It would seem that Martin Heidegger’s philosophical
contour is beginning to assume a fairly definitive form in the history of
philosophy. Finally. Hopefully. Because at best, there is dubious philosophical
value in the thought-product of morally and spiritually vacuous philosophers;
this is only increased, hence at its worst, where there is also deliberate
deception and hidden agendas. So, the History of Philosophy presents Martin
Heidegger.
Phrontisterion here
renders a recent Charlie Hebdo editorial (4 October 2017 / No 1315), from Yann Diener’s
rubric: “Stories from Father Sigmund”
[« Les
Histoires du Père Sigmund »].
~Translated
by David Aiken~
“My Nights Without
Heidegger”
An escapee from Auschwitz turned
psychoanalyst after going through analysis with Lacan, Anne-Lise Stern used to spit
on the ground every time she had to pronounce Heidegger’s name. Including on
the lovely carpet at The House of Human
Sciences (la Maison des sciences de l’homme), where for thirty years she
held her seminar entitled, “Camps, History, Psychoanalysis: How They Tie into
European Current Affairs.”
As
it happens, Martin Heidegger, considered for a long time to be the most
important philosopher of the 20th century, was a member of the Nazi
party. A fact that has not kept generations of philosophers, from Sartre to
Levinas, and not forgetting Hannah Arendt, from being fascinated by his program
of returning to Being—this God [i.e., lapis
philosophorum - TN] of the philosophers, which was, according
to Heidegger, perverted by 2000 years of Judeo-Christianity.
Up
until the end of the 20th century, Heidegger’s admirers attempted to
separate his ideas from his commitment to the Nazi party. This hypothesis fell
apart completely in 2005 with the publication of Emmanuel Faye’s book, Heidegger, The Introduction of Nazism into
Philosophy. Rereading the German documents and accessing others that had
not yet been published, Faye showed that the philosophy of Heidegger is inseparable
from his antisemitism and from his conviction concerning the superiority of the
German people.
For a long time his
most fervent devotees would systematically contort themselves in order to deny
this state of fact; but the coup de grace
was given by the master himself: Heidegger had demanded that all of his most
explicitly anti-Semitic and Nazi writings not be published until after 2001,
which is to say well after his death in 1976. So, it is from the grave that the
philosopher explains to us that he had to encrypt his early texts while
awaiting a more receptive environment. He used what he himself called
‘cover-words’. For example, he would speak of Being when he wanted to say Fatherland
or the Being-race [l’être-race]—which changes somewhat the
interpretative game.
And then there are his Black Notebooks [i.e., Schwartze Hefte], which are being
published in Germany, and which show themselves to be full to overflowing with
anti-Semitic formulas: the great philosopher is obsessed by the “calculating
Jew”; he speaks of the “extermination of the interior enemy” and regrets that
Hitler’s failure had to interrupt a total destruction that was necessary.* To
such a degree that Günter Figal, the president of the
Martin-Heidegger-Gesellschaft—the Martin Heidegger Society—resigned in January
2015, explaining that he could no longer see himself defending Heidegger.
But what does that have to do with
psychoanalysis, you might ask? Well, at the beginning of his teaching career,
Lacan referenced Heidegger a great deal. Notably, he found support in Heidegger
for the elaboration of his conception of ‘symptom’ as a ‘covering’ [voilement] and ‘un-covering’ [dévoilement] of a truth. But then Lacan openly separated himself from Heidegger.
One could expect nothing less from the brilliant clinician. In a variety of
ways and means, he said that Heidegger is a dead-end. But the problem is, that
there are a great many Lacanians who continue to reference Heideggerian notions
as if Lacan had always been Heideggerian. You might be tempted to think that
this is a matter just for Lacanians. But no, it is a political question that
deals with the very real disinhibition [désinhibition] of identity hatreds and identity points of
view.
The translation of the Black Notebooks is late in coming to
France, where the official translator seems overwhelmed by the task. But
Philippe Sollers, a great fan of the master from the Black Forest, has recently
announced that he will publish next February a book intended to clear Heidegger’s
name.** It so happens that his press announcement is also illustrated with a
photo dating from 1955, where one sees Lacan and Heidegger together.
It is up to us, Lacanians, to show
that Lacan was not Heideggerian, in order that he should no longer be used in
this way to provide credibility for a racist and hygienist philosopher.
* See Naufrage d’un prophète. Heidegger aujourdh’hui, de François Rastier
(PUF).
** Martin Heidegger. La vérité sur ses Cahiers
noirs, de Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann et Francesco Alfiere, à Paraitre
chez Gallimard.
Further reading about Martin Heidegger on Phrontisterion:
