#objet-petit-a — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2026-05-28 · 07:04 UTC

Is there a psychoanalytical concept for how one frustration can be a synecdoche for frustration as such?

I came across a reference to the abjet petit a and immediately had a flash of what it might mean For Lacan the objet petit a is the object cause of our desire, it is the slither of the sublime which invests a concrete object with a sense of wondrous desirability. The sense of a deeper primordial loss from the trauma of socialisation lurks in the background of our psychic machinery, leading us to invest a flicker of what we feel was lost into the objects we now encounter in the present.

When I encountered the abjet petit a term, I hoped it described a parallel experience of frustration. There are times when a particular frustration takes on an outsized significance beyond what it is actually stopping us doing or impeding. A particular annoyance exists as a synecdoche for annoyance as such: this one thing we can’t control, this one thing which frustrates us, condenses the weight of all the things we can’t control, all the things which frustrate us. This one event becomes a spot where you feel the sheer traumatic weight of the world’s fundamental intransigence. What realists think of as the recalcitrance of reality (the causal criterion of existence) sometimes manifests itself as an affront to us which is deeply painful. If objet petit a is about desire, abjet petit a I hoped would be about castration: the trauma of recognising our limits.

Unfortunately this is not what Lacan meant. It seems to just be a late spin on the original concept which is slightly more inflected towards the Real. Is there an existing concept for what I’m describing here? I feel that there should be. Now back to being inexplicably pissed off with the cyclists riding on the pavement on my way to work.

#abjetPetitA #castration #desire #Lacan #objetPetitA

#abjetpetita #castration #desire #lacan #objetpetita

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2026-05-28 · 07:04 UTC

Is there a psychoanalytical concept for how one frustration can be a synecdoche for frustration as such?

I came across a reference to the abjet petit a and immediately had a flash of what it might mean For Lacan the objet petit a is the object cause of our desire, it is the slither of the sublime which invests a concrete object with a sense of wondrous desirability. The sense of a deeper primordial loss from the trauma of socialisation lurks in the background of our psychic machinery, leading us to invest a flicker of what we feel was lost into the objects we now encounter in the present.

When I encountered the abjet petit a term, I hoped it described a parallel experience of frustration. There are times when a particular frustration takes on an outsized significance beyond what it is actually stopping us doing or impeding. A particular annoyance exists as a synecdoche for annoyance as such: this one thing we can’t control, this one thing which frustrates us, condenses the weight of all the things we can’t control, all the things which frustrate us. This one event becomes a spot where you feel the sheer traumatic weight of the world’s fundamental intransigence. What realists think of as the recalcitrance of reality (the causal criterion of existence) sometimes manifests itself as an affront to us which is deeply painful. If objet petit a is about desire, abjet petit a I hoped would be about castration: the trauma of recognising our limits.

Unfortunately this is not what Lacan meant. It seems to just be a late spin on the original concept which is slightly more inflected towards the Real. Is there an existing concept for what I’m describing here? I feel that there should be. Now back to being inexplicably pissed off with the cyclists riding on the pavement on my way to work.

#abjetPetitA #castration #desire #Lacan #objetPetitA

#abjetpetita #castration #desire #lacan #objetpetita

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2026-05-28 · 07:04 UTC

Is there a psychoanalytical concept for how one frustration can be a synecdoche for frustration as such?

I came across a reference to the abjet petit a and immediately had a flash of what it might mean For Lacan the objet petit a is the object cause of our desire, it is the slither of the sublime which invests a concrete object with a sense of wondrous desirability. The sense of a deeper primordial loss from the trauma of socialisation lurks in the background of our psychic machinery, leading us to invest a flicker of what we feel was lost into the objects we now encounter in the present.

When I encountered the abjet petit a term, I hoped it described a parallel experience of frustration. There are times when a particular frustration takes on an outsized significance beyond what it is actually stopping us doing or impeding. A particular annoyance exists as a synecdoche for annoyance as such: this one thing we can’t control, this one thing which frustrates us, condenses the weight of all the things we can’t control, all the things which frustrate us. This one event becomes a spot where you feel the sheer traumatic weight of the world’s fundamental intransigence. What realists think of as the recalcitrance of reality (the causal criterion of existence) sometimes manifests itself as an affront to us which is deeply painful. If objet petit a is about desire, abjet petit a I hoped would be about castration: the trauma of recognising our limits.

Unfortunately this is not what Lacan meant. It seems to just be a late spin on the original concept which is slightly more inflected towards the Real. Is there an existing concept for what I’m describing here? I feel that there should be. Now back to being inexplicably pissed off with the cyclists riding on the pavement on my way to work.

#abjetPetitA #castration #desire #Lacan #objetPetitA

#objetpetita #lacan #desire #castration #abjetpetita

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2026-05-28 · 07:04 UTC

Is there a psychoanalytical concept for how one frustration can be a synecdoche for frustration as such?

I came across a reference to the abjet petit a and immediately had a flash of what it might mean For Lacan the objet petit a is the object cause of our desire, it is the slither of the sublime which invests a concrete object with a sense of wondrous desirability. The sense of a deeper primordial loss from the trauma of socialisation lurks in the background of our psychic machinery, leading us to invest a flicker of what we feel was lost into the objects we now encounter in the present.

When I encountered the abjet petit a term, I hoped it described a parallel experience of frustration. There are times when a particular frustration takes on an outsized significance beyond what it is actually stopping us doing or impeding. A particular annoyance exists as a synecdoche for annoyance as such: this one thing we can’t control, this one thing which frustrates us, condenses the weight of all the things we can’t control, all the things which frustrate us. This one event becomes a spot where you feel the sheer traumatic weight of the world’s fundamental intransigence. What realists think of as the recalcitrance of reality (the causal criterion of existence) sometimes manifests itself as an affront to us which is deeply painful. If objet petit a is about desire, abjet petit a I hoped would be about castration: the trauma of recognising our limits.

Unfortunately this is not what Lacan meant. It seems to just be a late spin on the original concept which is slightly more inflected towards the Real. Is there an existing concept for what I’m describing here? I feel that there should be. Now back to being inexplicably pissed off with the cyclists riding on the pavement on my way to work.

#abjetPetitA #castration #desire #Lacan #objetPetitA

#abjetpetita #castration #desire #lacan #objetpetita

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2025-06-18 · 18:25 UTC

The inevitability and irreversibility of loss

By way of contrast, Lacan’s view is that losses are inevitable and irreversible, and they must be mourned. We mustn’t spend our whole lives complaining that we’ve been gypped and trying to get back what we feel we’ve lost out on. Now, once those losses are recognized for what they are and mourned, they can be sublimated or sublated in a sense, transmogrified with the coming to the fore of the phallic signifier, the Phallus with a capital P, symbolized by the matheme Φ. This is a forward-looking, as opposed to a backward-looking project. Rather than regressing to childhood to repair all the “damage” that was done, there is a push toward the recognition that what was, simply was what it was, it had to be that way (there is no point whining “If only things had been different….”); and a push toward the symbolization of something that can move things forward.
Bruce Fink, Lacan on Desire, loc 2379

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d943B3MUlbg

#BruceFink #Lacan #loss #objetPetitA

#brucefink #lacan #loss #objetpetita

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2025-06-18 · 18:25 UTC

The inevitability and irreversibility of loss

By way of contrast, Lacan’s view is that losses are inevitable and irreversible, and they must be mourned. We mustn’t spend our whole lives complaining that we’ve been gypped and trying to get back what we feel we’ve lost out on. Now, once those losses are recognized for what they are and mourned, they can be sublimated or sublated in a sense, transmogrified with the coming to the fore of the phallic signifier, the Phallus with a capital P, symbolized by the matheme Φ. This is a forward-looking, as opposed to a backward-looking project. Rather than regressing to childhood to repair all the “damage” that was done, there is a push toward the recognition that what was, simply was what it was, it had to be that way (there is no point whining “If only things had been different….”); and a push toward the symbolization of something that can move things forward.
Bruce Fink, Lacan on Desire, loc 2379

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d943B3MUlbg

#BruceFink #Lacan #loss #objetPetitA

#objetpetita #loss #lacan #brucefink

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2025-06-18 · 18:25 UTC

The inevitability and irreversibility of loss

By way of contrast, Lacan’s view is that losses are inevitable and irreversible, and they must be mourned. We mustn’t spend our whole lives complaining that we’ve been gypped and trying to get back what we feel we’ve lost out on. Now, once those losses are recognized for what they are and mourned, they can be sublimated or sublated in a sense, transmogrified with the coming to the fore of the phallic signifier, the Phallus with a capital P, symbolized by the matheme Φ. This is a forward-looking, as opposed to a backward-looking project. Rather than regressing to childhood to repair all the “damage” that was done, there is a push toward the recognition that what was, simply was what it was, it had to be that way (there is no point whining “If only things had been different….”); and a push toward the symbolization of something that can move things forward.
Bruce Fink, Lacan on Desire, loc 2379

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d943B3MUlbg

#BruceFink #Lacan #loss #objetPetitA

#brucefink #lacan #loss #objetpetita

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2024-11-30 · 11:32 UTC

What is the objet petit a for aspiring writers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ8TzuqpSQs

I see so many kids that love being writers more than they love writing

From Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life loc 423:

The problem that comes up over and over again is that these people want to be published. They kind of want to write, but they really want to be published. You’ll never get to where you want to be that way, I tell them. There is a door we all want to walk through, and writing can help you find it and open it. Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won’t do any of those things; you’ll never get in that way.

From Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life

Almost every single thing you hope publication will do for you is a fantasy, a hologram—it’s the eagle on your credit card that only seems to soar. What’s real is that if you do your scales every day, if you slowly try harder and harder pieces, if you listen to great musicians play music you love, you’ll get better. At times when you’re working, you’ll sit there feeling hung over and bored, and you may or may not be able to pull yourself up out of it that day. But it is fantasy to think that successful writers do not have these bored, defeated hours, these hours of deep insecurity when one feels as small and jumpy as a water bug.

It strikes me that what she’s talking about here is a classic example of the objet petit a: the elusive target we yearn after to the core of our being, which we imagine grasping hold of will move us into a place of fullness from which we would never have to leave. If only we can get to this point, if only we can attain the object, everything will be ok… forever. The ceaseless pursuit of which risks cutting off from the satisfactions we can take in there and now, the embodied pleasures available to us as who we actually are rather than the person we imagine we could one day become.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwjzJKCZWYc

Nothing is more entertaining
Than fucking with words and their arrangement
Every syllable can rhyme
If you can afford the time

#AnneLamott #desire #objetPetitA #pleasure #scroobiusPip #words #writing

#annelamott #desire #objetpetita #pleasure #scroobiuspip #words

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2024-11-30 · 11:32 UTC

What is the objet petit a for aspiring writers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ8TzuqpSQs

I see so many kids that love being writers more than they love writing

From Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life loc 423:

The problem that comes up over and over again is that these people want to be published. They kind of want to write, but they really want to be published. You’ll never get to where you want to be that way, I tell them. There is a door we all want to walk through, and writing can help you find it and open it. Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won’t do any of those things; you’ll never get in that way.

From Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life

Almost every single thing you hope publication will do for you is a fantasy, a hologram—it’s the eagle on your credit card that only seems to soar. What’s real is that if you do your scales every day, if you slowly try harder and harder pieces, if you listen to great musicians play music you love, you’ll get better. At times when you’re working, you’ll sit there feeling hung over and bored, and you may or may not be able to pull yourself up out of it that day. But it is fantasy to think that successful writers do not have these bored, defeated hours, these hours of deep insecurity when one feels as small and jumpy as a water bug.

It strikes me that what she’s talking about here is a classic example of the objet petit a: the elusive target we yearn after to the core of our being, which we imagine grasping hold of will move us into a place of fullness from which we would never have to leave. If only we can get to this point, if only we can attain the object, everything will be ok… forever. The ceaseless pursuit of which risks cutting off from the satisfactions we can take in there and now, the embodied pleasures available to us as who we actually are rather than the person we imagine we could one day become.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwjzJKCZWYc

Nothing is more entertaining
Than fucking with words and their arrangement
Every syllable can rhyme
If you can afford the time

#AnneLamott #desire #objetPetitA #pleasure #scroobiusPip #words #writing

#writing #words #scroobiuspip #pleasure #objetpetita #desire

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2024-11-30 · 11:32 UTC

What is the objet petit a for aspiring writers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ8TzuqpSQs

I see so many kids that love being writers more than they love writing

From Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life loc 423:

The problem that comes up over and over again is that these people want to be published. They kind of want to write, but they really want to be published. You’ll never get to where you want to be that way, I tell them. There is a door we all want to walk through, and writing can help you find it and open it. Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won’t do any of those things; you’ll never get in that way.

From Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life

Almost every single thing you hope publication will do for you is a fantasy, a hologram—it’s the eagle on your credit card that only seems to soar. What’s real is that if you do your scales every day, if you slowly try harder and harder pieces, if you listen to great musicians play music you love, you’ll get better. At times when you’re working, you’ll sit there feeling hung over and bored, and you may or may not be able to pull yourself up out of it that day. But it is fantasy to think that successful writers do not have these bored, defeated hours, these hours of deep insecurity when one feels as small and jumpy as a water bug.

It strikes me that what she’s talking about here is a classic example of the objet petit a: the elusive target we yearn after to the core of our being, which we imagine grasping hold of will move us into a place of fullness from which we would never have to leave. If only we can get to this point, if only we can attain the object, everything will be ok… forever. The ceaseless pursuit of which risks cutting off from the satisfactions we can take in there and now, the embodied pleasures available to us as who we actually are rather than the person we imagine we could one day become.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwjzJKCZWYc

Nothing is more entertaining
Than fucking with words and their arrangement
Every syllable can rhyme
If you can afford the time

#AnneLamott #desire #objetPetitA #pleasure #scroobiusPip #words #writing

#annelamott #desire #objetpetita #pleasure #scroobiuspip #words

Mark Carrigan @[email protected] · 2024-10-08 · 19:07 UTC