In "Mourning and Depression," Freud argued that " mourning is usually a reaction to the loss of a loved one ". Reality has shown that the object of love no longer exists, which requires the subject to withdraw all libido from attachment to this object. The process progresses slowly, during which "the lost object continues its existence spiritually", and the subject's desire is always fixed on the lost lover. Once the work of mourning is complete, the subject is freed. For Wanda, Vision's tragic death starts her work of mourning, but before Wanda can withdraw her libido and direct it elsewhere, she witnesses the dismembered Vision and the normal mourning process is forced to stop. In such situations, Freud noted, mourning turns into depression. The biggest difference between mourning and depression is that "in mourning it is the world that becomes impoverished and empty; in depression it is the ego itself that becomes impoverished and empty." Withdrawing from the object and replacing it with a new one, the subject turns narcissistically back into himself, whereby the subject identifies himself as the lost object . If mourning is the complete acceptance of death, then Wanda's depression is the unforgettable nostalgia for the deceased lover. Therefore, Wanda created a fantasy world under his control, freezing the subject in his own time .
Murder in the Symbolic World
After Wanda's traumatic encounter with the dismembered vision (the real), the subject's original perception of reality and evaluation of meaning (symbolic order) were brutally shattered. The subject must reconstruct the meaning system in order to survive. In other words, Wanda must symbolize and symbolize the trauma of the real world . As a superpower, Wanda's unconscious choice is to create an illusory Westview. As a kind of fantasy, the meaning of West King Town's existence for Wanda is to resist the invasion of "reality" by the real world. However, by controlling a real town, Wanda's magically created Westview is a complete symbolic order, or the symbolic.
The symbolic world is essentially a chain of signification composed of countless signifiers, one signifier always refers to another signifier, and the other signifier is in this endless chain of signifiers. The upper signifier is another signifier. The meaning of a signifier is always given by the whole of the symbolic world, by the difference between the signifiers, and the signifier alone has no meaning, because there is always a barrier between the signifier and the signified, marking the Their fundamental split, in the sense that the signified becomes a being "sliding" under the chain of signifiers. Once the subject enters the symbolic realm, it will be "subjected" to this symbolic order , but if we want to fully exist as human subjects, we must go through this symbolic "castration" process. Entering the subject of the symbolic order, the position of ta is marked by the signifier. So in the same way, the subject does not refer to anything stable, the subject is a place of "nothingness" , the I (I) of the nominative in everyday speech, in Lacan's words: "It is only one signifier to another signifier. signifying things". So it is always the structure of language that speaks to the subject, not the subject that speaks to the structure of language . Forced to be drawn into the symbolic order created by Wanda, the original (non)existence of the residents of Westview Township was replaced by a new set of symbolic realms. Although they were not physically destroyed, they had already died at the symbolic level . The whole set of symbolic order is built in Wanda's unconscious fantasy, where Wanda as the absolute Other (the Other) is actually equivalent to the symbolic world she created, and she thus becomes the real murderer of this mass murder.
In fact, Wanda at this time can be regarded as a neurotic. She used her superficial omnipotence to suppress and defend her actual powerlessness. The whole series can be regarded as Wanda's spirit in this sense. Analyze the treatment process . But as Lacan pointed out: "the big other (symbolic world) does not exist", the symbolic order or the big other is always inherently inconsistent, unstable, and full of fractures, and the symbolization of the real world is always inconsistent. Possibly complete, there is always a surplus. Therefore, even though Wanda has the powerful ability of the Mind Stone, the world she created is full of bugs, always prompting the division of the symbolic order . Everyone's perception of "reality" is realized under the combined action of the symbolic world and the imaginary. For Wanda, the imaginary relies on her superpower to mend various inconsistencies in the symbolic world. , while identifying himself illusoryly with a happy housewife.
"The piece of the Mind Stone"
The real always resists being fully subsumed into the symbolic, and what remains after its symbolic representation is the objet petit a, the object-cause of the desire. Lacan's subject is the subject of desire, and desire is driven by "scarcity," and the object a refers to the constitutive or original lack of the subject . The object small a exists in the real world, so it is not a specific object, or it does not exist at all, it is a continuous process in which the subject fills the lack through the pursuit of a certain object, but it will be retroactively caused by the subject. Objectification becomes " a piece of the real" that is missing from oneself.
In "Wanda Vision", this "small piece of reality" is Wanda's love for vision , and all Wanda's unconscious desires revolve around the fantasy world constructed by the object, Wanda's love. Externally maintains her consistency with this fantasy world. To put it simply, "love" is a typical object small , because in the definition of love, it absolutely refuses to be symbolized and spoken. We can't tell why we love someone, because if specific conditions are attached to "love", once the conditions change, such "love" will also disappear. This is also clearly revealed in the dialogue between Wanda and Vision when they finally parted. When Vision asked "what am I", Wanda replied:
You are the spiritual gem that lives in my body, you are the body I created with machinery and flesh, you are my sorrow and my hope, but most importantly, you are my love.
Here, the Mind Gem is a wonderful metaphor for the object little a , a "small piece" that the subject (whether Wanda or Vision) has long been missing, but constitutes the constitutive element of the subject's self-identification, opening up the subject's endless Movement of desire.
travel through fantasy
If "Wanda Vision" is Wanda's psychoanalytic treatment, then the outcome of this treatment can only be " traversing the fantasy". Wanda's fantasies are not only related to her, but because her magic has brutally manipulated an entire town's inhabitants, simply identifying with "sinthomes" is not only illusory but dangerous. Only by not succumbing to the temptation of the endless pleasure principle, taking the initiative to face the trauma of the real world, and taking the responsibility of the "jouissance" in the real world , can Wanda obtain the possibility of re-symbolization, only by experiencing the real "death". Get reborn.
The role of the psychoanalyst in the play is played by the villain witch Agatha . Although she only acts according to her own desires, she objectively leads or forces Wanda to go through the fantasy, face all the traumatic experiences of her life , and also Let Wanda witness the real pain that his "symptoms" bring to the residents of Xijing Town, and these are precisely the key links of psychoanalytic treatment. It was from this beginning that Wanda really took control of his life.
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