From Physical Trauma to Mental Disorder: Interpreting Captain Ahab from Lacan's Theory of Psychosis

大部份失能研究領域的學者提出《白鯨記》此航海史詩故事中的亞哈，做為一位失能船長，對意外中將他截肢的鯨魚展示了無法解釋的仇恨。這些學者直接把亞哈狂暴的人格與他腿的喪失做出連結，因而帶出了身體與精神的關連。然而，這些學者並未更進一步探討這兩者的連繫，因為他們沒有討論身體創傷如何導至亞哈的精神失序。亞哈失能的身體層面，和他幻想出一名敵人名叫莫比敵的精神層面，這兩者並未細緻地釐清。雅各‧拉岡關於精神症的理論可以有效地連結兩者。拉岡呈現了理解精神症病人的方法，他曾指出亞哈這一類帶有幻覺的主體事實上呈現的並不只是現實感的喪失（2002: 178）。亞哈復仇計劃的荒謬及無法無天闡述了精神症的論述，因為他處於幻覺的狀態，失去了與小寫他者的中介及平等關係（Ragland-Sullivan; 1986: 199）。當精神症主體失去與小寫他者的中介關係，他同時也無法進入大寫他者的秩序。在拉岡探討象徵層與想像層精神分析理論的幫助下，本文意圖闡明亞哈在經歷截肢創傷後出現的精神結構。本文將論證身體和心靈並非兩項獨立分開的區域，因為發生於身體上的變故也會立即帶來心靈上的改變。

關鍵字

失能；亞哈；精神症；拉岡；薛瑞伯

並列摘要

It has been remarked by most proponents of disability studies that in ”Moby-Dick”, an epic tale of the sea, the disabled captain, Ahab, demonstrates an inexplicable hatred towards a whale that has amputated him by accident. They directly link his tempestuous personality to the loss of his leg, unfolding a connection between the body and the mind. However, these critics fail to probe deeper into the relation between the two, since they do not discuss how the bodily trauma leads to Ahab's mental disorder. The link between the physical aspect of Ahab's disability and the mental delirium of the enemy called Moby Dick is not finely elucidated. Jacques Lacan's theory of psychosis can effectively connect the two. Lacan shows one the way to understand the psychotic by pointing out that such a delirious subject as Ahab in fact presents something more than just a ”loss of reality” (2002: 178). The ridiculous, outrageous nature of Ahab's plan of revenge illustrates ”a psychotic discourse,” since he is ”in the state of delirium-without a mediating, equalizing relation to the other” (Ragland-Sullivan; 1986: 199). Losing the proper mediating relationship to the other, the psychotic is unavoidably excluded simultaneously from the big Other. With the help of Lacan's psychoanalytic theory of the symbolic and the imaginary, this paper aims to unravel the psychic structure of Ahab after he undergoes the trauma of amputation. It will be proved that the mind and the body are not two separate, independent entities since what happens to the body can lead to changes in the mind immediately.