God in the Mirror: A Study of the Institution of Images (Pierre Legendre Lessons III)

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Contents
The image is dogma
Marginal note
Prologue: To fabricate man so that he resembles man. The question of images and the reproduction of humanity
	I Humanity struggling with the Mirror’s fabrication. General considerations
	II From the Torah to ultramodernity, via western Christianity. Landmarks for Lessons III
		1 Questions of method
		2 Origin of the specular metaphor in the western dogmatic. Genesis, book 1, verses 26–27
		3 The image and the figurable: from the unknown of the subject to the social fantastic. Remarks on a medieval miniature: The Wound of Christ
		4 Power, as the enterprise of showing
	III Dependence of the State, for the West, on the discourse of the Imago Dei
		Plan of the Work
I The constitutive alienation of the subject. Prolegomena to every theory of the image
	I The instance of subjective representation
		1 First level: the paradigm of the despair of Narcissus, and its meaning. Remarks on the image and the category of nothingness
		2 Second level: a demand is conveyed by the image. Remarks on the image as message
	II The other of the mirror and the subject’s speculation on the semblable. The narcissistic material of societies
		1 Narcissistic process and differentiation of the other. Remarks on the institution of the semblable
		2 The staging of the absolute Other
	III The symbolic consequences of the subject’s alienation in his image. The question of the status of the mirror
		1 A preliminary consideration for contemporary thought: acknowledging the concept of identification elaborated by psychoanalysis
		2 The relational nature of identity and the mirror. Remarks on the symbolic status of the mirror
			a) The mirror in relation to speech
			b) The mirror and the cause of images
			c) Identification of the other of the mirror. Landmarks for the study of reflexivity as symbolic effect
		3 The mirror, as metaphor of the limit
			Note: on the use and misuse of psychoanalysis in approaching these questions
	IV Logic beyond the image. Remarks on the institution and frontiers of Reason: the fantastic dimension
II The relational nature of identity and of society. Remarks on the deployment of the mythological function
	I Identity of culture: how is a society present to its own image?
		1 The basic theoretical problem: the instance of representation and the concept of society
			First moment: Presenting evidence that our societies would not know how to exist without the fiction of the social Subject holding an authentic discourse
			Second moment: To comprehend, with the aid of the Freudian discovery, what the problematic of representation implies for the social Subject of fiction
			Third moment: With the aid of the given European dogmatic, to note the relation to the image as a constitutive element of the social principle. Every society expresses an essentially normative position, on the nature of this relation
		2 The word and the question of the Mirror. Logical foundations of the logic of identity in a fictional universe
			a) To metaphorize negativity. Analysis of the theatrical principle as principle of the Mirror
			Note: on negativity and murder in culture
			b) The logical return. Production of the symbolic absolute Other and the destiny of reflexivity
			c) Edifying an exegesis of identity. Remarks on the social scripture of genealogical intrigue
			d) Conclusion: the structure of myth
		3 The image is dogma. Defining the concept of dogmatic anthropology
	II Mythological instance: the social fabric of the Mirror and the question of adequate myth
		1 Myth, agent of reflexivity in culture. Western paradigms of the absolute Mirror: Imago Dei (Genesis, I, 26–27), La Reproduction interdite (Magritte)
		2 Myth in its function as causal instance: to metaphorize causality. Remarks on the social link, as specular relation – that is to say, as relation to the founding Image
			a) Inscription of the social link in the mechanism of identification
			b) Normative constitution of the relation to the fundamental Image: the regime of symbolic statements
			c) The institution of sequestration
		3 The metaphor of the mirror and the fabric of the Father. Remarks on myth in its narrative function
			a) Mythological intrigue, as treatment of the point of origin
			b) Mythological intrigue, as treatment of the question of alterity
	III The production of symbolic foundations and the scientistic use of the sciences
Aside
	I The other face of the cinematic screen
	II The Mirror, as advent of the singular. Leonardo da Vinci: library of the Institute of France, manuscript B
III “Id efficit, quod figurat” (the effectiveness of the symbol). Social constitution of the word and the normative emergence of images
	I Representation and the notion of symbolic efficiency. A detour through the theory of sacraments
		1 Sacrament and sign
		2 Sacrament and specularity
		3 Eucharist and genealogical scene
		4 The sacramental invention and Western culture. General remarks
	II To produce the oedipal staging of the world. The normative function of assembly: articulation of Reference and subject
		1 Why Oedipus? Remarks on the presence of man to the world, and the opening to the identificatory relation
			a) Preliminaries: the being of the mirror for the subject
			b) The fundamental problem: two superimposed scenes of the absolute Mirror. Study on the process of division in the fantastic space of foundations
				α) First moment of the study. What is it, to gaze? Elements for an exegesis of the gaze
				β) Second moment of the study. The absolute Mirror, metaphor of the power of division. Note on the superimposition of two founding scenes of the symbolic absolute Other
			c) The oedipal translation of two superimposed scenes of the absolute Mirror. An essential conclusion
		2 The science of assembling of the planes of Reference and subject. Intermediary note on sciences and the dogmatic function
			a) The exercise of the dogmatic function, and the constitution of sciences in Text. A mistake to remove, concerning law
			b) On the normative status of sciences. Remarks on the assembly of the planes of Reference and subject: a semiological procedure
		3 To establish the presumption of sense. Remarks on the fabric of instituted oedipal figures: images of the Mother and the Father (Muttertum and Vatertum)
	III The exercise of power over images
		1 On the nature of mediatic power
		2 On the casuistic of interpreters, as power over images. Some central considerations
	IV The sacrificial aspect of the institution of images. Note on political despair
		1 The politics of symbolic laisser-faire and their effects of counter-institution: immolation of the subject in non-sense
		2 On the necessity of a path of study able to lift denial of sacrificial logic
General remarks on the bibliography
	I A requirement of method: to invest the scholarship, in order to understand and surpass the Western frame
	II Paths of access to theoretical work
Conclusion: The bond of the image, the tie to the foundations of the image
	1 The stake of recognition in humanity
	2 Myth in the institutional montage of representation
	3 Rethinking normativity in terms of symbolic efficiency
Illustrations
Index