A Neuropsychoanalytic Contribution to Debates over Jouissance

Here I demonstrate how my Lacanian neuropsychoanalytic formulation of jouissance overcomes Darian Leader’s criticisms of the concept. Specifically, the brain’s predictive logic is unthinkable without the social domain of shared generative models (the Other). Additionally, the Free Energy Principle allows neuropsychoanalysis to furnish an informatic (non-substantial) model of qualitatively distinct domains of (affective) uncertainty. Yet, these lenses of neuroscience are difficult, if not impossible, to conceptualize without retaining Lacanian concepts (including jouissance). I thereby argue for the ongoing (but precise) inclusion of jouissance in Lacanian (neuro)psychoanalysis.