"The Piano Teacher" and the Question of Perversion

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate how perversion, as a subject, activates investigation. As a starting point, it explores Freud’s idea surrounding fetishism as a paradigm of itself; a necessary interval between neurosis and psychosis. This analysis is followed by a presentation of various notions developed by Lacan in his teachings. Subsequently, the article analyzes Haneke’s 2001 film “The piano teacher”, here considered as a case of substitute perversion that adds to the few documented cases of this nature. The movie contributes elements that allow to think about and further develop the notion of substitute perversion in psychosis. In it, “the teacher” demonstrates the separation between love, desire, juissance and what Lacan calls “false hole” through borromean rings. Lastly, questions are posed regarding perversion; organized by answers, opposite the two aforementioned structures.