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Psychoanalysts are on the lookout for what is wanted, for what is missing, and for the ways it is sought. For the most part, their inquiries are conducted indirectly; they stake out a position and wait to be told.
From the point of view of that epistemological position, the wanting that really counts—theorized wanting, interpretable wanting—is necessarily located elsewhere. Not here, but there—this is the ground for what might be called a clinical mood.
It is a mood of sufficiency, an insider's mood, a mood of plenitude, of “masculinity.” The “masculine” mood locates wanting always elsewhere, and always outside. To maintain this mood it is necessary to cultivate an attitude of vigilance. One's gaze is trained outward.
What we intend with this issue is to address that gaze, to exert a pressure which, were it successful, would bend that gaze back on to itself.
For one hundred years we have produced and listened a number of re-worked versions of Freud's infamous question “What do Women Want?”
If this issue has its own question, it might well be: “Who Wants to Know?”
On the evenings of April 21, 23, and 24, in association with this issue of American Imago on “Men/Male/Masculinity,” and co-sponsored by the Psychoanalytic Association of New York, we will be presenting three programs of film, video and performance, all curated by Jason Simon. The programs will take place at Exit Art, 611 Broadway, New York, NY. For information, call (212) 966-7745.