud's?) intellectual plenitude to task would then be to revivethe scandal of differance, dislocatea metaphysical,"phonological"complacency. Derrida assimilates supplement, the entry the see fromthe Vocabulairede la
Psychanalyse below. preface and postface in L'Ecriture et la difference. For the notion of Nachtriglichkeit (apres coup, deferred action), to which

of suppleer, it might be the condensation of completed and replace: to complace. This activity of complacing (or movement of difference),upon repres-

a This essay,originally lecture Dr. AndreGreen'sseminar, at appearswith -J. M.

Worin die Bahnung sonst besteht,bleibt dahingestellt. In what the frayingdoes consist remains an open question. (Project for a ScientificPsychology,1895)

Our aim is limited: to locatein Freud'stextseveralpointsof reference and to isolate,on the threshold a systematic of what in examination, psychoanalysis be containedbut withdifficulty the logocentric can by enclosure,as it limits not only the historyof philosophybut the of orientation the "human sciences,"notablyof a certainlinguistics. If the Freudian breakthrough historically is new, it is not by virtue 74

Jacques Derrida withthatlinguisof its peacefulcoexistence theoretical or complicity tics, at least in its congenital 1 phonologism. Now it is not accidentalthat Freud, in the decisivemomentsof his itinerary, recourseto metaphorical has modelswhichare borrowed not fromspoken language or verbal forms, nor even fromphonetic writing, but from a script which is never subject, extrinsic,and posterior the spokenword.Freud invokessignswhichdo not tranto In scribe living,whole speech,masterof itselfand self-present. fact, and thiswill be our problem, Freud does not simplyuse themetaphor to of non-phonetic writing;he does not deem it expedient manipulate scriptural metaphors didacticends. If such metaphorsare indisfor in the pensable,it is perhapsbecause theyilluminate return meaning withit, themeanin of a tracein generaland eventually, articulation no doubt,is not using ing of writing commonly as conceived.Freud, means to allude withthe knownto if metaphors, to use a metaphor of the unknown.Throughthe insistence his metaphoric investment, he rendersenigmatic, the contrary, what we believe we know by on A the name of writing. move unknownto classical philosophyis perhaps undertaken here, somewherebetween the implicitand the explicit.From Plato and Aristotle scriptural on, imageshave regularly between the reason and experience, been used to illustrate relationship and memory. has never stopped But a certainconfidence perception being reassuredby the meaningof the familiarterm: writing. The gesturesketchedby Freud interrupts that assuranceand opens up a new kind of questionabout metaphor, writing, spacingin general. and Let us follow in our readingthis metaphoric investment. will It eventually invade the entirety thepsyche.Psychicalcontent of will be represented a textwhose essenceis irreducibly by graphic.The structure of the psychicalapparatuswill be represented a writing by machine. What questionswill these representations impose on us? We shall have to ask not if a writing apparatus-for example, the one described in the "Note Upon the Mystic WritingPad"-is a good metaphor representing working thepsyche; but rather for the of what
1 For a discussion Saussure's"phonologism" of and the role it plays in (his) linguistics, De la grammatologie, 46.-Ed. see p.

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Yale French Studies apparatuswe mustcreatein orderto represent psychicalwriting, and whattheimitation, projectedand liberated a machine, something in of like psychicalwriting mightmean. Not if the psycheis indeed a kind of text,but: what is a text,and whatmustthepsychebe if it can be represented a text?For if thereis neither by machinenor textwithout psychicalorigin,thereis no psychewithout text.Finally,what must the relations among psyche, writing,and spacing be for such a metaphoric transition be possible,not only (nor primarily) to within theoreticaldiscourse but within the historyof pysche, text, and technics?

Frayingand Difference From the Project (1895) to the "Note Upon the MysticWriting-Pad" (1925), a strange of progression:a problematic fraying elaborated is only to conform to increasingly a metaphorics the written of trace. From a system tracesfunctioning of to according a model thatFreud would have preferred natural and from which writingis entirely of absent, we proceed towarda configuration traces which can no and longerbe represented exceptby the structure processof writing. At the same time, the structural which Freud model of writing, invokes immediately afterthe Project, will be persistently differentiated and refined originality. the mechanicalmodels will be in All tested and abandoned until the discoveryof the Wunderblock, a machine of marvelouscomplexity, into which the whole of writing the psychical apparatus will be projected.The solution to all the previousdifficulties be presented it, and the "Note," indicative will in of an admirabletenacity, will answerpreciselythe questionsof the in Project. The Wunderblock, each of its parts,will realize the apparatus which Freud, in the Project,judged "at presentunimaginable" ("We are at presentunable to imagine an apparatus which would accomplish so complicated an operation") and which he replaced(suppl&e)at thattimeby a neurological fable whose scheme and intention, certainrespects, will never abandon. in he 76

Jacques Derrida In 1895, it was a matterof explaining in memory the mannerof the naturalsciences,"proposing psychology a naturalscience,that as is, representing psychicalevents as states quantitatively determined by distinct materialparticles."Now, "one of the principalproperties of nervoustissueis memory, that is, most generally, capacityto the be alteredin a lastingway by eventswhich occur only once." And 4'any psychological theory worthyof attentionmust propose an explanationof 'memory'."The crux of such an explanation,what makes such an apparatusunimaginable, the necessity accounting is of as simultaneously, the "Note" will do thirty years later, for the of of permanence the trace and the virginity the receiving substance, of for the engraving the tracksand the perennially intactbarenessof the perceptive surface: in thiscase, of the neurones."Thus the neurones would appear to be both influencedand also unaltered, 'unprepossessed' which (unvoreingenommen)." Rejectinga distinction was commonin his day between"sense cells" and "memorycells," Freud thenforgesthe hypothesis "contact-barriers" "fraying" of and (Bahnung), of the breakingof a path (Bahn). Whatever may be and breaks in what will follow, this thoughtof the continuities is hypothesis remarkable soon as it is considered a metaphorical as as model and not as a neurologicaldescription. Fraying,the tracingof a trail, opens up a conducting path. Which presupposesa certain violenceand a certainresistance the effraction. pathis broken, to The cracked,fracta, Now therewould be two kinds of neurones: frayed. the permeableneurones(p), offering resistanceand thus retaining no no traceof impression, would be perceptual neurones; otherneurones (b) would oppose contact-barriers the quantityof excitationand to would thus retainthe printedtrace: they"thus offer possibility a of representing (darzustellen) memory." Firstrepresentation, staging first of memory.(Darstellungis representation the weak sense of the in word but also frequently the sense of visual depiction, in and sometimes of theatrical performance. Our translation will vary with the inflexion the context.)Freud attributes of psychicalquality only to these latterneurones.They are the "bearers of memoryand thus probably of psychical events in general." Memory is thus not a 77

Yale French Studies psychical property amongothers; it is theveryessenceof thepsyche: resistanceand preciselythereby openingto the effraction the an of trace. Now assumingthatFreud hereintendsto speak onlythe language of full and presentquantity, assuming, at least appears to be the as he intendsto situate his work in the simple opposition case, that betweenquantityand quality(the latterbeing reservedfor the pure transparency a perceptionwithoutmemory),we find that the of conceptof fraying reveals itselfintolerant this intent. of An equality in resistances the fraying an equivalence in the forcesfraying to or would eliminate any preference choice of itinerary. in Memorywould be paralysed.It is the difference betweenfrayings which is the real originof memory and thus of the psyche.Only thatdifference frees a "preference path" (Wegbevorzugung): of "Memory is represented by in betweenthe 4-neuro(dargestellt) the differences the frayings nes." We must thennot say thatfraying withoutdifference insufis for thatthere no pure fraying is ficient memory;it mustbe stipulated that withoutdifference. trace as memoryis not a pure fraying A it at mightbe retrieved any timeas a simplepresence, is the impalpable and invisibledifference betweenfrayings. thus know already We thatpsychical is neither transparency meaning life the of nor theopacin of ity of forcebut the difference the exertion forces.As Nietzsche had alreadysaid. That quantitybecomes psyche and mneme throughdifferences ratherthan through in confirmed the plenitudeswill be continuously of Project itself.Repetitionadds no quantity presentforce,no intensity; it reproducesthe same impression: yet it has the power of at fraying. "Memory, the force (Macht), perennially work, of an of experience, dependson a factorcalled the quantity the impression and on the frequency withwhich that same impression repeated." is is The numberof repetitions thus added to the quantity(Qu) of the exciattion,and these two quantitiesare of two absolutelyheterocan existeonly as discreteand can act as geneous types.Repetitions such only throughthe diastem which maintains their separation. can a at Finally,if fraying supplement quantity presently workor be 78

Jacques Derrida added to it, it is because it is definitely analogous to quantitybut different well: a quantity as "can be replacedby a quantity addition in to the fraying whichresultsfromit." Let us not hastento definethis otherof pure quantity quality: we would be transforming as mnemic energy intopresent consciousness and translucid perception present of qualities.Thus, neither difference the betweenfullquantities, nor the intervalbetweenrepetitions the identical,nor fraying of itselfmay be thoughtof in terms of the opposition between quantityand 2 quality. Memory cannot be derivedfromit and escapes the grasp of "naturalism" well as "phenomenology." as in All these differences the productionof the trace may be In reinterpreted momentsof deferment. accordance with a motif as that will continueto dominateFreud's thinking, this movement is described theeffort lifeto protect as itself deferring dangerous a of by a cathexis,that is, by constituting reserve(Vorrat). The threatening expenseor presenceare deferred withthehelp of fraying repetition. or Is thisnot alreadythe circuitous the path (Aufschub)instituting relation of pleasureto reality G. (Jenseits, W., xiii,p. 6)? Is it not already death at the originof a life which can defenditselfagainst death an reserve?For onlythrough economyof death,diffrrance, repetition, does not happen to an initialimpression;its possibility repetition is in offered first the timeby the psychical alreadythere, the resistance neurones.Resistanceitselfis possible only if the oppositionof forces lasts and is repeatedat the beginning. is the veryidea of a first It time which becomes enigmatic.What we are advancinghere does not seem to contradict whatFreud will say further ". . . fraying on: is probably the result of the single (einmaliger)passage of a large Even assumingthatthis affirmation quantity." does not lead us little and hereditary by littleto the problemof phylogenesis we fraying,
2 Here more than elsewhere,concerningthe concepts of difference, a and quantity, quality, systematic confrontation between Nietzscheand Freud is called for. Cf. for example,among many others,this fragment fromthe is to Nachlass: "Our 'knowing' limited theestablishment 'quantities';but we of cannothelp feeling thesedifferences-of-quantity as qualities.Qualityis a truth of perspective us; not 'in itself'... If our senseswere to becometen times for sharperor duller,we would be submerged:thatis, we too feel relations-ofas themto the existence quantity qualitiesin relating theymake possible for us" (Werke, III, p. 861).

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Yale French Studies may still maintainthat in the firsttime of the contactbetweentwo has forces,repetition begun. Life is alreadythreatened the origin by of the memory whichconstitutes and by thefraying it whichit resists, which it can contain only by repeatingit. It is by the effraction fractures Freud,in theProject,accordsa privilege because fraying that without beginning to pain. In a certainsense,thereis no fraying of a But pain and "pain leaves behindit particularly frayings." beyond rich a certainquantity, pain, the threatening originof the psyche,must like death, for it can "ruin" psychical"organization." be deferred, Despite the enigma of the "firsttime" and of originary repetition (needless to say, before any distinctionbetween "normal" and it all "pathological"repetition), is important thatFreud attributes this work to the primary function and excludes any derivation it. Let of us observethisnon-derivation, more dense the even if it but renders difficulty the concept of "primariness"and the timelessness of of the primary process,and even if thatdifficulty neverstops thickening in what follows. ofthe connection arereminded effort In this we (almost involuntarily) primary to of neuronic retained all systems, through their modifications,avoidbeing it the Under burdened quantity or to diminish so faras possible. with (Qu) to of of the has pressure theexigencies life, neuronic system beenobliged lay of it the up a store quantity For this (Qu). purpose hashadto increase number to and havehad to be impermeable. it nowavoids, But of itsneurones these that someextent least, with at being filled quantity (Qj)-avoids cathexis, is, that servethe It -by setting frayings. will be seen,therefore, frayings up primary functions. No doubt life protectsitselfby repetition, trace, differance. But we mustbe waryof thisformulation: thereis no lifepresentat first which would then come to protect, postpone,reserveitselfin diffrrance. The latterconstitutes essence of life.Or rather: differcance the not being an essence,it is not life,if being is determined ousia, as presence, essence/existence, substance or subject. Life must be of thought as tracebeforebeingmay be determined presence.This as is the only conditionon which we can say that life is death, that 80

Jacques Derrida are and repetition beyondthe pleasureprinciple nativeand congenital When Freud writesin the Project that to thatwhichtheytransgress. he function," already forbidsus to be serve the primary "frayings He by surprised Beyond the PleasurePrinciple. complieswitha dual in diffrrance the originand at the same time necessity: recognizing we out the conceptof primariness: will be no more surprised crossing which definesthat concept as a "theoretical by the Traumdeutung, of (Verspdtung) the seconin fiction" a paragraphon the "deferment" I whichis in the beginning. daryprocess.It is thusthe postponement would be the delay whicha consciousness Withoutwhich,differance of can thus not accords itself,a self-presence the present.Differer to possibility, postponean act, to put offa mean to retarda present perceptionalready now possible. That possibilityis possible only whichmustbe conceivedof in othertermsthan a through differance is as a calculus or mechanicsof choice. To say that differance origto inaryis simultaneously erase the mythof a presentorigin.Which which as mustbe understood crossedout, without is why"originary" a nonwould be derivedfroman originalplenitude.It is differance originwhichis originary. Rather than abandon it, we ought perhaps then to rethinkthe This is whatwe shouldlike to do, and it is posconceptof "differer." outside of any teleologicalor is sible only if differance determined horizon.It isn't easy. Let us note in passing: the coneschatological conceptswhichgovernthe and cepts of Nachtriglichkeit Verspdtung, whole of Freud's thought all and determine the otherconcepts,are alreadypresentand called by theirname in the Project.The irreducsuch of ibility the"effect deferment," is no doubtFreud's discovery. of in consequencesand beyond Freud exploitsthatdiscovery its ultimate he The history culture, thought, of thepsychoanalysis theindividual. of
3 These conceptsof originary and differance delay are unthinkable within or the authority the logic of identity even within conceptof time.The of the veryabsurdity betrayed the terms by providesthe possibility-iforganizedin a certain manner-of thinking beyondthatlogic and thatconcept. theword By delay,something other thana relation between two"presents" mustbe thought; the following model must be avoided: what was to happen (should have A happened)in a (prior)present occursonly in a present The conceptsof B. originary "difference" and "delay" revealedtheirurgency us in a reading to of Husserl(Introduction l'Originede la geometrie, ai 1962,p. 170-171).

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Yale French Studies oughtto confirm In Moses and Monotheism it. (1937), the efficacy of is deferment at work over large historicalintervals(G. W., xvi, p. 238-9). The problemof latency, moreover, in highlysignificant is in withthatof oral and written contact, thattext, tradition 170 sq.). (p. Althoughat no momentin the Project is fraying named writing, the contradictory requirements which the Mystic Writing-Pad wil are in fulfill already formulated termswhich are literally identical: "to retainwhileat the same timeremaining capable of receiving." in Differences the work of fraying concernnot only forcesbut locations.And Freud alreadywantsto think forceand place simultaneously.He is thefirst not to believein thedescriptive one value of his of The distinction between the hypothetical representation fraying. categoriesof neurones"has no recognizedfoundation, least in so at far as morphology e., histology) concerned."It is the index of (i. is a topographical description whichfamiliar, constituted, external space, the exterior thenaturalsciences, cannotcontain.This is why,under of in the rubricof "the biological standpoint," "difference essence" a betweenthe neuronesis "replaced by a dif(Wesensverschiedenheit) ference the milieuto which theyare destined"(Schicksals-Milieuin of differences situation, connecof verschiedenheit): pure differences, more important than their relations tion,of localization,of structural of supporting terms,and for which the relativity outside and inside always prevails.The thinking difference neither of can dispensewith models of spacing. topography nor accept the current to This difficulty becomesmore acute whenit is necessary explain those pure differences excellence: differences quality,that is, of par for Freud, of consciousness. He must explain "what we know enigthanksto our 'consciousness'."And "since this matically(rdtselhaft), consciousness knowsnothing whatwe have takenintoconsideration of shoud explain to us thatignoranceitself." up untilnow [the theory] Now qualities are clearlypure differences: a of Consciousness us whatwe call qualities, great gives variety sensations differentiated are and becomes which other otherness (anders) whose (Anders) to In there world. thisotherness (unterschieden in relation theexternal wird) 82

Jacques Derrida
about them. are series,similarities so on, but thereis nothing and quantitative We may ask how thesequalitiesoriginate and wheretheyoriginate.

Neitheroutsidenor inside. They cannotbe in the externalworld, "masses in motionand wherethe physicist recognizes onlyquantities, else." Nor in the interiority the psyche(i. e., of memory), of nothing and recollection"are "devoid of quality (qualifor "reproduction tatslos)." Since rejectingthe topographicalmodel is out of the question,"we mustsummonup enoughcourageto assume thatthere is a thirdsystemof neurones-'perceptualneurones'theymightbe but called-which are excitedalong withthe othersduring perception not duringreproduction, whose states of excitation and give rise to the different qualities-are, that is to say, conscious sensations." sheet of the Mystic WritingPad, Foreshadowingthe interpolated Freud, annoyedby his "jargon,"tells Fliess (Letter39; 1/1/96) that he is inserting, "slipping" (schieben) the perceptual neurones (o) betweenthe p- and #-neurones. This last bit of daringresultsin "what seems like an unheardof we difficulty": have just encountered permeability a and a fraying whichproceed fromno quantity all. From what then? From pure at time, from pure temporalization its conjunctionwith spacing: in fromperiodicity. Only recourseto temporality to a discontinuous and or periodic temporality, allow the difficulty be resolved,and will to we must patiently considerits implications. can see only one way "I of escape. ... HithertoI have regardedthe passage of quantity only as a transference (Qu) fromone neurone to another.It must have anotherattribute, however,of a temporalcharacter." If the discontinuity hypothesis "goes further," Freud emphasizes, thanthe "physicalclarification" its through insistence periods,it is on because in this case differences, intervals, and discontinuity regisare tered,"appropriated"withouttheirquantitative support.Perceptual neurones,"incapable of receivingquantities,appropriatethe period of an excitation."Pure difference, again, and difference between diastems.The conceptof a period in generalprecedesand conditions the oppositionbetweenquantityand quality and all which that op83

Yale French Studies position governs.For "b-neuronestoo have theirperiod, but it is devoid of quality,or, to put it more accurately, monotonous." we As shall see, this insistence discontinuity faithfully on will return the in "Note Upon the MysticWriting-Pad":as in the Project,it will be a last bold move resolvinga finallogical difficulty. The restof the Projectwill depend in its entirety an incessant on and increasingly radical invocation of the principle of difference. Beneath the neurological indications, whichplay the representational role of an artificial the model, we findrepeatedly persistent attempt forthepsychein terms spacing,a topography traces, of to account of a map of frayings;an attempt locate consciousness qualityin a to or space whose structure and possibilitymust be rethought; and to describe the "functioning the apparatus" in terms of pure difof ferencesand locations, to explain how "quantityof excitationis expressed in b by complexityand quality by topography."It is and because the natureof this system differences this topography of is radicallynew and must not allow any of itselfto be leftout that "acts of boldness," Freud, in his model of the apparatus,multiplies "strangebut indispensablehypotheses" (concerning "secreting"neurones or "key" neurones).And when he renouncesneurologyand anatomical localizations,it will be not in order to abandon but to will then enter his transform topographical preoccupations. Writing a on the scene. Trace will become gram; and the regionof fraying cipheredspacing. The Printand the OriginalSupplement A few weeks afterthe Project is sent to Fliess, duringa "nightof work," all the elementsof the systemarrange themselvesinto a "machine." It is not yet a writing machine: "Everything fell into place, the cogs meshed, thing the reallyseemedto be a machinewhich I in a moment would run of itself." In a moment: in thirty years.By itself: almost.
4 Letter 32 (10-20-95). machine:"The threesystems neurones, The of the'free' 'bound' and states quantity, primary secondary of the and processes,

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Jacques Derrida A littlemore thana year later,the trace startsbecomingwriting. In Letter52 (6/12/96), entiresystem theProjectis reconstituted the of in termsof a graphicconceptionas yet unknown Freud. It is not in surprising thiscoincideswiththe transition that fromthe neurological to thepsychical. theheartof theletter:thewords"sign"(Zeichen), At inscription transcription Not only is the (Niederschrift), (Umschrift). connectionbetweentrace and deferment e., a presentwhich does (i. not constitute, is originally but reconstituted frommemory"signs") explicitly but verbal phenomenaare assigneda place within defined, of a system stratified whichtheyare farfromdominating: writing
As you know I am workingon the assumptionthat our psychicalmechanism has come about by a processof stratification (Aufeinanderschichtung); thematerial present the shape of memory in traces(Erinnerungsspuren) is from time to time subjectedto a rearrangement in (Umordnung) accordancewith new relations a transcription to (Umschrift). Thus, what is essentially new in my theoryis the thesisthat memory presentnot once but several times is over,thatit is registered (niederlegt) various species of 'signs'. . . I cannot in say how many of these inscriptions (Niederschriften) theremay be: at least threeand probablymore. . The different transcripts separated(though are not necessarily topography) respectto the neuroneswhich are their in in vehicles... Perception. These are neuronesin whichperception appears and to whichconsciousness attachedbut whichin themselves is retainno traceof

of perception: first the of inscription the perceptions; is quite incapableof it being consciousand is arrangedaccording associationsof simultaneity... to Unconsciousis a second inscription . Preconsciousis the thirdinscription, .. linkedto verbal images corresponding our officialego ... This secondary to thought consciousness secondary time and probablyconnected is in with the activation verbal images. hallucinatory of

what happens. For consciousness and memory are mutually exclusive. Sign

This is a first move toward the "Note." From now on, starting withthe Traumdeutung (1900), the metaphor writing of will dominate the simultaneously problemof thepsychicalapparatusin its structure and of the psychical text in its fabric. The solidarityof the two
themaintrend and thecompromise trend thenervous of system, twobiologthe ical rules of attention and defencethe indications quality,reality, of and the thought, stateof thepsycho-sexual the group, sexualdetermination represof sion,and finally factors the determining consciousness a perceptual as functionthe whole thing held together, stilldoes. I can hardlycontainmyself and with If delight. I had onlywaiteda fortnight beforesetting all downforyou..." it

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Yale French Studies problems shouldmake us even moreattentive:thetwo seriesof metaphors-text and machine-do not enteron the scene at the same time. "Dreams generally follow formerfrayings,"said the Project. in and formalregression dreamsmust thus temporal, Topographical, henceforth a path back into a landscape of writing. as be interpreted the Not of a writing which simplytranscribes, stonyecho of muted non-linguistic, words,but of a preverballithography:metaphonetic, the or a-logical. (Logic obeys consciousness, preconsciousness, site of of expresthe verbalimages,as well as theprinciple identity, founding of sion of a philosophy presence."It was onlya logical contradiction, we whichdoes not have much import," read in The WolfMan.) With The Traumdeutung, interthe of dreamsdisplacedinto a forest script, an pretationof dreams,will no doubt be, initially, act of reading and decoding.Before the analysisof the Irma dream,Freud engages he of in considerations method.In one of his familiargestures, oppsychology. poses the old popular traditionto so-called scientific As always,it is in orderto justify latentintention whichinspires the the former.Tradition may, of course, err, when, according to a and as it "symbolical"procedure, treatsdream content an indivisible unarticulated whole, for which a second, possibly propheticwhole But Freud is not far fromacceptingthe "other may be substituted. popular method": "It mightbe describedas the 'decoding' method since (Chiffriermethode), it treatsdreams as a kind of secretwriting in (Geheimschrift) which each sign is translatedinto another sign in havinga knownmeaning, accordancewitha fixedkey (Schliissel)." code: (G. W. 11/111, 102). Let us retainthe allusionto a permanent p. nevertheless, it is theweaknessof a methodto whichFreud attributes, of the meritof beinganalyticand of spellingout the elements meaning one by one. this A strange exampleis chosenby Freud to illustrate procedure: as is a text of phoneticwriting cathectedand functions a discrete, elementin the overall writing and unprivileged translatable specific, as withinwriting. of the dream. Phonetic writing writing Assume, of forexample,says Freud,thatI have dreamt a letter (Brieffepistola), a then of a burial. Open a Traumbuch, book in which the keys to 86

Jacques Derrida dreams are recorded,an encyclopediaof dream signs, the dream must dictionary whichFreud will soon reject.It teachesus thatletter be translated (fibersetzen) spiteand burialby marriage by engagement. with letters(litterae),a document Thus a letter (epistola) written composedof phonetic signs,the transcription verbaldiscourse, of may is a debe translated a non-verbaltermwhich,inasmuchas it by termined affect, belongsto the overall syntaxof dream writing. The verbal is cathected, and its phonetictranscription bound, far from is the center, a web of silentscript. in Freud thenborrowsanother of examplefromArtemidorus Daldis (second century), the author of a treatiseon the interpretation of dreams. Let it be a pretextfor recallingthat in the 18th century an English theologian,unknown to Freud, had already invoked I no with an intention, doubt, worthyof comparison. Artemidorus and discernsin it describesthe systemof hieroglyphics Warburton or (rightly wrongly;it is of no concernto us here) various structures (hieroglyphics strictly speakingor symbolicalones, each type being the eithercuriologicalor tropological, relationhere being of analogy or of part to whole) which ought to be systematically confronted with the mechanismsof dream-work(condensation,displacement, Now Warburton, interested apologeticalreafor overdetermination). sons in demonstrating, against Father Kircher,"the great antiquity of this Nation," chooses the example of an Egyptianscience all of whose resourceslie in hieroglyphic writing. That science is Traumalso knownas oneirocriticism. When all is said and done, it deutung, in was only a science of writing priestly hands. God, the Egyptians believed,had made man thegiftof writing as he inspired just dreams. like had then only to draw in the Interpreters, dreams themselves, or treasure. curiological tropological They would readilyfindtherethe
5 Warburton, authorof The Divine Mission of Moses. The fourth the part of his workwas translated 1744 underthe title: Essai sur les Hie'roglyphes in oi' des Egyptiens, l'on voit l'Origineet le Progresdu langage,I'Antiquite des Sciencesen Egypte,et l'Originedu culte des Animaux.This work,whichwe had a considerable All shall discusselsewhere, influence. thought that era of about language and signs bore its mark. The editorsof the Encyclopedia, Condillac,and, through him,Rousseau drewspecific fromit, borinspiration rowing in particularthe theme of the originallymetaphoricalnature of language.

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Yale French Studies key to dreams,which theywould thenpretendto divine.The hieroglyphic code itself servedas a Traumbuch. Allegedgift God, in fact of it constructed historically, had become the commonsource on which the dream discourse drew: the settingand the text of its mise en Since dreamsare constructed a formof writing, kinds like the scerne. of transposition dreamscorrespond condensations in to and displaceand in of mentsalreadyperformed registered thesystem hieroglyphics. Dreams would only manipulateelements(stoicheia,says Warburton, elements letters) of or containedin the thesaurus hieroglyphics, somewhat as written speech would draw on a written language: "It is a matterof examiningwhat basis the interpretation given by the Oneirocritic mighthave had, when he told someone who consulted him on one of the following dreams that a dragon meant royalty; that a serpent indicated sickness... ; that frogs signified impostors..." What then did the hermeneuts that age do? They conof sulted writing itself:
of Now the first interpreters dreamswere by no means knavesand impostors. It was simplytheirlot-as it was that of the first legal astrologers-tobe than more superstitious the othermen of theirday and to fall preyto illusion earlier.But even if we assume that theyhad been as knavishas theirsucto cessors,theystill needed propermaterials workwith; and those materials could neverbe such as to stirin so strange manner imagination each a the of individual. Those who consultedthemmust have soughta familiaranalogy, serveas a basis for decyphering; theythemselves and whichmight musthave to had recourse a knownauthority orderto sustaintheirscience.But what in otheranalogyand what otherauthority could therehave been than the symbolic hieroglyphics, whichhad become a sacred and mysterious thing?Such is the naturalsolutionto the problem.The science of symbols servedas ... a basis for theirinterpretations.

It is here that the Freudian break occurs. No doubt Freud as conceives of the dream's displacements a new formof writing, placing words on stage withoutbecomingsubservient them; no to doubt he is thinking here of a model of writing irreducible speech to and including,like hieroglyphics, pictographic, ideogrammatic and phoneticelements.But he makes of psychicalwriting originary so a production thatwriting such as we believe to be designated the in 88

Jacques Derrida literalsense of the word-a scriptwhichis coded and visible"in the world"-would be only its metaphor. for Psychicalwriting, example the kindwe findin dreams,which"followsearlierfrayings," simple a momentin a regression toward "primary"writing, cannot be read in termsof any code. No doubt it works with a mass of elements which have been coded in the course of an individualor collective history. But in its operations, a lexicon,and syntax, purelyidiomatic residueis irreducible and is made to bear theburdenof interpretation in the communication betweenunconsciouses.The dreamerinvents his own grammar. meaningful No materialor priortextexistswhich he might simplyuse, even if he neverdepriveshimself them.Such of of is, despite theirinterest, limitation the Chiffriermethode the and the Traumbuch. much as of the generality the rigidity the and of As code, that limitation a function an excessivepreoccupation of is with an contents, insufficient concern for relations,locations, processes, and differences: as "My procedureis not so convenient the popular decoding method which translatesany given piece of a dream's contentby a fixedkey. I am ratherinclinedto thinkthat the same piece of contentmay hide a different meaningwhen it occurs in variouspeople or in variouscontexts"(p. 109). Elsewhere, support in of that statement, Freud thinksit proper to adduce the case of Chinese writing:"The [the dreamsymbols]frequently have multiple meanings: so many, in fact, that, as in Chinese writing, only the contextallows a correct interpretation each case" (p. 358). in The absence of an exhaustive and absolutely infallible code means thatin psychicalwriting, whichthusprefigures meaning writing the of in general, the difference between signifier and signifiedis never radical. Unconscious experience, prior to the dream which follows earlierfrayings, does not borrowbut producesits own signifiers; does not create them in theirmateriality, course, but produces their of status-as-meaningful [signifiance]. And if such be the case, theyare no longer, properly speaking, signifiers. And the possibility translaof tion,if it is far frombeing eliminated-forbetweenthose points of or identity adherenceof signifier signified, to experience perpetually is distances-is nevertheless principleand by definition stretching in 89

Yale French Studies fromanotherstandlimited.Such is perhapsFreud's understanding, in point, in the articleon "Repression": "Repression functions an here refers individual entirely way." (G. W., x, p. 252). (Individuality not to that of individualsbut to that of each "derivativeof the which may have its own destiny.")Translation, system a repressed, is code allows a substituof translation, possible onlyif a permanent the while retaining same signified, tion or transformation signifiers of This always present,despite the absence of any specific signifier. would thus be impliedby the fundamental possibility substitution of consequently the concept of by coupled concepts: signified/signifier, the the sign itself.Even if we join Saussure in envisaging distinction between signified only as the two sides of a sheet of and signifier writing, thereis any, must if paper, nothingis changed. Originary of produce the space and the materiality the sheetitself. It will be said: and yetFreud translates the time.He believes all of code for dream writing: in the generality and the fixity a specific
When we have become familiarwith the abundantuse made of symbolism for representing sexual materialin dreams,the question is bound to arise fixed of whether many of these symbolsdo not occur with a permanently in like the 'grammalogues' shorthand;and we shall feel tempted to meaning, on draw up a new Traumbuch the decodingprinciple (II/III, p. 356).

And, in fact, Freud never stopped proposingcodes, rules of great of seems to be the essential generality. And the substitution signifiers in interpretation. course. Freud nevertheOf activity psychoanalytic on less stipulatesan essential limitation this activity.Or rather,a double limitation. in If we considerfirstverbal expression,as it is circumscribed the materiality the exof the dream,we observe that its sonority, or pression,does not disappear beforethe signified at least is not as traversedand transgressed it is in conscious speech. It acts as Artaud assigned it on the stage of cruelty. such, with the efficacy of or Now the materiality a word cannotbe translated carriedover relininto a different language.It is preciselythatwhich translation is forceof translamateriality even the driving quishes. To relinquish 90

Jacques Derrida is translation becomes poetry. tion. When thatmateriality reinstated, constitutes idiom the of In thissense,sincethemateriality the signifier of every dream scene, dreams are untranslatable:"Indeed, dreams are so closelyrelatedto linguistic expressionthatFerenczi has truly It remarkedthat every tongue has its own dream-language. is ima possible as a rule to translate dream into a foreign language,and this is equally true,I fancy,of a book such as the presentone." nationallanguageis the case a fortiori What is the case fora specific for a privategrammar. of without loss Moreover,this horizontal impossibility translation to has its basis in a vertical impossibility. refer the way in which We unconscious thoughtsbecome conscious. If a dream cannot be into anotherlanguage,it is because withinthe psychical translated We apparatusas well thereis nevera relationof simpletranslation. in or are wrong,Freud tells us, to speak of translation transcription of describingthe transition unconsciousthoughtsthroughthe preHere again the metaphorical conscioustowardconsciousness. concept of translation(Ubersetzung) or transcription (Umschrift)is not but dangerousbecause it refersto writing, because it presupposesa textwhichwould be alreadythere, immobile: the serenepresenceof a statue,of a written stone or archivewhose signified content might be transported harminto the element a different of without language, that of the preconsciousor the conscious. It is thus not enough to talk of writing order to be faithful Freud; it is then that we in to may betrayhim more than ever. This is explainedto us in the last chapterof the Traumdeutung. An entirely and conventionally topographical metaphorof the psychical apparatus is to be completedby invokingthe existenceof force and of two kinds of processes of excitationor modes of its discharge:
So let us tryto correctsome images [intuitive illustrations: Anschauungen] whichmight misleading long as we looked upon the two systems the be so in most immediate and crudestsense as two localitiesin the mentalapparatus, imageswhichhave lefttheirmarkin the expressions repress' 'to and 'to force a way through'. Thus we may speak of an unconsciousthought seekingto conveyitselfaftertranslation (Ubersetzung) into the preconscious as to be so

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into consciousness. What we have in mind able thento forceits way through in situated a new place, like a here is not the forming a second thought of to transcription (Umschrift) whichcontinues existalongsidethe originaltext; into consciousness must be kept and the notion of forcinga way through 6 carefully freefromany idea of a changeof locality.

our Let us interrupt quotationfora moment.The conscious text is thusnot a transcription, because thereis no textpresentelsewhere as unconsciousto be transposedor carried over. For the value of presence as well may dangerouslyaffectthe concept of the unto because conscious.There is then no unconscioustruth rediscover it would be written and present elsewhere.There is no textwritten withoutbeing changedin elsewherewhich would then be subjected, the process,to an operationand a temporalization latterbelong(the ing to consciousnessif we follow Freud literally)which would be externalto it, floatingon its surface.There is no presenttext in general,and thereis not even a past presenttext,a text which is The textis not thinkable an originary in past as havingbeen present. formof presence.The unconscioustextis alreadywoven or modified in of pure traces,differences which meaningand force are united; of a text nowherepresent,consisting archiveswhich are always albegins with reready transcriptions. Originaryprints. Everything of production.Always already: repositories a meaningwhich was by never present,whose signified presence is always reconstituted for deferment, nachtrdglich, belatedly, supplementarily: nachtrdglich is also means supplementary. The appeal of the supplement primal by as here and breaks open what will be reconstituted deferment the which seems to be added as a plenitude present.The supplement, is to a plenitude, as well thatwhichcompensates a lack [qui supfor to pMe]. "Supplier: 1. To add what is missing, supplya necessary the logic surplus," says Littre, respecting, a somnambulist, strange like of that word. It is withinits logic that the possibilityof deferred action [apres coup] should be thought, well, no doubt, as the as between the primaryand the secondaryon all levels. relationship
6 (p. 615) The Ego and the Id (G. W., xiii, ch. 2) also underscores the dangerof a topographical of representation psychical facts.

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Jacques Derrida in Let us note: Nachtraghas a precisemeaning the realmof letters: The text we call presentmay be deappendix, codicil, postcript. or cipheredonly at the bottomof the page, in a footnote postscript. only the call for a footnote. Before that recurrence, presentis the that That the presentin generalis not primalbut reconstituted, it is not the absolute, wholly living form which constitutes experience, that there is no purityof the living present,such is the themeformidablefor metaphysics-whichFreud, in a conceptual scheme unequal to the thingitself,would have us pursue. That intellectual is metaphysics effort no doubt unique in being containedby neither nor science. Since the transition consciousnessis not a derivativeor reto a petitivewriting, transcription duplicatingan unconsciouswriting, it it occurs in an originalmannerand, in its very secondariness, is for originary and irreducible. Since consciousness Freud is a surface exposed to the externalworld,it is here that instead of readingthe metaphorin its usual sense, we must ratherunderstandthe possibilityof a writing advanced as conscious and acting in the world (the visible exteriorof the graphic,of the literal,of the literalbecoming literary,etc.) in terms of that exertionof writingwhich circulates like psychical energybetween the unconscious and the of conscious. The "objectivist"or "worldly" consideration writing if to teachesus nothing it is not referred a space of psychicalwriting in (we mightsay: of transcendental writing the event that, along with Husserl, we would see the psyche as a region of the world. But sinceit is also the case forFreud, who wantsto respectsimultaand neouslythe Being-in-the-world the psyche,its Being-in-space, of the originality a topologyirreducible any ordinary to of intra-worldliness, we perhaps should thinkthat what we are describinghere as the exertionof writing obliteratesthe transcendental distinction betweenthe originof the world and Being-in-the-world. Obliterates it whileproducing themediumof thedialogueand misunderstandit: ing betweenthe Husserlian and Heideggerianconceptsof Being-inthe-world). 93

Yale French Studies Concerningthis non-transcriptive writing, Freud adds a fundamental specification. will reveal: (1) the danger involved in It immobilizing freezingenergyin a naive metaphoricsof place; or the (2) the necessity not of abandoningbut of rethinking space or topology of that writing; (3) that Freud, who still insists on representing the psychical apparatus in an artificialmodel, has not yet discovereda mechanicalmodel adequate to the graphematic conceptual scheme he is already using to describe the psychicaltext.
When we speak of a preconscious or thought beingrepressed drivenout and thentakenover by the unconscious, theseimages,derived froma metaphorics us to for (Vorstellungskreis) relating a struggle a piece of ground, may tempt to suppose thatit is in fact truethat a grouping (Anordnung) one locality in has been brought an end and replacedby a freshone in anotherlocality. to Let us replace these analogies by something that seems to correspond better to the real stateof affairs, let us say thatsome particular and mentalgrouping has had a cathexisof energy(Energiebesetzung) attachedto it or withdrawn from it, so that the structure questionhas come under the sway of a in fromit. What we are doinghere is once particular agencyor been withdrawn one. again to replacea topographical way of representing things a dynamic by What we regard as mobile (das Bewegliche)is not the psychicalstructure itselfbut its innervation... (Ibid).

of our Let us once moreinterrupt quotation.The metaphor translation as the transcription an originaltext would separate force of and extension, the of and maintaining simpleexteriority the translated the translating. That veryexteriority, static and topologicalbias the of the metaphor, would assure the transparency a neutraltranslaof and non-metabolic tion,of a phoronomic process.Freud emphasizes because this: psychicalwritingdoes not lend itself to translation it it is a singleenergetic system (howeverdifferentiatedmay be) and covers the entirety the psychicalapparatus.Despite the difference of of agencies, psychical writingin general is not a displacementof in of meanings the limpidity an immobile, pre-given space: the blank of neutrality speech. Of a speech which might be coded without ceasing to be diaphanous.Here energycannot be reduced and does not limit meaning but ratherproduces it. The distinction between is derivative relationto an arch-trace;it bein force and meaning 94

Jacques Derrida longs to the metaphysics consciousness of and of presence,or rather of presence theword,in thehallucination a languagedetermined in of on the basis of the word or verbal representation. Metaphysicsof preconsciousness, Freud might say, since the preconsciousis the place he assignsto theverbal.Without that,would Freud have taught us anything new? Force produces meaning(and space) throughthe power of "repetition"alone, whichinhabitsit originarily its death.This power, as that is: this lack of power,which opens and limitsthe exertionof force, institutes translatability, makes possible what we call "language," transforms absolute idiom into a limit which is always an already transgressed:a pure idiom is not language; it becomes so only through repetition;repetition always already divides the point of departure the first of time.In spite of appearances,this does not what we said earlierabout untranslatability. that time At contradict it was a question of recallingthe originof the movement transof gression,the originof repetition, and the becoming-language the of idiom. If one limitsoneselfto the datum or effect repetition, to of translation, the obviousnessof the distinction to betweenforce and meaning,not only does one miss the originality Freud's aim, but of the stingof the relationto death is obliterated the process. in We oughtthus to examineclosely-an impossibility thisforum in -all that Freud invitesus to thinkconcerning writing "fraying", as in the psychical repetition that previouslyneurologicalnotion: of openingup of its own space, effraction, breakingof a path against resistances, rupture irruption or becominga route (rupta,via rupta), in of violentinscription a form,tracingof a difference a natureor a matterwhich are thinkableas such only in their oppositionto The road (route) is opened in nature or matter,forestor writing. wood (hyle') and institutes reversibility timeand space. We should a of have to study together, and structurally, historyof the genetically the road and the history writing. are thinking of We here of Freud's texts on the work of the memory-trace (Erinnerungsspur) which, no longer the neurological trace, is not yet "conscious though memory,"("The Unconscious,"G. W., x, p. 288), of the itinerant 95

Yale French Studies its work of the trace,producing and not following route,of the trace which traces,of the trace which fraysitselfits path. The metaphor in is of the frayedpath, so frequent Freud's descriptions, always in communication with the themeof the supplementary delay and the aftera slow mole-like of reconstitution meaningthrough deferment, toil of an impress.The latterhas advance, afterthe subterranean lefta laborioustracewhichhas neverbeen perceived, lived as present the meaning,i.e., as consciousness.The postcript which constitutes as past presentas such is not satisfied, Plato, Hegel, and Proust perhaps thought, with reawakeningor revealingit in its truth.It producesit. Is sexual deferment best examplehere or the essence the of this movement?A bad question, no doubt: the (presumably defined known) subject of the question-sexuality-is determined, or undefined Freud's answer, only in return and by the answeritself. in any event,is trenchant. Take the Wolf Man. It is by deferment that the perceptionof the primal scene-whether it be realityor fantasyis unimportant-islived in its meaning,and sexual maturation is not the accidentalformof thisdelay. "At age one and a half, he receivedimpressions deferred the understanding whichbecame of possible for him at the time of the dream through development, his exaltation,and sexual investigations." Already in the Project,concerningrepressionin hysteria: "We invariably find that a memory is repressedwhich has become a trauma only afterthe event (nur nachtrdglich). The reason for this state of thingsis the retardation (Verspdtung)of pubertyas compared with the remainderof the individual'sdevelopment." That should lead, if not to the solution, at least to a new way of posing the formidableproblem of the of and the so-called "timelessness" the unconscious. temporalization and Here more than elsewherethe gap betweenFreudian intuition of conceptis apparent.The timelessness the unconsciousis no doubt determinedonly in opposition to a common concept of time, a traditional concept,the metaphysical concept: the timeof mechanics or the time of consciousness.We ought perhaps to read Freud the way Heidegger read Kant: like the cogito, the unconsciousis no 96

Jacques Derrida the of vulgar conception doubt timeless from standpoint a certain only of time.
Dioptrics and Hieroglyphics

as an Let us not conclude quickly too thatby invoking energetics his of Freudabandoned efforts opposedto a topography translation, and in giving projective a to localize.If, as we shallsee,he persists of energetic promechanical-representation spatial-indeed, purely spatiality, it is not simply didacticreasons: a certain for cesses, its the idea of system, irreducible; nature is inseparable from very consider as the it in is all themoreenigmatic thatwe can no longer processes. milieu dynamic economic of and homogeneous serene and the is In theTraumdeutung, metaphoric machine notyetadaptedto the scriptural analogywhich alreadygoverns-as shall soon be It clear-Freud's entiredescriptive presentation. is an optical
machine.

Let us return our quotation. Freuddoes notwantto abandon to modelagainst he us: which has just warned the topographical
to I and justifiable continueto make use Nevertheless, considerit expedient Vorstellung] of [of of the intuitive representation the metaphor:anschauliche of thetwo systems. can avoid any possibleabuse of thismethod representaWe tion [mode de mise en scene; Darstellungsweise] recollecting by that restructures general in must thoughts psychical and presentations [Vorstellungen], of as but neverbe regarded localized in organicelements the nervoussystem and whereresistances frayings as provide them, rather, one might say, between that can be an object [Gegenstand] correlates. the corresponding Everything is like the image producedin a telescope of our internal perception virtual, in of But the by the passage of light-rays. we are justified assuming existence entities themselves underare [our the systems-which notin any waypsychical and can neverbe accessibleto our psychical the perception-like lenses lining] we whichcast the image.And,if we pursuethisanalogy, may of the telescope, to betweentwo systems the refraction [the breaking comparethe censorship which takes place when a ray of lightpasses of the ray: Strahlenbrechung] into a new medium(p. 615-616).

in cannot understood terms the be of Thisrepresentation already of The structure. change medium in homogeneous spatiality a simple,
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Yale French Studies this Whereupon indicate sufficiently. of and themovement refraction an in a further to proposes inreference thesame machine, Freud, on in In the teresting differentiation. samechapter, thesection "Reand betwen he to memory gression," attempts explainthe relation trace: in perception thememory
I to locality. shall What is presented us in thesewordsis the idea of psychical the entirely disregard idea thatthe mentalapparatuswithwhichwe are here concernedis also known to us in the form of an anatomicalpreparation and avoid the temptation preparation], I shall carefully [Prdparat:laboratory fashion.I shall remainupon to determine localityin any anatomical psychical that we psychological ground,and I propose simplyto followthe suggestion as which carriesout our mentalfunctions reshould picturethe instrument or apparatus,or something a sembling compoundmicroscope, a photographic to localitywill correspond a place (Ort) of the kind.On thatbasis, psychical stagesof an imagecomes insidethe apparatusat whichone of thepreliminary as and telescope, we know,these occur in part into being.In the microscope at ideal points,regionsin whichno tangiblecomponent the apparatusis of of to situated. see no necessity apologizefortheimperfections thisor of any I similarimagery 541). (p.

for provesuseful value,thisillustration Beyondits pedagogical is itsdistinction system not system psyche:thepsychical and between Next, and is only psychical, in thisdescription thesystem concerned. it is the operation the apparatus whichinterests Freud,how it of as and in whatorder, regulated the timing itsmovements it is of runs in speakand "Strictly caught localized thepartsof themechanism: are is that systems ing,there no needforthehypothesis thepsychical if in It actually arranged a spatialorder. wouldbe sufficienta fixed process psychical by order wereestablished thefactthatin a given the excitation temporal in through systems a particular the passes capturelight; in the theseopticalinstruments sequence."Finally, 7 Freud already wantsto it. they exampleof photography register
7 The metaphorof a photographic negativeoccurs frequently. "The Cf. Dynamicsof Transference" W., xiii, p. 364-65).The notionsof negative (G. meansof theanalogy. theanalysis Dora, Freud and copy are theprincipal In of in the of and reeditions:simplereprints defines transference terms editions or revisedand corrected editions. "Notes on the Conceptof the Unconscious In in Psychoanalysis," 1913 (G. W., x, p. 436), Freud comparesthe relations betweenthe consciousand the unconscious a photographic to process: "The is first stage of the photograph the negative; everyphotographic image must

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Derrida Jacques account thephotographic for or of and negative inscription light here is the differentiation which It (Differenzierung) he introduces. will reduce "imperfections" analogy perhaps the ofhis and "excuse"them. the Aboveall itwillthrow relief apparently into contradictory requirement has and which haunted FreudsincetheProject willbe satisfied the onlyby a writing Pad": machine, "Mystic
a at Next, we have groundsfor introducing first differentiation the sensory end [of the apparatus]. trace(Spur)is leftin our psychical A apparatusof the perceptions whichimpinge as upon it. This we may describe a 'memory-trace' and related to it we give the name of (Erinnerungsspur), to the function 'memory'. we are in earnestover our plan of attaching If psychical processes to systems, memory-traces only consistin permanent can modifications the of elements the system. of But, as has alreadybeen pointedout elsewhere, there are obvious difficulties involvedin supposing that one and the same system can accurately retainmodifications its elements of and yet remainperpetually open to the reception freshoccasionsfor modification 534). of (p.

Two systems thusbe necessary a single will in machine. This double system, combining freshness surface depth retention, of and of could be represented an optical by machine distantly "imperfectly." only and "By analysing dreams cantakea step we forward ourunderstanding in of the composition thatmostmarvelous mostmysterious of and of all instruments. a smallstepno doubt; but a beginning..." Only Thus do we read in thefinalpages of the Traumdeutung 614). (p. Onlya smallstep.The graphic representationthe(non-psychical) of system the psychical not yet readyat a timewhensuch a of is representation psychical ofthe already occupies, theTraumdeutung in a itself, largearea. Let us measure delay. this We have already defined elsewhere fundamental the property of in writing, a difficult of theword, spacing: sense as diastem time and becoming space; an unfolding well,in a new kindof site,of as
pass the "negative"test,and those whichhave reactedwell to that test are admitted the "positive"process endingin the picture."Hervey de Saintto Denys devotes entire an of chapter his book to thesame analogy. The intentions are the same. They suggest precaution a thatwe will findagain in the "Note Upon the MysticWriting-Pad":"Memory,comparedto a camera,has the marvelous of superiority natural forces: to be able to renewby itself means its of action."

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Studies Yale French present moving from irreversible, consecution, linear meanings which extent) point, could not but tendand (to a certain pointto present phonetic writing. latter's The in failto repress. particular so-called In by with complicity the logos (or the timeof logic),dominated the the of of of principle non-contradiction,cornerstone all metaphysics spacing or phonic Now presence, profound. in thissilent notwholly is no obeythe are which longer concatenations possible outofmeaning, or time, time consciousness preconsciousness, the of linearity logical of space the thetime "verbal representations". Between non-phonetic of and the space of the stage of writing writing) (even "phonetic" is the [scene]of dreams boundary unsure. not then in to the We should be surprised ifFreud, order suggest in constantly relations dreams, strangeness the logico-temporal of rebuses, of and adduces writing, the spatialsynopses pictograms, and in Synopsis not writing general. hieroglyphics, non-phonetic and lapidary quality dreams of The laconic, stasis: stageand nottableau. 8 is nottheimpassive signs. presence petrified of elements. has revealed It has out Interpretation spelled thedream to the workof condensation displacement. is stillnecessary It and and the which composes stages whole.The account thesynthesis for
mustbe quesresourcesof the mise en scene (die Darstellungsmittel)

is irreconcilA representation polycentrism dream of tioned. certain unlinear of able withthe apparently unfolding pure verbal linear, speech of The representations. logicaland ideal structure conscious to and to must thussubmit thedream system becomesubordinate it, likea partof its machinery.
structure The different stand,of course,in the portionsof this complicated foremost manifoldlogical relationsto one another.They can represent and chainsof evconditions, digressions illustrations, groundand background, is When idenceand counter-arguments. thewholemass of thesedream-thoughts and broughtunder the pressureof the dream-work, its elementsare turned and like pack-ice-the about,brokeninto fragments jammedtogether-almost whichhave hitherto questionarisesof whathappensto the logical connections its What representation [miseen scene] do dreamsprovide formed framework.
8 "Dreams are parcimonious, laconic" (G. W., ii/iii,p. 284). indigent, (cf. Dreams are "stenographic" above). 100

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and 'either-or', all the otherconjunctions for 'if','because','just as', 'although', or sentences speeches?(p. 316-317). whichwe cannotunderstand without

be (mise This typeof representation en scene)mayat first comin which likewriting speech: are forms expression of paredto those whichinscribe a common in the painting sculpture signifiers or of Freudsetsthem must suppress. chain which spoken the spaceelements "which makeuse of speech can (Rede)." Butmay offagainst poetry, "In we language? dreams see but not thedream as welluse spoken of like In said theProject. point fact, Freud, Artaud we do nothere," on of thanthesubordination speech less lateron, meant theabsence then Far purpose changes disappearing, speech thedream-stage. from invested all sensesof the It (in surrounded, and status. is situated, 9It do in much captions incomic as word), constituted. figures dreams in combinations whichthe phonetic thosepicto-hieroglyphic strips, of in thetelling thetale: "Before and textis secondary not central becameacquainted withthe laws of expression which by painting
it is governed, in ancientpaintingssmall labels were hung from ...

in characters containing written themouths thepersons of represented, of the artist despaired representing the which (als Schrift) speeches (p. pictorially" 317). and writing puts of exceeds phonetic writing dreams The overall or voice is speechback in its place. As in hieroglyphics rebuses, on From beginning thechapter "TheDreamof circumvented. thevery no us Freudstilluses although Work," doubtis left on thissubject, of translation which willlateron cast suspicion. on he thatconcept
are The dream-thoughts the dream-content latentand the manifest) and (the to presented us like two versions [misesen scenes]of the same subject-matter in two different seemslike a the languages.Or, moreproperly, dream-content into of transference (Ubertragung) the dream-thoughts anothermode of exlaws it is our businessto discover and syntactic pression,whose characters the originaland the translation. are The dream-thoughts imby comparing as comprehensible, soon as we have learntthem.The dream-content, mediately on theotherhand,is expressed it werein a pictographic script (Bilderschrift), as 9 One meaningof the French investissement (Besetzung)is, of course, cathexis.-Ed.
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the characters whichhave to be transposed of individually into the language of the dream-thoughts.

Bilderschrift: an inscribed not image but a figurative script, image an inviting a simple,conscious,present not perception the thingitself of -assuming it exists-but a reading.
If we attempted read these characters to accordingto theirpictorialvalue insteadof according theirsymbolic to relation(Zeichenbeziehung), should we clearlybe led into error... A dreamis a picturepuzzle (Bilderratsel) this of sortand our predecessors the fieldof dream-interpretation made the in have mistakeof treating rebus as a pictorialcomposition. the

The figurative is a content thenindeed a formof writing, signifying a chain in scenicform.In thatsense,of course,it summarizes bit of speech, it is the economyof speech. The entirechapteron "Representability" (Aptitudea la mise en scene; Darstellbarkeit) shows this quite well. But the reciprocaleconomictransformation, totalreasthe similationinto speech, is, in principle,impossibleor limited.This is firstof all because words are also and "primarily" things.Thus in dreamstheyare absorbed,"'caught" by the primary process. It is then not enough to say that in dreams,words are condensed by non-verbal to signifiers "things"; thatinversely may be interpreted a certaindegreein terms verbalrepresentations. mustbe seen that of It words,in so far as theyare attracted, lured into the dream,toward the fictivelimit of the primary process, tend to become pure and simple things.An equally fictivelimit,moreover.Pure words and pure thingsare thus,like the idea of the primary process and, conthe secondaryprocess,"theoretical The interval sequently, fictions." in "dreams" and the intervalin "wakefulness"may not be distinin guishedessentially so far as the natureof languageis concerned. "Words are oftentreatedas thingsin dreams and thus undergothe 10 same operationsas thingpresentations." In the formalregression
10 The "Metapsychological to Supplement the Theory of Dreams," 1916, to (G. W., ii/iii, 419) devotesan important p. development formalregression, which,accordingto the Traumdeutung, entailsthe substitution "primitive of modes of expression and representation (mise en scene) for those we are acto" customed (p. 554). Freud insists above all on the role of verbalrepresenta-

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Jacques Derrida of dreams, wordsare not overtaken the spatialization repreby of sentation miseen scene).The processcould not even succeed, (la moreover, words if had notalwaysbeensubject their in materiality to themarkof their inscription sceniccapacity, or their Darstellbarcouldonly keitand all theforms their of spacing. This last factor havebeenrepressed so calledliving, speech, consciousness, by alert by logic, history thelanguage, Spatialization notsurprise the of etc. does thetimeof speechor theideality meaning, does nothappento of it themlike an accident. Temporalization presupposes possibility the of symbolism, every and even into symbolic synthesis, before falling a space "outside," includeswithin itselfa spacingas difference. thatit implies Whichis whythe purephonicchain,to the extent or of differences, is itself a purecontinuum flow time. not Difference is thearticulation space and time. of The phonic chainor thechain ofphonetic distended that minimum are of writing always already by on the and essential spacing which dream-work anyformal regression in general beginto operate. is nota question a negation can It of of of or time, a cessation timein a present simultaneity, of a of but a Here once more different stratificationtime. of structure,different a comparison withwriting-phonetic writing time-castslight this on writing wellas on dreams: as
They [dreams] reproduce logical connection simultaneity time.Here they by in are actinglike the painterwho, in a pictureof the School of Athensor of in or Parnassus,represents one groupall the philosophers all the poets who were never, fact,assembledin a singlehall or on a singlemountain-top... in Dreams carrythis mode of representation [mise en scene] down to details. Whenever this thatthere close together, guarantees theyshow us two elements is some specially intimate connection between whatcorresponds themamong to the dream-thoughts. the same way, in our system writing, In of 'ab' means that the two lettersare to be pronouncedin a single syllable.If a gap is tions: "It is very remarkable how littlethe dream-work adheres to verbal representations; is alwaysreadyto exchange it one wordforanother it finds till the expressionmost favorablefor plastic representation." This passage is followedby a comparison, fromthe pointof view of word-representations and thing-representations, of the dreamer's languageand the languageof schizophrenia. shouldbe analyzedclosely.We wouldperhapsfind(againstFreud?) It that a rigorousdetermination the anomalyis impossible.On the role of of verbal representation the preconsciousand the (consequently) in secondary character visual elements, The Ego and the Id, ch. 2. of cf.

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leftbetween 'a' and the'b', it means the thatthe'a' is thelastletter one of wordand the'b' is thefirst thenext (p. 319). of one

The model of hieroglyphic writing assemblesmore strikingly -thoughwe find in every it form writing-the of diversity modes of and functions signs dreams. of in Everysign-verbal otherwiseor maybe usedat different levels, configurations functions in and which are never prescribed its "essence" emerge by but from playof difa ferences. Summarizing these all possibilities, Freudconcludes:"Yet, in spiteof all thisambiguity, is fairto say thattheproductions it en it which, must remembered, be [mises scene]of thedream-work,
are notmade withtheintention beingunderstood, of no present greater

difficultiestheir to translators do theancient than hieroglyphic scripts to thosewhoseekto readthem" 346-347). (p. More thantwenty yearsseparate first the edition the Traumof
deutungfromthe "Note Upon the Mystic Writing-Pad." we conIf

tinue follow twoseries metaphors-those to the the of concerning nonpsychical system thepsychical thoseconcerning psychical of and the itself-what happens? refined. methodological A will metaphor be increasingly inquiry will, to a certain be a extent, devoted it.It is with graphematics to to still come rather thanwitha linguistics dominated an aged phonoby sees that logism psychoanalysis itself destined collaborate. as to Freud
this literally a text from 1913, and in this case we in recommends have nothingto add, interpret, alter.11 The interest which psychoanalysis brings to linguistics presupposes a "transgression" the of habitual meaningof the word "language." "By the word 'language', in this case, we ought not to understand simplythe expressionof thoughtin words, but the language of gesturesas well, and every On the one hand, the theoretical importof the psychographic

other form expression psychical of of such activity, as writing." And

11 "The Interest Psychoanalysis," W., viii, p. 390. The second part in G. of this text,devotedto "non-psychological first all sciences,"is concerned of with the science of language (p. 493)-before philosophy, biology,history, sociology, pedagogy.

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Jacques Derrida having recalled archaic the in character expression dreams, of which 12 and accepts contradiction valorizes visibility, Freudspecifies:
It seems to us more accurateto comparedreamsto a system writing than of to a language.In fact.the interpretation a dreamis thoroughly of comparable to the deciphering an ancientfigurative such as Egyptian of script, hierogyphics. both cases, thereare elements In for whichare not determined interpretation reading,but, in theirrole as determinatives, theresimplyin or are order to assure the intelligibility other elements. of The ambiguity the of different elements a dreamhas its counterpart these ancientsystems of in of writing If untilnow thisconception dreamproduction ... of (miseen scene)has not been exploited is because of a situation it whichis easilyunderstandable: the point of view and body of knowledge withwhich a linguist would approach the subjectof dreamsare totallyalien to a psychoanalyst 404-5). (p.

on On theother the in hand, sameyear, thearticle "The Unconsof will to cious,"theproblematic theapparatus itself begin be taken up in terms scriptural of as in concepts:neither, in theProject, a topology traceswithout of writing, as in the Traumdeutungg, nor, in theoperations opticalmachines. debatebetween funcof the The tionalhypothesis thetopographic and concerns locathe hypothesis
tionsof an inscription (Niederschrift):
Whena psychical (let us confine act ourselves hereto an act of representation Our underlining]) transferred is [Vorstellung. fromthe systemUcs into the system (or Pcs), are we to supposethat thistransposition Cs involvesa fresh fixation, comparableto a new inscription the representation question, of in situated, in moreover, a freshlocality themindand side by side withwhich in the originalunconsciousinscription continuesto exist? Or are we ratherto believe that the transformation consistsin a change in the state of the representation, involving same materialand occurring the same locality? the in (G. W., x, p. 272-3).

The discussion which follows does not concern directly us here.Let us simply recall that economic the hypothesis thedifficult and concept
12 As is known,the note on "The Antithetical Sense of Primal Words" (1910) tendsto demonstrate, Abel, and witha great after abundance examples of borrowedfromhieroglyphic that the contradictory undetermined writing, or meaning primalwordscould be determined, of receive difference condiits and tions of operationonly through and writing. this textand Abel's gesture On cf. hypothesis, E. Benveniste, de ProblQmes linguistique ch. generale, vii.

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Yale French Studies of anti-cathexis (Gegenbesetzung: sole mechanism primal "the of represson," 280), whichFreudintroduces p. after refusing decide, to do noteliminate topographical the differencethetwoinscriptions. of 13 And let us notethattheconcept inscription remains of still simply the graphic element an apparatus of whichis not itself writing a machine. difference The between system thepsychical still the and is at work: the graphic register reserved the description the is for of psychical content of an element themachine. might or in We think thatthemachine itself subject another is to principle organization, of another destination thanwriting. This is perhaps case as well the becausetheguiding thread thearticle "The Unconscious," of on its example, we have emphasized, thedestiny a representation as is of after is first it registered. When perception-the apparatus which originally registers inscribes-will delineated, "perceptual and be the apparatus" no longer able to be anything a writing will be but machine. The "NoteUpon theMystic Writing-Pad," twelve yearslater, will describe perceptual the apparatus and the originof memory. and out of phase,the two seriesof metaphors Long disjoined will then united. be
Freud's Slab of Wax and the Three Analogies of Writing

In thissix page text, analogy the between certain a writing apparatus and theperceptual Three is apparatus gradually demonstrated. stages in thedescription in result eachtime an increase rigor, in inwardness, and differentiation. As has alwaysbeendone-at leastsincePlato-Freud first considers writing a technique as subservient memory, external, to an auxiliary technique psychical of memory notmemory and itself:hypomnesis rather than mnnmjsaid Phaedrus. here-something But not is caught in an apparatus, possible Plato-the psychical for up and will whatis written be morereadily as represented a "materialized" partextracted from apparatus. the Suchis thefirst analogy:
13 p. 228.Thisis thepassage and we quoted the earlier, in which memorytracewas distinguished "memory." from

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JacquesDerrida
as If I distrust my memory-neurotics, we know, do so to a remarkable extent, but normalpeople have everyreasonfor doingso as well-I am able to completeand guarantee (erginzenund versichern) working making its by a written trace(schriftliche Anzeichnung). thatcase the surface In upon which this trace is preserved, pocket-book sheet of paper, is as it were a or the materialized portion(ein materialisiertes Stuck) of my mnemicapparatus(des the Erinnerungsapparates), rest of which I carryabout with me invisible.I has have only to bear in mind the place wherethis 'memory' been deposited and I can then'reproduce' at any timeI like,withthe certainty it will that it have remained to unaltered and so have escaped thepossibledistortions which it might have been subjected myactual memory W., xiv,p. 3). in (G.

Freud's theme is nottheabsence memory theprimal here of or and normal finitude themnemic of evenless is it thestructure faculty; of the temporalization whichgrounds thatfinitude its essential or to nor relationship censorship repression; is it the possibility and which psychical the "intotheworld"; norwhatis remustproject quiredin the nature the psyche thatsupplementation be to of for a possible. first, is simply question considering conditions At it of the whichcustomary Those surfaces writing imposeon thatoperation. fail conditions to satisfy doublerequirement the defined sincethe a Project: potential indefinite for preservation an unlimited and capacityforreception. sheet paper A of preserves indefinitely is quickly but saturated. slate,whosevirginity alwaysbe reconstituted A may by its erasure, (thus)does notconserve traces. theclassicalwriting All surfaces offer onlyone of the two advantages alwayspresent and the complementary inconvenience. is theres extensa Such and the intelligible surface classicalwriting of apparatuses. theprocesses In which substitute ourmemory, unlimited for they "an receptive capacand of ity a retention permanent traces seemto be mutually exclusive." Theirextension belongs classical to geometry is intelligible its and in terms pureexterior as without relation itself. different to A writing space mustbe found;writing alwaysclaimed has it. Auxiliary apparatuses which, Freud notes,are (Hilfsapparate), on alwaysconstituted the modelof the supplementary (e.g., organ spectacles, camera, ear-trumpet) seemparticularly thus deficient when it comes memory. remark to This makes evenmore suspect earlier the 107
and the necessityof the Erganzung,the hypomnemic supplement

Yale French Studies that the reference optical apparatuses.Freud recalls,nevertheless, to he contradictory requirement is presenting had already been recognizedin 1900. He mighthave said: in 1895.
in to As long ago as in 1900 I gave expression the Traumdeutung a suspicion that this unusual capacitywas to be dividedbetweentwo different systems (or organs of the mental apparatus).Accordingto this view, we possess a but retainsno permanent trace systemPcpt.-Cs.,which receivesperceptions of them, thatit can reactlike a clean sheetto everynew perception;while so are the permanent tracesof the excitations whichhave been received preserved in 'mnemicsystems'lying behind the perceptualsystem.Later, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle(1920), I added a remarkto the effectthat the inexplicable phenomenon consciousness of arises in the perceptual instead system 14 of the permanent traces.

A double systemcontainedin a single differentiated apparatus: of available innocence a perpetually and an infinite reserve traceshave at last been reconciledby this "small contrivance" placed "upon the marketsome time ago under the name of the MysticWriting-Pad," and which "promises to be more efficient than the sheet of paper and slate." Its appearance is modest,"but if it is examined more closely, it will be found that its construction shows a remarkable with my hypothetical structure our perceptualapparaof agreement both advantages: "an ever-ready tus." It offers surfaceand receptive permanenttraces of the inscriptions that have been made on it." Here is its description:
The MysticPad is a slab of dark brownresinor wax witha paper edging; over the slab is laid a thintransparent sheet,the top end of whichis firmly securedto the slab whileits bottom end restsupon it without beingfixedto it. This transparent sheetis the moreinteresting of the littledevice.It itself part consists two layers, of whichcan be detachedfromeach otherexceptat their two ends. The upperlayeris a transparent piece of celluloid; the lowerlayer is made of thintranslucent waxed paper. When the apparatusis not in use, the lower surfaceof the waxed paper adheres lightly the upper surface to of the wax slab. To make use of the MysticPad, one writesupon the celluloid portionof the covering-sheet whichrestsupon the wax slab. For this purposeno pencil or chalk is necessary, since the writing does not dependon material beingdeposited upon thereceptive surface. is a return theancient It to
14 p.

4-5. Cf. chapteriv of Beyond the Pleasure Principle.

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methodof writing the upon tabletsof clay or wax: a pointedstilusscratches surface,the depressions upon which constitute 'writing'. the case of In the but the the Mystic Pad thisscratching not effected is directly, through medium of the covering-sheet. the points which the stilustouches,it pressesthe At lower surfaceof the waxed paper on to the wax slab, and the groovesare visibleas dark writing upon the otherwise smoothwhitish-grey surfaceof the all celluloid.If one wishesto destroy whathas been written, thatis necessary is to raise the double covering-sheet fromthewax slab by a light pull, starting fromthe freelowerend.15 The close contactbetween vaxed paper and the the wax slab at theplaces whichhave been scratched (upon whichthe visibility of the writing is depended) thusbrought an end and it does notrecurwhenthe to two surfaces come together once more.The Mystic Pad is now clear of writing and readyto receivefreshinscriptions 5-6). (p.

Let us note that the depth of the MysticPad is at once a depth withoutbottom,an endless reverberation, a perfectly and superficial exteriority: stratification surfaces a of each of whose relationto self, whose inside,is but the implication anothersimilarly of exposed surface. It joins thetwo empirical certainties whichwe are constituted: by infinite depth in the implicationof meaning,in the unlimitedenof the velopment the present, and, simultaneously, pellicularessence of being,the absoluteabsence of a grounding. Neglectingthe device's "slightimperfections," interested only in the analogy,Freud insistson the essentially protective natureof the celluloid sheet.Withoutit, the finewaxed paper would be scratched or ripped.There is no writing whichdoes not devise some means of to protection, protectagainstitself, againstthe writing whichthe by as '"subject"is himselfthreatened he lets himself written:as he be exposes himself. "The layerof celluloidthusacts as a protective sheath for the waxed paper." It shieldsit from"injuriouseffects fromwithout." "I may at this point recall thatin Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 16 I showed that the perceptualapparatus of our mind consists of two layers,of an externalprotective shield against stimuliwhose task it is to diminish the strength excitations of comingin, and of a

15 The Standard Editionnotesherea slight infidelity Freud's description. in is to "The principle not affected." are tempted think We thatFreudinflects his elsewhere well in orderto suitthe analogy. as description 16 This is stillin Chapteriv of Beyond the Pleasure Principle.

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Yale French Studies it the surface behind which receives stimuli, the namely system Pcpt.Cs" (p. 6). Butas yetthisconcerns reception perception, openness or the only to of of themostsuperficial Thereis surface theincision a scratch. as yetno writing theflatness thisextensio. must in of We account for as the writing a trace which survives scratch's present, punctuality, and "Thisanalogy," Freud "would be ofmuch not value stigma. continues, if it could not be pursued further than this."This is the second analogy:
the If we liftthe entire covering-sheet-both celluloidand the waxed paperdoes offthe wax slab, the writing vanishes, and, as I have alreadyremarked, not re-appearagain. The surfaceof the MysticPad is clear of writing and once more capable of receiving But thatthe impressions. it is easy to discover is permanent traceof what was written retained upon the wax slab itselfand is legiblein suitablelights. The contradictory requirements are satisfied by this double system,

and "this is preciselythe way in which,accordingto the hypothesis

whichI mentioned now,our psychical just apparatus performs its The receives stimuli-the perceptual function. layer which the system Pcpt.-Cs.-forms permanent no traces; the foundations memory of come aboutin other, supplementary, systems." Writing supplements perception before latter the evenappears itself. to "Memory'" [supplhe] or writing the opening thatprocessof appearance is of itself. The "perceived" may be read onlyin the past,beneath perception and after it. to other of Whereas writing surfaces, correspondingtheprototypes slateor paper, couldrepresent a materialized ofthemnemic only part the in an system the psychical apparatus, abstraction, MysticPad not in in the represents apparatus its entirety, simply its perceptual the layer.The wax slab,in fact, represents unconscious, do not "I it to think is too far-fetched comparethe wax slab withthe unbehindthe system The becoming-visible conscious alterPcpt.-Cs." the of is wouldbe theflickernating with disappearance what written ing-up (Aufleuchten) passing-away and (Vergehen) consciousness of in theprocess perception. of
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Jacques Derrida This introduces third the It and finalanalogy. is no doubtthe mostinteresting. now,it has beena question Until onlyof thespace its ofwriting, extension volume, reliefs depressions. there and But and is as well a timeof writing, it is nothing and other thanthe very structure whatwe are now describing. mustcome to terms of We withthetemporality thewax slab. For it is notoutside slab, of the and theMystic Pad includes its structure Kantdescribes in what as nence, succession, when wonders he simultaneity. Descartes, quaenam of an intelligible 17 an object. Freud,reconstructing operation, can reduceneither And he timenor themultiplicity sensitive of layers. will linka discontinuist and of conception time,as the periodicity of with whichstretch spacing writing, a wholechainof hypotheses
from Lettersto Fliess to BeyondthePleasurePrinciple, which, the and vero est haec cera, may reduce its essence to the timelesssimplicity the threemodes of timein the threeanalogies of experience:perma-

onceagain,are constructed, confirmed solidified and in consolidated, theMystic Pad. Temporality spacing be notonly horizontal will as the of but and discontinuitya chainof signs, writing theinterruption as the of between various restoration contact of levels: depths psychical theremarkably fabric psychical of heterogenous itself. temporal work neither continuity a linenorthehomogeneitya volthe of We find of duration depth a stage[scene], and of ume; onlythedifferentiated its spacing:
But I mustadmitthatI am inclinedto pressthe comparison stillfurther. On the MysticPad the writing vanisheseverytimethe close contactis broken betweenthe paper whichreceivesthe stimulus and the wax slab whichpreservesthe impression. This agreeswitha notionwhichI have long had about the methodin which the perceptualapparatusof our mind functions, but whichI have hitherto keptto myself 7). (p.

periodicimpulses-of "cathecticinnervations (Besetzungsinnervationen), from within the toward outside, toward permeability the the of

Thathypothesis a posits discontinuous distribution-through rapid

system Pcpt.-Cs.These movements then"withdrawn" "reare or moved." Consciousness eachtime cathexis thus fades the is withdrawn.
17 The reference-"but what is thispiece of wax"-is to the discussion of and secondary primary qualitiesin Descartes'ssecondMeditation.-Ed.

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Yale French Studies Freudcompares movement thefeelers this to which unconscious the wouldstretch toward external out the and when world withdraw they had sampledthe excitations coming fromit and warnedthe unconscious any threat. of the (Freudhad no morereserved imageof the feeler the unconscious-we for findit in ChapterIV of Beyond... 18-than had thenotion cathectic he of periodicity, we as notedabove.) The "origin our concept time"is attributed of of to this"periodic non-excitability" this "discontinuous and method of functioning thesystem of Pcpt.-Cs." Timeis theeconomy writing. of This machine does notrunby itself. is less a machine It thana tool.Anditis notheldwith onlyone hand.Its temporalitymarked is thereby. maintenance not simple.The ideal virginity the Its is of 19 present [maintenant]constituted thework memory.At least is by of twohandsare neededto maketheapparatus as function, well as a system movements, coordination independent of a of initiatives, an organized It multiplicity origins. is on thisstage[scene]thatthe of one "Note" ends: "If we imagine handwriting of uponthesurface theMystic Writing-Pad whileanother periodically raisesits covering sheetfrom wax slab,we shallhave a concrete the of representation thewayin which tried picture functioning theperceptual the of I to of apparatus our mind." the Tracesthus produce spaceoftheir inscription byacceding only Fromthebeginning, the"present" in of of erasure. to theperiod their of their first impression, are constituted thedoubleforce rethey by
18 We find again,the same year,in the article it on Verneinung. a pasIn us of sage whichconcerns hereforits recognition therelation between negation and differance, in thought delay,detour(Aufschub, (difference, Denkaufschub) union of Eros and Thanatos),the sendingout of feelersis attributed to not but to the ego (G. W., xiv, p. 14-15).On Denkaufschub, the unconscious on as thought retardation, postponement, suspension, respite, detour, differance as opposed to, or ratherdifferante (deferring, differing) from the theoretical, and always alreadytransgressed fictive, pole of the "primary process,"cf. all The of ChapterVII (V) of the Traumdeutung. conceptof "circuitous path" to wovenof memory, an is (Umweg)is central it. "Thoughtidentity," entirely for "perceptualidentity," the aim of the aim always already substituted ... "primary process,"and das ganze Denken ist nur ein Umweg ("All thought is only a circuitous path,"p. 607). Cf. also the Umwegezum Tode in Jenseits, But thereis in p. 41. "Compromise," Freud's sense, is always differance. nothingbeforethe compromise. frommanuof 19The presentparticiple the verb maintenir maintain, (to to tenire, hold witha hand)is maintenant (now).-Ed.

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Jacques Derrida A readability unreadability. two-handed and petition and erasure, is not of or machine, multiplicityagencies origins; this theoriginary a its of relation the otherand the temporality writing, "primary" to and spacing, deferring complication: originary (diffrraznce), obliteraof polemical thevery on threshold whatwe tionof thesimple origin, "whichfollow The persist callingperception. scene of dreams, in But former frayings," a sceneofwriting. thisis because"percepwas of of the tion,"the first relation lifeto its other, origin life,had in the We alwaysalready prepared representation. mustbe several of The simplestructure orderto writeand alreadyto "perceive." is intuition, a and like originary maintenance manuscription, every process. as as myth, "fiction" "theoretical" theidea of theprimary a of For thatidea is contradicted thetheme primal repression. by is without Its is repression. condition that Writing unthinkable breakbetween a nor contact an absolute there neither permanent be that It of strata:thevigilance failure censorship. is no accident and the shouldcome from area of politics the metaphor censorship of and disguises, even in withwriting its deletions, concerned blanks, seems of if Freud, thebeginning theTraumdeutung, to makeonly at of to reference it. The apparent a conventional, didactic exteriority binds which censorship political censorship giveswayto an essential the writer his own writing. to there to pure If there wereonlyperception, permeability fraying, would be but We wouldbe no fraying. wouldbe written nothing repeated readas retained, recorded; writing no wouldbe produced, only But does ability. pureperception not exist: we are written by alwaysalready within which us writing ecrivant], theinstance [en by of or The governs perception, it internal external. "subject" writing be solitude the of does not existif we mean by thatsome sovereign between strata: The is of author. subject writing a system relations of of theMystic of of Pad, of thepsyche, society, the world.Within thatscenethe punctual is simplicity the classicalsubject not to of In it is be found. order describe structure, notenough recall to to that senderfor thatone alwayswrites someone; and the oppositions coarseinstruments. We etc., extremely receiver, code-message, remain 113

Yale French Studies wouldsearchthe"public"in vainforthefirst reader:i.e., thefirst author a work.And the"sociology literature" blindto the of of is war and ruses-whosestakesare the origin the work-between of theauthor whoreadsand thefirst reader whodictates. sociality The 21 as an of writing dramarequires entirely different discipline. That themachine meanssomething a does notrunby itself else: mechanism without ownenergy. machine dead.It is death. its The is with Not becausewe riskdeathin playing but machines, becausethe In of is it origin machines therelation death. a letter Fliess, will to to his be recalled, Freud,evoking representation the psychical of aphad the impression beingfacedwitha machine of which paratus, wouldsoonrunbyitself. what But was torunbyitself thepsyche was or does and notitsimitation mechanical For representation. thelatter is not live. Representationdeath.Which transmaybe immediately formed thefollowing into proposition: death (only) is representation. But it is boundto lifeand theliving it present which repeats origA a machine never runsby itself. Such inarily. purerepresentation, in with which at leastis thelimitation Freudrecognizes his analogy theMystic of Pad. Like thefirst paragraph the"Note,"his gesture thenis extremely Platonic. Only the writing the soul, said the of and is trace able to reproduce represent Phaedrus, onlythepsychical itselfspontaneously. reading Our had skippedover the following the remark Freud: "Theremustcomea pointat which analogy by is between auxiliary an of apparatus thiskindand theorganwhich oncethewriting It itsprototype cease to apply. is true, that, will too, it the Pad has beenerased, Mystic cannot it 'reproduce' from within; it wouldbe a mystic indeed likeourmemory,couldaccomplish pad if, the that." Abandoned itself, multiplicitylayered to of surfaces the of is without Lifeas depth apparatus a dead complexity depth. belongs to only thewaxofpsychical memory. Freud, Plato, like thus continues to opposehypomnemic and writing writing teipsychii, en itself woven oftraces, memories a present of truth outside time. empirical of From thenon, separated from psychical responsibility, Mystic the Pad, as
20 The targets Derrida's of in polemic this paragraph Sartre, are Jakobson, and Lucien Goldmann.-Ed.

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Jacques Derrida in a representation abandoned itself, to stillparticipates Cartesian spaceand mechanics: naturalwax,exterioritytheaid to memory. of All thatFreudhad thought of about the unity lifeand death, shouldhave led himto ask other here.To ask however, questions them the of explicitly. Freuddoes not examine explicitly status the "materialized" is supplement which necessary theputative to sponof weredifferentiated in even if thatspontaneity taneity memory, itself, thwarted a censorship repression by or could which, moreover, not act on a perfectly the Far spontaneous memory. from machine a its being pureabsenceof spontaneity, resemblance thepsychical to its and bear to apparatus, existence itsnecessity witness thefinitude ofthemnemic which spontaneity is thus supplemented [supplkge]. The death and finitude machine-and,consequently, representation-is the the within psyche. Nor does Freudexamine possibility that of machine, which, theworld, at leastbegun resemble in has to memory, and resembles increasingly better better. and it and than Muchbetter the innocent MysticPad: the latteris no doubtinfinitely more but complexthanslate or paper,less archaicthana palimpsest; it machines storing for to compared other archives, is a child'stoy. a That resemblance-i. necessarily certain of e., Being-in-the-world thepsyche-didnot occurfrom without memory morethen to any deathsurprises It grounds life. memory. Metaphor-inthiscase the between apparatuses the possibility thatrepreanalogy two and of sentational relation-raises question a which, despitehis premises and forreasons which no doubtessential, are Freudfailedto make at at explicit, the verymoment whichhe had brought to the it threshold its themeand urgency. of Metaphor a rhetorical as or didactic deviceis possible hereonlythrough solidmetaphor, the the "unnatural," historical production a supplementary of machine, added to the psychical organization orderto supplement in its [supplier] finitude. Theyvery idea of finitude derived is from movement the of thissupplementarity. historico-technical The production that of metaphorwhichsurvives individual evengeneric) (or psychical organizationis of an entirely different from production an intraorder the of psychical metaphor, assuming thelatter that exists speakaboutit (to 115

Yale French Studies may bondthetwometaphors and whatever is notenough that), for (a of themselves. Here the question technics new maintain between its to it be in namemust perhaps found order remove from traditional between an opposition from assumed problematic) notbe derived may is and life thepsychical thenon-psychical, and death.Writing here and between present rebetween and death, life techne' relation as It the presentation, between two apparatuses. opensup thequestion between and of technics: theapparatus general of theanalogy in of In apparatus. thissense an thepsychical apparatus thenon-psychical It and writing the stage[scene]of history theplay of theworld. is That in Freud'sdiscannotbe exhausted a simplepsychology. by in being results psychoanalysis's coursewhich opensontoits theme psychoanalysis. simply not simply psychology-nor a in Thus are perhapsaugured, the Freudianbreak-through, term "Platonic." we of beyond and a beneath thatenclosure might of "subsumed" thenameof Freud, by history In thatmoment world or (be mythology it neurological metatraversing unbelieveable an of outside of seriously, for psychological: we neverdreamed taking the its and the questionwhichdisarticulates disturbs literalness, adonlya minimal fable, metapsychological whichmarksperhaps a to the tales vancebeyond neurological of theProject), relation self was scene of thehistorico-transcendental of writing spokenwithout written simultaneousand without thought: being being said,thought itselfwhile indicating intradesignating ly erased,metaphorized; it relations, was represented. worldly in understood scope prudently) so faras Freudalso, withadmirable terms of thanthoseof individual color think thatscenein other It must thought the be lective or in psychology, evenofanthropology. of horizonof the scene of the world,as the history that scene. is Freud'slanguage caught in it. up Like all those for Thus Freudperforms us thesceneof writing. all who knowhow to write, let the scene he And like who write. within scene.It is then the Freud itself and duplicate, repeat, betray 116
But we must and continuity, performed us the scene of writing. for This may perhaps be recognized(as an example and let this be

Jacques Derrida whomwe willallowto say whatscenehe has playedforus. From him thatwe shall borrow hiddenepigraph whichhas silently the governed reading. our In following advanceof metaphors path,trace, the of fraying; of the slow march a opening trackby effraction through neurone, light wax,woodor resin, order mark or in to matrix nature, matter, in the violently; following untiring reference a drystilusand a to writing without ink; in following inexhaustible the inventiveness and dream-like renewal mechanical of models-that metonymy perpetually at workon the same metaphor, trace obstinately substituting for traceand machine machine-we for Freudwas doing. wondered what And we thought thosetexts of where, better thananywhere else,
he tells us worin die Bahnung sonst besteht.In what the fraying

consists. Of theTraumdeutung: is highly "It that probable all complicated machinery apparatus and in occurring dreams standforthegenitals -and as a rulethemaleones-in describing which dream-symbolism is as indefatigable thejoke-work as (Witzarbeit)" 361). (p.
Then, of The Problemof Anxiety:

"If writing-which in consists allowing fluidto flowout from a a tubeupona piece of white paper-has acquired symbolic the meanor ing of coitus, if walking becomea symbolic has substitute for stamping upon the body of MotherEarth,thenbothwriting and will be abstained walking becauseit is as though from, forbidden sexualbehavior werethereby beingindulged in." Mehiman Translated Jeffrey by

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