On the physiology of jouissance: interpreting the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward functions from a psychoanalytic perspective

Abstract

Jouissance is a Lacanian concept, infamous for being impervious to understanding and which expresses the paradoxical satisfaction that a subject may derive from his symptom. On the basis of Freud’s “experience of satisfaction” we have proposed a first working definition of jouissance as the (benefit gained from) the motor tension underlying the action which was [once] adequate in bringing relief to the drive and, on the basis of their striking reciprocal resonances, we have proposed that central dopaminergic systems could embody the physiological architecture of Freud’s concept of the drive. We have then distinguished two constitutive axes to jouissance: one concerns the subject’s body and the other the subject’s history. Four distinctive aspects of these axes are discussed both from a metapsychological and from a neuroscience point of view. We conclude that jouissance could be described as an accumulation of body tension, fuelling for action, but continuously balancing between reward and anxiety, and both marking the physiology of the body with the history of its commemoration and arising from this inscription as a constant push to act and to repeat. Moreover, it seems that the mesolimbic accumbens dopaminergic pathway is a reasonable candidate for its underlying physiological architecture.

Self-deception as affective coping. An empirical perspective on philosophical issues

“…Now, protective mechanisms leading to uncon-scious states are plausibly activated when anticipation of suffering and low coping potential are involved: People unconsciously believe or forget things they assess as too difficult to handle, or form unconscious desires because the latter are too difficult to avow, and these unconscious phenomena all concern things people think they have little if any control over. Moreover, recent approaches bridging psychoanalysis and neuroscience have shed new light on drive by its link with somatic markers (Alberini, 2013;Ansermet & Magistretti, 2007;Ansermet & Magistretti, 2010) and dopaminergic transmission (Bazan & Detandt, 2013). It thus appears that our view is in line with recent studies on the mechanisms of unconscious states' formation, which helps remove the charge of mystery raised against the traditional picture of self-deception.…”

“…More generally, our model aligns self-deception with the various protective mechanisms of the mind, or what has been called the psychological immune system. These mechanisms lie at the heart of psychoanalysis and have been recently investigated beyond this literature by studies on cerebral underpinnings of psychoanalytic mechanisms (Freud, 1955(Freud, /1920Alberini, 2013;Ansermet & Magistretti, 2007;Ansermet & Magistretti, 2010;Bazan & Detandt, 2013). As we shall see now, this can illuminate the paradoxes of self-deception.…”

À propos de la neuropsychanalyse et de l’importance de penser le psychique

“…Nous avons précédemment proposé deux possibles noeuds entre les niveaux biologique et psychique : le signifiant (Bazan, 2007) et la jouissance (Bazan et Detandt, 2013). Il s'agit en même temps de deux dimensions cliniques de toute relation transférentielle, soit l'irrationnel et le transgressif.…”

Proposition pour une physiologie de la jouissance

“…Nous avons précédemment proposé que le signifiant puisse faire office d'un de ces points de nouage ou de suture [3][4][5][6][7][8]. Nous proposons aujourd'hui l'hypothèse que la « jouissance » en serait un second [9].…”