Derrida

Freud and the Scene of Writing
Author(s): Jacques Derrida and Jeffrey Mehlman

Source: Yale French Studies, No. 48, French Freud: Structural Studies in Psychoanalysis (1972),
pp. 74-117
Published by: Yale University Press
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Yale FrenchStudies
futuretranslators
of theProjectmightdo well to translateBahnungas fraying:
the word wears remarkably
well.
d) Differanceis a neologism-byvirtueof thea-combining the temporal
to defer)and spatial (differer,
to differ)modes of difference
in a
(differer,
movementwhich is neitheractive nor passive. It is this differential
play,
(re)producing
the presentsecondarilyas its effect,whichis the (utopian)focus
of Derrida's undertaking.We have retainedthe French neologismin our
translation.
e) Supplement.The untranslatable
verb suppleermeans at once to complete (or supplement)and to replace (an absence). In Rousseau's writing,in
which Derrida has delineatedmost extensivelythe logic of the supplement,
thereis somethinginherently
awryin the author'suse of the word supple'er
(De la grammatologie,
Paris, 1967). For the kind of plenitudewhicha completingsupplementmightbring is incompatiblewith the secondarystatus
To rephrasethe paradox in Rousseau's terms:
impliedby any "replacement."
to a primal"transparency."
it is as thoughthe "obstacle"werealreadyintrinsic
Were we, like the dream-work,
to forge our own idiomatictranslation
of suppleer, it might be the condensation of completed and replace: to complace. This activity of complacing (or movement of difference),upon repres-
sion, would degenerateinto a blind complacency(a reasonable translation

for Rousseau's amour propre); the "displacement"in the heart of every
Derrida's(Rousseau's? Freud's?) intellectual
plenitudewould pass unperceived.
to dislocatea metatask would then be to revivethe scandal of differance,
physical,"phonological"complacency.
For the notion of Nachtriglichkeit (apres coup, deferred action), to which
Derrida assimilatesthe supplement,

see the entryfromthe Vocabulairede la
Psychanalyse below.
This essay,originallya lectureat Dr. AndreGreen'sseminar,appearswith
preface and postface in L'Ecriture et la difference.
-J. M.
Worin die Bahnung sonst besteht,bleibt dahingestellt.

In what the frayingdoes consist remains an open
question. (Project for a ScientificPsychology,1895)
Our aim is limited: to locatein Freud'stextseveralpointsof reference

and to isolate,on the thresholdof a systematicexamination,what in
psychoanalysiscan be containedbut withdifficulty
by the logocentric
enclosure,as it limits not only the historyof philosophybut the
orientationof the "human sciences,"notablyof a certainlinguistics.
If the Freudian breakthrough
is historicallynew, it is not by virtue
74

Jacques Derrida
of its peacefulcoexistenceor theoreticalcomplicitywiththatlinguistics, at least in its congenitalphonologism.1
Now it is not accidentalthat Freud, in the decisivemomentsof
his itinerary,
has recourseto metaphoricalmodelswhichare borrowed
not fromspoken language or verbal forms,nor even fromphonetic
writing,but from a script which is never subject, extrinsic,and
posteriorto the spokenword.Freud invokessignswhichdo not tranIn fact,
scribe living,whole speech,masterof itselfand self-present.
and thiswill be our problem,Freud does not simplyuse themetaphor
of non-phonetic
writing;he does not deem it expedientto manipulate
scripturalmetaphorsfor didacticends. If such metaphorsare indispensable,it is perhapsbecause theyilluminatein returnthe meaning
of a tracein generaland eventually,in articulationwithit, themeaning of writingas commonlyconceived.Freud, no doubt,is not using
metaphors,if to use a metaphormeans to allude withthe knownto
the unknown.Throughthe insistenceof his metaphoricinvestment,
he rendersenigmatic,on the contrary,what we believe we know by
the name of writing.A move unknownto classical philosophyis
perhaps undertakenhere, somewherebetween the implicitand the
explicit.From Plato and Aristotleon, scriptural
imageshave regularly
been used to illustratetherelationshipbetweenreason and experience,
perceptionand memory.But a certainconfidencehas never stopped
being reassuredby the meaningof the familiarterm: writing.The
gesturesketchedby Freud interrupts
that assuranceand opens up a
new kind of questionabout metaphor,writing,
and spacingin general.
Let us follow in our readingthis metaphoricinvestment.
It will
eventuallyinvade the entirety
of thepsyche.Psychicalcontentwill be
representedby a textwhose essenceis irreducibly
graphic.The structure of the psychicalapparatuswill be representedby a writingmachine. What questionswill these representations
impose on us? We
shall have to ask not if a writingapparatus-for example, the one
described in the "Note Upon the Mystic WritingPad"-is a good
metaphorforrepresenting
theworkingof thepsyche; but ratherwhat
1 For a discussionof Saussure's"phonologism"and the role it plays in
(his) linguistics,
see De la grammatologie,
p. 46.-Ed.
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apparatuswe mustcreatein orderto representpsychicalwriting,and
whattheimitation,
projectedand liberatedin a machine,of something
like psychicalwritingmightmean. Not if the psycheis indeed a kind
of text,but: what is a text,and whatmustthepsychebe if it can be
represented
by a text?For if thereis neithermachinenor textwithout
psychicalorigin,thereis no psychewithouttext.Finally,what must
the relations among psyche, writing,and spacing be for such a
metaphorictransitionto be possible,not only (nor primarily)within
theoreticaldiscourse but within the historyof pysche, text, and
technics?
Frayingand Difference
From the Project (1895) to the "Note Upon the MysticWriting-Pad"
(1925), a strangeprogression:a problematicof frayingis elaborated
only to conformincreasinglyto a metaphoricsof the writtentrace.
From a systemof tracesfunctioning
accordingto a model thatFreud
would have preferrednatural and from which writingis entirely
of traces which can no
absent, we proceed towarda configuration
longerbe representedexceptby the structureand processof writing.
At the same time, the structuralmodel of writing,which Freud
invokes immediatelyafterthe Project, will be persistently
differentiated and refinedin originality.
All the mechanicalmodels will be
tested and abandoned until the discoveryof the Wunderblock,a
writingmachine of marvelouscomplexity,into which the whole of
the psychical apparatus will be projected.The solution to all the
previousdifficulties
will be presentedin it, and the "Note," indicative
of an admirabletenacity,will answerpreciselythe questionsof the
Project. The Wunderblock,in each of its parts,will realize the apparatus which Freud, in the Project,judged "at presentunimaginable" ("We are at presentunable to imagine an apparatus which
would accomplish so complicated an operation") and which he
replaced(suppl&e)at thattimeby a neurologicalfable whose scheme
and intention,in certainrespects,he will never abandon.
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Jacques Derrida
In 1895, it was a matterof explainingmemoryin the mannerof
the naturalsciences,"proposingpsychologyas a naturalscience,that
is, representing
psychicalevents as states quantitativelydetermined
by distinctmaterialparticles."Now, "one of the principalproperties
of nervoustissueis memory,that is, most generally,the capacityto
be alteredin a lastingway by eventswhich occur only once." And
4'any psychological theory worthyof attentionmust propose an
explanationof 'memory'."The crux of such an explanation,what
makes such an apparatusunimaginable,
is the necessityof accounting
simultaneously,as the "Note" will do thirtyyears later, for the
of the receivingsubstance,
permanenceof the trace and the virginity
for the engravingof the tracksand the perenniallyintactbarenessof
the perceptivesurface: in thiscase, of the neurones."Thus the neurones would appear to be both influencedand also unaltered,
'unprepossessed'(unvoreingenommen)."
Rejectinga distinctionwhich
was commonin his day between"sense cells" and "memorycells,"
Freud thenforgesthe hypothesisof "contact-barriers"
and "fraying"
(Bahnung), of the breakingof a path (Bahn). Whatever may be
thoughtof the continuitiesand breaks in what will follow, this
hypothesisis remarkableas soon as it is consideredas a metaphorical
model and not as a neurologicaldescription.Fraying,the tracingof
a trail, opens up a conductingpath. Which presupposesa certain
violenceand a certainresistanceto the effraction.
The pathis broken,
cracked,fracta,frayed.Now therewould be two kinds of neurones:
the permeableneurones(p), offering
no resistanceand thus retaining
no traceof impression,
would be perceptualneurones; otherneurones
(b) would oppose contact-barriers
to the quantityof excitationand
would thus retainthe printedtrace: they"thus offera possibilityof
representing
(darzustellen)memory."Firstrepresentation,
firststaging
of memory.(Darstellungis representation
in the weak sense of the
word but also frequently
in the sense of visual depiction,and sometimes of theatricalperformance.Our translationwill vary with the
inflexionof the context.)Freud attributespsychicalquality only to
these latterneurones.They are the "bearers of memoryand thus
probably of psychical events in general." Memory is thus not a
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psychicalpropertyamongothers; it is theveryessenceof thepsyche:
resistanceand preciselytherebyan openingto the effractionof the
trace.
Now assumingthatFreud hereintendsto speak onlythe language
of full and presentquantity,assuming,as at least appears to be the
case, that he intendsto situate his work in the simple opposition
betweenquantityand quality(the latterbeing reservedfor the pure
transparencyof a perceptionwithoutmemory),we find that the
conceptof frayingreveals itselfintolerantof this intent.An equality
in resistancesto the frayingor an equivalence in the forcesfraying
would eliminateany preference
in choice of itinerary.
Memorywould
be paralysed.It is the difference
betweenfrayingswhich is the real
originof memoryand thus of the psyche.Only thatdifference
frees
a "preferenceof path" (Wegbevorzugung):"Memory is represented
in the frayingsbetweenthe 4-neuro(dargestellt)by the differences
nes." We must thennot say thatfrayingwithoutdifference
is insufficientformemory;it mustbe stipulatedthatthereis no pure fraying
withoutdifference.A trace as memoryis not a pure frayingthat
mightbe retrievedat any timeas a simplepresence,it is the impalpable and invisibledifference
betweenfrayings.We thus know already
thatpsychicallifeis neitherthe transparency
of meaningnor theopacin the exertionof forces.As Nietzsche
ity of forcebut the difference
had alreadysaid.
That quantitybecomes psyche and mneme throughdifferences
ratherthan throughplenitudeswill be continuouslyconfirmedin the
Project itself.Repetitionadds no quantityof presentforce,no intensity; it reproducesthe same impression: yet it has the power of
fraying."Memory, the force (Macht), perenniallyat work, of an
experience,dependson a factorcalled the quantityof the impression
and on the frequencywithwhich that same impressionis repeated."
The numberof repetitionsis thus added to the quantity(Qu) of the
exciattion,and these two quantitiesare of two absolutelyheterogeneous types.Repetitionscan existeonly as discreteand can act as
such only throughthe diastem which maintains their separation.
Finally,if frayingcan supplementa quantitypresentlyat workor be
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Jacques Derrida
added to it, it is because it is definitely
analogous to quantitybut
different
as well: a quantity"can be replacedby a quantityin addition
to the frayingwhichresultsfromit." Let us not hastento definethis
otherof pure quantityas quality: we would be transforming
mnemic
energyintopresentconsciousnessand translucidperceptionof present
qualities.Thus, neitherthe difference
betweenfullquantities,nor the
intervalbetweenrepetitionsof the identical,nor frayingitselfmay
be thoughtof in terms of the opposition between quantityand
quality.2 Memory cannot be derivedfromit and escapes the grasp
of "naturalism"as well as "phenomenology."
All these differencesin the productionof the trace may be
In accordance with a motif
reinterpreted
as momentsof deferment.
that will continueto dominateFreud's thinking,this movementis
describedas theeffortof lifeto protectitselfby deferring
a dangerous
a reserve(Vorrat). The threatening
cathexis,that is, by constituting
expenseor presenceare deferredwiththehelp of frayingor repetition.
Is thisnot alreadythe circuitouspath (Aufschub)instituting
the relation of pleasureto reality(Jenseits,
G. W., xiii,p. 6)? Is it not already
death at the originof a life which can defenditselfagainst death
reserve?For
onlythroughan economyof death,diffrrance,
repetition,
repetitiondoes not happen to an initialimpression;its possibilityis
alreadythere,in the resistanceofferedthe firsttimeby the psychical
neurones.Resistanceitselfis possible only if the oppositionof forces
lasts and is repeatedat the beginning.It is the veryidea of a first
time which becomes enigmatic.What we are advancinghere does
not seem to contradictwhatFreud will say further
on: ". . . frayingis
probably the result of the single (einmaliger)passage of a large
quantity."Even assumingthatthis affirmation
does not lead us little
by littleto the problemof phylogenesisand hereditaryfraying,we
2 Here more than elsewhere,concerningthe concepts of difference,
quantity,and quality,a systematic
confrontation
betweenNietzscheand Freud
is called for. Cf. for example,among many others,this fragmentfromthe
Nachlass: "Our 'knowing'is limitedto theestablishment
of 'quantities';but we
cannothelp feelingthesedifferences-of-quantity
as qualities.Qualityis a truth
of perspective
for us; not 'in itself'... If our senseswere to becometen times
sharperor duller,we would be submerged:thatis, we too feel relations-ofquantityas qualitiesin relatingthemto the existencetheymake possible for
us" (Werke,III, p. 861).
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may still maintainthat in the firsttime of the contactbetweentwo
forces,repetitionhas begun. Life is alreadythreatenedby the origin
of the memorywhichconstitutes
it and by thefrayingwhichit resists,
by the effractionwhich it can contain only by repeatingit. It is
fractures
because fraying
thatFreud,in theProject,accordsa privilege
to pain. In a certainsense,thereis no frayingwithouta beginningof
But beyond
pain and "pain leaves behindit particularly
richfrayings."
a certainquantity,pain, the threatening
originof the psyche,must
be deferred,like death, for it can "ruin" psychical"organization."
Despite the enigma of the "firsttime" and of originaryrepetition
(needless to say, before any distinctionbetween "normal" and
it is importantthatFreud attributes
all this
"pathological"repetition),
work to the primaryfunctionand excludes any derivationof it. Let
us observethisnon-derivation,
even if it but rendersmore dense the
difficulty
of the concept of "primariness"and the timelessnessof
the primaryprocess,and even if thatdifficulty
neverstops thickening
in what follows.
oftheprimary
effort
In thisconnection
we arereminded
(almostinvoluntarily)
to avoidbeing
of neuronic
retained
all theirmodifications,
systems,
through
it so faras possible.Underthe
burdened
withquantity
(Qu) or to diminish
of theexigencies
of life,theneuronic
has beenobligedto lay
pressure
system
it hashadto increase
thenumber
up a storeof quantity
(Qu).For thispurpose
and thesehavehad to be impermeable.
Butit nowavoids,to
of itsneurones
thatis,
someextentat least,beingfilledwithquantity
(Qj)-avoids cathexis,
thatfrayings
servethe
It will be seen,therefore,
-by setting
up frayings.
primary
functions.
No doubt life protectsitselfby repetition,trace, differance.But
we mustbe waryof thisformulation:thereis no lifepresentat first
which would then come to protect,postpone,reserveitselfin diffrrance. The latterconstitutesthe essence of life.Or rather: differcance
not being an essence,it is not life,if being is determinedas ousia,
presence, essence/existence,substance or subject. Life must be
thoughtof as tracebeforebeingmay be determined
as presence.This
is the only conditionon which we can say that life is death, that
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Jacques Derrida
repetitionand beyondthe pleasureprincipleare nativeand congenital
When Freud writesin the Project that
to thatwhichtheytransgress.
"frayingsserve the primaryfunction,"he already forbidsus to be
surprisedby Beyond the PleasurePrinciple.He complieswitha dual
in the originand at the same time
necessity: recognizingdiffrrance
crossingout the conceptof primariness:we will be no more surprised
which definesthat concept as a "theoretical
by the Traumdeutung,
(Verspdtung)of the seconfiction"in a paragraphon the "deferment"
I
whichis in the beginning.
daryprocess.It is thusthe postponement
would be the delay whicha consciousness
Withoutwhich,differance
of the present.Differercan thus not
accords itself,a self-presence
mean to retarda presentpossibility,to postponean act, to put offa
perceptionalready now possible. That possibilityis possible only
whichmustbe conceivedof in othertermsthan
througha differance
is origas a calculus or mechanicsof choice. To say that differance
to erase the mythof a presentorigin.Which
inaryis simultaneously
is why"originary"mustbe understoodas crossedout, withoutwhich
differancewould be derivedfroman originalplenitude.It is a nonoriginwhichis originary.
Rather than abandon it, we ought perhaps then to rethinkthe
This is whatwe shouldlike to do, and it is posconceptof "differer."
sible only if differanceis determinedoutside of any teleologicalor
eschatologicalhorizon.It isn't easy. Let us note in passing: the conconceptswhichgovernthe
and Verspdtung,
cepts of Nachtriglichkeit
whole of Freud's thoughtand determineall the otherconcepts,are
alreadypresentand called by theirname in the Project.The irreducsuch is no doubtFreud's discovery.
ibilityof the"effectof deferment,"
Freud exploitsthatdiscoveryin its ultimateconsequencesand beyond
thepsychoanalysis
of theindividual.The historyof culture,he thought,
3 These conceptsof originary
and delay are unthinkable
differance
within
the authority
of the logic of identityor even withinthe conceptof time.The
veryabsurditybetrayedby the termsprovidesthe possibility-iforganizedin
a certainmanner-of thinking
beyondthatlogic and thatconcept.By theword
delay,something
otherthana relationbetweentwo"presents"mustbe thought;
the followingmodel must be avoided: what was to happen (should have
happened)in a (prior)presentA occursonly in a presentB. The conceptsof
originary"difference"
and "delay" revealedtheirurgencyto us in a reading
of Husserl(Introduction
ai l'Originede la geometrie,1962,p. 170-171).
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oughtto confirmit. In Moses and Monotheism(1937), the efficacyof
defermentis at work over large historicalintervals(G. W., xvi,
p. 238-9). The problemof latency,moreover,is in highlysignificant
contact,in thattext,withthatof oral and writtentradition(p. 170 sq.).
Althoughat no momentin the Project is frayingnamed writing,
the contradictory
requirementswhich the Mystic Writing-Padwil
fulfillare already formulatedin termswhich are literallyidentical:
"to retainwhileat the same timeremainingcapable of receiving."
Differencesin the work of frayingconcernnot only forcesbut
locations.And Freud alreadywantsto thinkforceand place simultaneously.He is thefirstone not to believein thedescriptivevalue of his
of fraying.The distinctionbetween the
hypotheticalrepresentation
categoriesof neurones"has no recognizedfoundation,at least in so
far as morphology(i. e., histology)is concerned."It is the index of
a topographicaldescriptionwhichfamiliar,constituted,
externalspace,
the exteriorof thenaturalsciences,cannotcontain.This is why,under
the rubricof "the biological standpoint,"a "differencein essence"
betweenthe neuronesis "replaced by a dif(Wesensverschiedenheit)
ferencein the milieuto which theyare destined"(Schicksals-Milieudifferences
of situation,of connecverschiedenheit):
pure differences,
tion,of localization,of structuralrelationsmore importantthan their
supportingterms,and for which the relativityof outside and inside
always prevails.The thinkingof difference
can neitherdispensewith
topographynor accept the currentmodels of spacing.
This difficulty
becomesmore acute whenit is necessaryto explain
those pure differences
of quality,that is,
par excellence: differences
for Freud, of consciousness.He must explain "what we know enigthanksto our 'consciousness'."And "since this
matically(rdtselhaft),
consciousnessknowsnothingof whatwe have takenintoconsideration
up untilnow [the theory]shoud explain to us thatignoranceitself."
Now qualities are clearlypure differences:
Consciousness
givesus whatwe call qualities,a greatvarietyof sensations
whichare other(anders)and whoseotherness
(Anders)becomesdifferentiated
there
world.In thisotherness
(unterschieden
wird)in relationto theexternal
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Jacques Derrida
about them.
are series,similarities
and so on, but thereis nothingquantitative
We may ask how thesequalitiesoriginateand wheretheyoriginate.
Neitheroutsidenor inside. They cannotbe in the externalworld,

wherethe physicistrecognizesonlyquantities,"masses in motionand
of the psyche(i. e., of memory),
nothingelse." Nor in the interiority
for "reproductionand recollection"are "devoid of quality (qualitatslos)." Since rejectingthe topographicalmodel is out of the
question,"we mustsummonup enoughcourageto assume thatthere
is a thirdsystemof neurones-'perceptualneurones'theymightbe
called-which are excitedalong withthe othersduringperceptionbut
not duringreproduction,
and whose states of excitationgive rise to
the differentqualities-are, that is to say, conscious sensations."
Foreshadowingthe interpolatedsheet of the Mystic WritingPad,
Freud, annoyedby his "jargon,"tells Fliess (Letter39; 1/1/96)that
he is inserting,"slipping" (schieben) the perceptual neurones (o)
betweenthe p- and #-neurones.
This last bit of daringresultsin "what seems like an unheardof
difficulty":we have just encountereda permeabilityand a fraying
whichproceed fromno quantityat all. From what then? From pure
time, from pure temporalizationin its conjunctionwith spacing:
fromperiodicity.Only recourseto temporality
and to a discontinuous
or periodic temporality,
will allow the difficulty
to be resolved,and
we must patientlyconsiderits implications."I can see only one way
of escape. ... HithertoI have regardedthe passage of quantityonly
as a transference
(Qu) fromone neurone to another.It must have
anotherattribute,however,of a temporalcharacter."
If the discontinuity
hypothesis"goes further,"
Freud emphasizes,
thanthe "physicalclarification"
throughits insistenceon periods,it is
because in this case differences,
intervals,and discontinuity
are registered,"appropriated"withouttheirquantitativesupport.Perceptual
neurones,"incapable of receivingquantities,appropriatethe period
of an excitation."Pure difference,again, and differencebetween
diastems.The conceptof a period in generalprecedesand conditions
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position governs.For "b-neuronestoo have theirperiod, but it is
devoid of quality,or, to put it more accurately,monotonous."As we
shall see, this insistenceon discontinuity
will faithfully
returnin the
"Note Upon the MysticWriting-Pad":as in the Project,it will be a
last bold move resolvinga finallogical difficulty.
The restof the Projectwill depend in its entiretyon an incessant
and increasinglyradical invocation of the principle of difference.
Beneath the neurologicalindications,whichplay the representational
role of an artificialmodel, we findrepeatedlythe persistentattempt
to accountforthepsychein termsof spacing,a topographyof traces,
a map of frayings;an attemptto locate consciousnessor qualityin a
space whose structureand possibilitymust be rethought; and to
describe the "functioningof the apparatus" in terms of pure differencesand locations, to explain how "quantityof excitationis
expressed in b by complexityand quality by topography."It is
and this topography
because the natureof this systemof differences
is radicallynew and must not allow any of itselfto be leftout that
Freud, in his model of the apparatus,multiplies"acts of boldness,"
"strangebut indispensablehypotheses"(concerning"secreting"neurones or "key" neurones).And when he renouncesneurologyand
anatomical localizations,it will be not in order to abandon but to
his topographicalpreoccupations.Writingwill then enter
transform
on the scene. Trace will become gram; and the regionof frayinga
cipheredspacing.
The Printand the OriginalSupplement
A few weeks afterthe Project is sent to Fliess, duringa "nightof
work," all the elementsof the systemarrange themselvesinto a
"machine." It is not yet a writingmachine: "Everythingfell into
place, the cogs meshed,the thingreallyseemedto be a machinewhich
in a momentwould run of itself."I In a moment: in thirtyyears.By
itself: almost.
4 Letter32 (10-20-95).
The machine:"The threesystems
of neurones,
the'free'and 'bound'statesof quantity,
theprimary
and secondary
processes,
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Jacques Derrida
A littlemore thana year later,the trace startsbecomingwriting.
In Letter52 (6/12/96),
theentiresystemof theProjectis reconstituted
in termsof a graphicconceptionas yet unknownin Freud. It is not
surprising
thatthiscoincideswiththe transition
fromthe neurological
to thepsychical.At theheartof theletter:thewords"sign"(Zeichen),
inscription(Niederschrift),
transcription
(Umschrift).Not only is the
connectionbetweentrace and deferment
(i. e., a presentwhich does
not constitute,but is originallyreconstituted
frommemory"signs")
explicitlydefined,but verbal phenomenaare assigneda place within
a systemof stratified
writingwhichtheyare farfromdominating:
As you know I am workingon the assumptionthat our psychicalmechanism has come about by a processof stratification
(Aufeinanderschichtung);
thematerialpresentin the shape of memorytraces(Erinnerungsspuren)
is from
time to time subjectedto a rearrangement
(Umordnung)in accordancewith
new relationsto a transcription
(Umschrift).
Thus, what is essentiallynew in
my theoryis the thesisthat memoryis presentnot once but several times
over,thatit is registered(niederlegt)in various species of 'signs'. . . I cannot
say how many of these inscriptions
(Niederschriften)
theremay be: at least
threeand probablymore. . The different
transcripts
are separated(though
not necessarilyin topography)in respectto the neuroneswhich are their
vehicles... Perception.These are neuronesin whichperceptionappears and
to whichconsciousnessis attachedbut whichin themselvesretainno traceof
what happens. For consciousness and memory are mutually exclusive. Sign
of perception:the firstinscription
of the perceptions;it is quite incapableof
being consciousand is arrangedaccordingto associationsof simultaneity...
Unconsciousis a second inscription
. . . Preconsciousis the thirdinscription,
linkedto verbal images corresponding
to our officialego ... This secondary
thoughtconsciousnessis secondaryin time and probablyconnectedwith the
activationof verbal images.
hallucinatory
This is a firstmove toward the "Note." From now on, starting

withthe Traumdeutung
(1900), the metaphorof writingwill dominate
the problemof thepsychicalapparatusin its structure
simultaneously
and of the psychical text in its fabric. The solidarityof the two
themaintrendand thecompromise
trendof thenervoussystem,
thetwobiological rules of attentionand defencethe indicationsof quality,reality,and
thestateof thepsycho-sexual
thought,
group,thesexualdetermination
of repression,and finallythefactorsdetermining
consciousness
as a perceptualfunctionthe whole thingheld together,
and stilldoes. I can hardlycontainmyselfwith
delight.If I had onlywaiteda fortnight
beforesettingit all downforyou..."
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problemsshouldmake us even moreattentive:thetwo seriesof metaphors-text and machine-do not enteron the scene at the same time.
"Dreams generally follow formerfrayings,"said the Project.
Topographical,temporal,and formalregressionin dreamsmust thus
henceforth
as a path back into a landscape of writing.
be interpreted
the stonyecho of muted
Not of a writingwhich simplytranscribes,
non-linguistic,
words,but of a preverballithography:metaphonetic,
the site of
a-logical. (Logic obeys consciousness,or preconsciousness,
thefoundingexpresverbalimages,as well as theprincipleof identity,
sion of a philosophyof presence."It was onlya logical contradiction,
whichdoes not have much import,"we read in The WolfMan.) With
theinterdreamsdisplacedinto a forestof script,The Traumdeutung,
pretationof dreams,will no doubt be, initially,an act of reading
and decoding.Before the analysisof the Irma dream,Freud engages
in considerationsof method.In one of his familiargestures,he opposes the old popular traditionto so-called scientificpsychology.
As always,it is in orderto justifythe latentintentionwhichinspires
the former.Tradition may, of course, err, when, according to a
"symbolical"procedure,it treatsdream contentas an indivisibleand
unarticulatedwhole, for which a second, possibly propheticwhole
may be substituted.But Freud is not far fromacceptingthe "other
popular method": "It mightbe describedas the 'decoding' method
since it treatsdreams as a kind of secretwriting
(Chiffriermethode),
in which each sign is translatedinto another sign
(Geheimschrift)
havinga knownmeaning,in accordancewitha fixedkey (Schliissel)."
(G. W. 11/111,
p. 102). Let us retainthe allusionto a permanentcode:
nevertheless,
it is theweaknessof a methodto whichFreud attributes,
the meritof beinganalyticand of spellingout the elementsof meaning one by one.
A strangeexampleis chosenby Freud to illustratethisprocedure:
a text of phoneticwritingis cathectedand functionsas a discrete,
specific,translatableand unprivilegedelementin the overall writing
of the dream. Phonetic writingas writingwithinwriting.Assume,
forexample,says Freud,thatI have dreamtof a letter(Brieffepistola),
then of a burial. Open a Traumbuch,a book in which the keys to
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Jacques Derrida
dreams are recorded,an encyclopediaof dream signs, the dream
dictionarywhichFreud will soon reject.It teachesus thatlettermust
be translated(fibersetzen)
by spiteand burialby marriageengagement.
Thus a letter (epistola) writtenwith letters(litterae),a document
composedof phoneticsigns,the transcription
of verbaldiscourse,may
be translatedby a non-verbaltermwhich,inasmuchas it is a determinedaffect,belongsto the overall syntaxof dream writing.The
verbal is cathected,and its phonetictranscription
is bound, far from
the center,in a web of silentscript.
Freud thenborrowsanotherexamplefromArtemidorusof Daldis
(second century),the author of a treatiseon the interpretation
of
dreams. Let it be a pretextfor recallingthat in the 18th century
an English theologian,unknown to Freud, had already invoked
Artemidoruswith an intention,no doubt, worthyof comparison.I
Warburtondescribesthe systemof hieroglyphicsand discernsin it
(rightlyor wrongly;it is of no concernto us here) various structures
(hieroglyphicsstrictlyspeakingor symbolicalones, each type being
eithercuriologicalor tropological,the relationhere being of analogy
or of part to whole) which ought to be systematically
confronted
with the mechanismsof dream-work(condensation,displacement,
Now Warburton,interestedfor apologeticalreaoverdetermination).
sons in demonstrating,
against Father Kircher,"the great antiquity
of this Nation," chooses the example of an Egyptianscience all of
whose resourceslie in hieroglyphicwriting.That science is TraumWhen all is said and done, it
deutung,also knownas oneirocriticism.
was only a science of writingin priestlyhands. God, the Egyptians
believed,had made man thegiftof writingjust as he inspireddreams.
like dreams themselves,had then only to draw in the
Interpreters,
curiologicalor tropologicaltreasure.They would readilyfindtherethe
5 Warburton,
the authorof The Divine Missionof Moses. The fourthpart
of his workwas translatedin 1744 underthe title: Essai sur les Hie'roglyphes
des Egyptiens,oi' l'on voit l'Origineet le Progresdu langage,I'Antiquitedes
Sciencesen Egypte,et l'Originedu culte des Animaux.This work,whichwe
shall discusselsewhere,had a considerableinfluence.All thoughtof that era
about language and signs bore its mark. The editorsof the Encyclopedia,
Condillac,and, throughhim,Rousseau drewspecificinspiration
fromit, borrowing in particularthe theme of the originallymetaphoricalnature of
language.
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key to dreams,which theywould thenpretendto divine.The hieroglyphiccode itselfservedas a Traumbuch.Allegedgiftof God, in fact
it had become the commonsource on which
constructedhistorically,
the dream discourse drew: the settingand the text of its mise en
like a formof writing,the kinds
scerne.Since dreamsare constructed
of transposition
in dreamscorrespondto condensationsand displaceand registered
in thesystemof hieroglyphics.
mentsalreadyperformed
would
Dreams
only manipulateelements(stoicheia,says Warburton,
elementsor letters)containedin the thesaurusof hieroglyphics,
somewhat as writtenspeech would draw on a writtenlanguage: "It is
a matterof examiningwhat basis the interpretation
given by the
Oneirocriticmighthave had, when he told someone who consulted
him on one of the followingdreams that a dragon meant royalty;
that a serpent indicated sickness... ; that frogs signifiedimpostors..." What then did the hermeneutsof that age do? They consulted writingitself:
of dreamswere by no means knavesand impostors.
Now the firstinterpreters
It was simplytheirlot-as it was that of the firstlegal astrologers-tobe
thanthe othermen of theirday and to fall preyto illusion
more superstitious
earlier.But even if we assume that theyhad been as knavishas theirsuccessors,theystill needed propermaterialsto workwith; and those materials
could neverbe such as to stirin so strangea mannerthe imaginationof each
individual.Those who consultedthemmust have soughta familiaranalogy,
whichmightserveas a basis for decyphering;and theythemselves
musthave
had recourseto a knownauthority
in orderto sustaintheirscience.But what
otheranalogyand what otherauthoritycould therehave been than the symbolic hieroglyphics,
whichhad become a sacred and mysterious
thing?Such
is the naturalsolutionto the problem.The science of symbols... servedas
a basis for theirinterpretations.
It is here that the Freudian break occurs. No doubt Freud

conceives of the dream's displacementsas a new formof writing,
placing words on stage withoutbecomingsubservientto them; no
doubt he is thinkinghere of a model of writingirreducibleto speech
and including,like hieroglyphics,
pictographic,ideogrammaticand
phoneticelements.But he makes of psychicalwritingso originary
a productionthatwritingsuch as we believe to be designatedin the
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Jacques Derrida
literalsense of the word-a scriptwhichis coded and visible"in the
world"-would be only its metaphor.Psychicalwriting,for example
the kindwe findin dreams,which"followsearlierfrayings,"
a simple
momentin a regressiontoward "primary"writing,cannot be read
in termsof any code. No doubt it works with a mass of elements
which have been coded in the course of an individualor collective
history.But in its operations,lexicon,and syntax,a purelyidiomatic
residueis irreducibleand is made to bear theburdenof interpretation
in the communicationbetweenunconsciouses.The dreamerinvents
his own grammar.No meaningfulmaterialor priortextexistswhich
he mightsimplyuse, even if he neverdepriveshimselfof them.Such
is, despite theirinterest,the limitationof the Chiffriermethode
and
the Traumbuch.As much as of the generalityand the rigidityof the
code, that limitationis a functionof an excessivepreoccupationwith
contents,an insufficient
concern for relations,locations, processes,
and differences:"My procedureis not so convenientas the popular
decoding method which translatesany given piece of a dream's
contentby a fixedkey. I am ratherinclinedto thinkthat the same
piece of contentmay hide a different
meaningwhen it occurs in
variouspeople or in variouscontexts"(p. 109). Elsewhere,in support
of that statement,Freud thinksit proper to adduce the case of
Chinese writing:"The [the dreamsymbols]frequently
have multiple
meanings: so many, in fact, that, as in Chinese writing,only the
contextallows a correctinterpretation
in each case" (p. 358).
The absence of an exhaustiveand absolutelyinfalliblecode means
thatin psychicalwriting,
whichthusprefigures
the meaningof writing
in general, the differencebetween signifierand signifiedis never
radical. Unconscious experience,prior to the dream which follows
earlierfrayings,
does not borrowbut producesits own signifiers;does
not create them in theirmateriality,of course, but produces their
status-as-meaningful
[signifiance].And if such be the case, theyare
no longer,properlyspeaking,signifiers.
And the possibilityof translation,if it is far frombeing eliminated-forbetweenthose points of
identityor adherenceof signifier
to signified,
experienceis perpetually
stretchingdistances-is neverthelessin principleand by definition
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fromanotherstandlimited.Such is perhapsFreud's understanding,
point, in the articleon "Repression": "Repression functionsin an
entirelyindividualway." (G. W., x, p. 252). (Individualityhere refers
not to that of individualsbut to that of each "derivativeof the
repressed,which may have its own destiny.")Translation,a system
is possible onlyif a permanentcode allows a substituof translation,
while retainingthe same signified,
tion or transformation
of signifiers
always present,despite the absence of any specific signifier.This
would thus be impliedby the
fundamentalpossibilityof substitution
consequentlyby the concept of
coupled concepts: signified/signifier,
the sign itself.Even if we join Saussure in envisagingthe distinction
between signifiedand signifieronly as the two sides of a sheet of
paper, nothingis changed. Originarywriting,if thereis any, must
produce the space and the materialityof the sheetitself.
It will be said: and yetFreud translatesall the time.He believes
in the generalityand the fixityof a specificcode for dream writing:
When we have become familiarwith the abundantuse made of symbolism
for representing
sexual materialin dreams,the question is bound to arise
fixed
of whethermany of these symbolsdo not occur with a permanently
in shorthand;and we shall feel temptedto
meaning,like the 'grammalogues'
draw up a new Traumbuchon the decodingprinciple(II/III, p. 356).
And, in fact, Freud never stopped proposingcodes, rules of great

of signifiers
seems to be the essential
generality.And the substitution
Of course. Freud nevertheactivityin psychoanalyticinterpretation.
less stipulatesan essential limitationon this activity.Or rather,a
double limitation.
If we considerfirstverbal expression,as it is circumscribedin
the dream,we observe that its sonority,the materialityof the expression,does not disappear beforethe signifiedor at least is not
traversedand transgressedas it is in conscious speech. It acts as
such, with the efficacyArtaud assigned it on the stage of cruelty.
of a word cannotbe translatedor carriedover
Now the materiality
into a different
language.It is preciselythatwhich translationrelinis even the drivingforceof translaquishes. To relinquishmateriality
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Jacques Derrida
is reinstated,translationbecomes poetry.
tion. When thatmateriality
constitutes
theidiom
of the signifier
In thissense,sincethemateriality
of every dream scene, dreams are untranslatable:"Indeed, dreams
are so closelyrelatedto linguisticexpressionthatFerenczi has truly
remarkedthat every tongue has its own dream-language.It is impossible as a rule to translatea dream into a foreignlanguage,and
this is equally true,I fancy,of a book such as the presentone."
What is the case fora specificnationallanguageis the case a fortiori
for a privategrammar.
of translationwithoutloss
Moreover,this horizontalimpossibility
has its basis in a verticalimpossibility.
We referto the way in which
unconscious thoughtsbecome conscious. If a dream cannot be
translatedinto anotherlanguage,it is because withinthe psychical
apparatusas well thereis nevera relationof simpletranslation.We
in
are wrong,Freud tells us, to speak of translationor transcription
describingthe transitionof unconsciousthoughtsthroughthe preconscioustowardconsciousness.Here again the metaphoricalconcept
of translation(Ubersetzung) or transcription(Umschrift)is not
dangerousbecause it refersto writing,but because it presupposesa
textwhichwould be alreadythere,immobile: the serenepresenceof
a statue,of a writtenstone or archivewhose signifiedcontentmight
be transported
withoutharminto the elementof a different
language,
that of the preconsciousor the conscious. It is thus not enough to
talk of writingin order to be faithfulto Freud; it is then that we
may betrayhim more than ever.
This is explainedto us in the last chapterof the Traumdeutung.
An entirelyand conventionallytopographicalmetaphorof the psychical apparatus is to be completedby invokingthe existenceof
force and of two kinds of processes of excitationor modes of its
discharge:
So let us tryto correctsome images [intuitiveillustrations:Anschauungen]
whichmightbe misleadingso long as we looked upon the two systemsin the
most immediateand crudestsense as two localitiesin the mentalapparatus,
imageswhichhave lefttheirmarkin the expressions'to repress'and 'to force
a way through'.Thus we may speak of an unconsciousthoughtseekingto
conveyitselfaftertranslation(Ubersetzung)
into the preconsciousso as to be
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able thento forceits way throughinto consciousness.What we have in mind
here is not the formingof a second thoughtsituatedin a new place, like a
transcription
(Umschrift)
whichcontinuesto existalongsidethe originaltext;
and the notion of forcinga way throughinto consciousnessmust be kept
carefullyfreefromany idea of a changeof locality.6
our quotationfora moment.The conscious text

Let us interrupt
is thusnot a transcription,
because thereis no textpresentelsewhere
as unconsciousto be transposedor carried over. For the value of
presence as well may dangerouslyaffectthe concept of the unconscious.There is then no unconscioustruthto rediscoverbecause
it would be writtenelsewhere.There is no textwrittenand present
elsewherewhich would then be subjected,withoutbeing changedin
the process,to an operationand a temporalization
(the latterbelonging to consciousnessif we follow Freud literally)which would be
externalto it, floatingon its surface.There is no presenttext in
general,and thereis not even a past presenttext,a text which is
past as havingbeen present.The textis not thinkablein an originary
or modifiedformof presence.The unconscioustextis alreadywoven
in which meaningand force are united;
of pure traces,differences
a text nowherepresent,consistingof archiveswhich are always already transcriptions.
Originaryprints. Everythingbegins with reproduction.Always already: repositoriesof a meaningwhich was
never present,whose signifiedpresence is always reconstitutedby
deferment,
nachtrdglich,
belatedly,supplementarily:for nachtrdglich
also means supplementary.
The appeal of the supplementis primal
by deferment
as the
here and breaks open what will be reconstituted
present.The supplement,which seems to be added as a plenitude
to a plenitude,is as well thatwhichcompensatesfora lack [qui suppMe]. "Supplier: 1. To add what is missing,to supplya necessary
the strangelogic
surplus,"says Littre,respecting,
like a somnambulist,
of that word. It is withinits logic that the possibilityof deferred
action [apres coup] should be thought,as well, no doubt, as the
relationshipbetween the primaryand the secondaryon all levels.
6 (p. 615) The Ego and the Id (G. W., xiii, ch. 2) also underscoresthe
dangerof a topographicalrepresentation
of psychicalfacts.
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Jacques Derrida
Let us note: Nachtraghas a precisemeaningin the realmof letters:
appendix, codicil, postcript.The text we call presentmay be decipheredonly at the bottomof the page, in a footnoteor postscript.
Before that recurrence,the presentis only the call for a footnote.
thatit is
That the presentin generalis not primalbut reconstituted,
not the absolute, wholly living form which constitutesexperience,
that there is no purityof the living present,such is the themeformidablefor metaphysics-whichFreud, in a conceptual scheme
unequal to the thingitself,would have us pursue. That intellectual
effortis no doubt unique in being containedby neithermetaphysics
nor science.
Since the transitionto consciousnessis not a derivativeor repetitivewriting,a transcription
duplicatingan unconsciouswriting,
it occurs in an originalmannerand, in its very secondariness,it is
originaryand irreducible.Since consciousnessforFreud is a surface
exposed to the externalworld,it is here that instead of readingthe
metaphorin its usual sense, we must ratherunderstandthe possibilityof a writingadvanced as conscious and acting in the world
(the visible exteriorof the graphic,of the literal,of the literalbecoming literary,etc.) in terms of that exertionof writingwhich
circulates like psychical energybetween the unconscious and the
conscious. The "objectivist"or "worldly" considerationof writing
teachesus nothingif it is not referredto a space of psychicalwriting
(we mightsay: of transcendental
writingin the event that, along
with Husserl, we would see the psyche as a region of the world.
But sinceit is also the case forFreud, who wantsto respectsimultaneouslythe Being-in-the-world
of the psyche,its Being-in-space,and
the originality
of a topologyirreducibleto any ordinaryintra-worldliness, we perhaps should thinkthat what we are describinghere
as the exertionof writingobliteratesthe transcendentaldistinction
betweenthe originof the world and Being-in-the-world.
Obliterates
it whileproducingit: themediumof thedialogueand misunderstanding betweenthe Husserlian and Heideggerianconceptsof Being-inthe-world).
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Concerningthis non-transcriptive
writing,Freud adds a fundamental specification.It will reveal: (1) the danger involved in
immobilizingor freezingenergyin a naive metaphoricsof place;
the space or
(2) the necessitynot of abandoningbut of rethinking
topology of that writing; (3) that Freud, who still insists on representingthe psychical apparatus in an artificialmodel, has not
yet discovereda mechanicalmodel adequate to the graphematicconceptual scheme he is already using to describe the psychicaltext.
When we speak of a preconsciousthoughtbeingrepressedor drivenout and
thentakenover by the unconscious,theseimages,derivedfroma metaphorics
(Vorstellungskreis)
relatingto a strugglefor a piece of ground,may temptus
to suppose thatit is in fact truethat a grouping(Anordnung)in one locality
has been broughtto an end and replacedby a freshone in anotherlocality.
Let us replace these analogies by somethingthat seems to correspondbetter
to the real stateof affairs,and let us say thatsome particularmentalgrouping
has had a cathexisof energy(Energiebesetzung)
attachedto it or withdrawn
from it, so that the structurein questionhas come under the sway of a
fromit. What we are doinghere is once
particularagencyor been withdrawn
again to replacea topographical
way of representing
thingsby a dynamicone.
What we regard as mobile (das Bewegliche)is not the psychicalstructure
itselfbut its innervation... (Ibid).
our quotation.The metaphorof transLet us once moreinterrupt

lation as the transcription
of an originaltext would separate force
and extension,maintaining
the simpleexteriority
of the translatedand
the translating.That veryexteriority,
the static and topologicalbias
of the metaphor,would assure the transparency
of a neutraltranslation,of a phoronomicand non-metabolicprocess.Freud emphasizes
this: psychicalwritingdoes not lend itself to translationbecause
it may be) and
it is a singleenergeticsystem(howeverdifferentiated
covers the entirety
of the psychicalapparatus.Despite the difference
of agencies, psychical writingin general is not a displacementof
meaningsin the limpidityof an immobile,pre-givenspace: the blank
neutralityof speech. Of a speech which might be coded without
ceasing to be diaphanous.Here energycannot be reduced and does
not limit meaning but ratherproduces it. The distinctionbetween
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Jacques Derrida
longs to the metaphysicsof consciousnessand of presence,or rather
of presencein theword,in thehallucinationof a languagedetermined
on the basis of the word or verbal representation.
Metaphysicsof
preconsciousness,Freud might say, since the preconsciousis the
place he assignsto theverbal.Withoutthat,would Freud have taught
us anythingnew?
Force produces meaning(and space) throughthe power of "repetition"alone, whichinhabitsit originarily
as its death.This power,
that is: this lack of power,which opens and limitsthe exertionof
force, institutestranslatability,
makes possible what we call "language," transforms
an absolute idiom into a limit which is always
already transgressed:a pure idiom is not language; it becomes so
only throughrepetition;repetitionalways already divides the point
of departureof the firsttime.In spite of appearances,this does not
At that time
contradictwhat we said earlierabout untranslatability.
it was a question of recallingthe originof the movementof transgression,the originof repetition,and the becoming-language
of the
idiom. If one limitsoneselfto the datum or effectof repetition,to
translation,to the obviousnessof the distinctionbetweenforce and
meaning,not only does one miss the originalityof Freud's aim, but
the stingof the relationto death is obliteratedin the process.
We oughtthus to examineclosely-an impossibility
in thisforum
-all that Freud invitesus to thinkconcerningwritingas "fraying",
in the psychical repetitionof that previouslyneurologicalnotion:
openingup of its own space, effraction,
breakingof a path against
resistances,ruptureor irruptionbecominga route (rupta,via rupta),
in a natureor
violentinscriptionof a form,tracingof a difference
a matterwhich are thinkableas such only in their oppositionto
writing.The road (route) is opened in nature or matter,forestor
wood (hyle')and institutes
a reversibility
of timeand space. We should
have to study together,geneticallyand structurally,
the historyof
the road and the historyof writing.We are thinkinghere of Freud's
texts on the work of the memory-trace(Erinnerungsspur)
which,
the
no
though
longer
neurological trace, is not yet "conscious
memory,"("The Unconscious,"G. W., x, p. 288), of the itinerant
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work of the trace,producingand not followingits route,of the trace
which traces,of the trace which fraysitselfits path. The metaphor
is always in
of the frayedpath, so frequentin Freud's descriptions,
communicationwith the themeof the supplementary
delay and the
aftera slow mole-like
of meaningthroughdeferment,
reconstitution
advance, afterthe subterraneantoil of an impress.The latterhas
lefta laborioustracewhichhas neverbeen perceived,lived as present
meaning,i.e., as consciousness.The postcriptwhich constitutesthe
past presentas such is not satisfied,as Plato, Hegel, and Proust
perhaps thought,with reawakeningor revealingit in its truth.It
producesit. Is sexual deferment
the best examplehere or the essence
of this movement?A bad question, no doubt: the (presumably
known) subject of the question-sexuality-is determined,defined
or undefinedonly in returnand by the answeritself.Freud's answer,
in any event,is trenchant.Take the Wolf Man. It is by deferment
that the perceptionof the primal scene-whether it be realityor
fantasyis unimportant-islived in its meaning,and sexual maturation is not the accidentalformof thisdelay. "At age one and a half,
he receivedimpressionsthe deferredunderstanding
of whichbecame
possible for him at the time of the dream throughhis development,
exaltation,and sexual investigations."Already in the Project,concerningrepressionin hysteria: "We invariablyfind that a memory
is repressedwhich has become a trauma only afterthe event (nur
nachtrdglich).
The reason for this state of thingsis the retardation
(Verspdtung)of pubertyas compared with the remainderof the
individual'sdevelopment."That should lead, if not to the solution,
at least to a new way of posing the formidableproblem of the
temporalizationand the so-called "timelessness"of the unconscious.
Here more than elsewherethe gap betweenFreudian intuitionand
conceptis apparent.The timelessnessof the unconsciousis no doubt
determinedonly in opposition to a common concept of time, a
traditionalconcept,the metaphysicalconcept: the timeof mechanics
or the time of consciousness.We ought perhaps to read Freud the
way Heidegger read Kant: like the cogito, the unconsciousis no
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JacquesDerrida
ofa certain
vulgarconception
doubttimeless
onlyfromthestandpoint
of time.
Dioptrics and Hieroglyphics
as
an energetics
Let us not concludetoo quicklythatby invoking
of translation,
Freudabandonedhis efforts
opposedto a topography
and
in givinga projective
to localize.If, as we shallsee,he persists
of energetic
prospatial-indeed,purelymechanical-representation
is
a
not
certain
reasons:
spatiality,
it
simply
for
didactic
cesses,
is irreducible;its nature
inseparable
fromthe veryidea of system,
in thatwe can no longerconsiderit as the
is all themoreenigmatic
and economicprocesses.
homogeneous
and serenemilieuof dynamic
themetaphoric
In theTraumdeutung,
machineis notyetadaptedto
the scripturalanalogywhich alreadygoverns-as shall soon be
It is an optical
clear-Freud's entiredescriptivepresentation.
machine.
Let us return
Freuddoes notwantto abandon
to our quotation.
modelagainstwhichhe has just warnedus:
the topographical
I considerit expedientand justifiableto continueto make use
Nevertheless,
of
[of the metaphor:anschaulicheVorstellung]
of the intuitiverepresentation
thetwo systems.
We can avoid any possibleabuse of thismethodof representation [mode de mise en scene; Darstellungsweise]
by recollectingthat rein generalmust
thoughtsand psychicalstructures
presentations
[Vorstellungen],
neverbe regardedas localized in organicelementsof the nervoussystembut
and frayings
provide
rather,as one mightsay, betweenthem,whereresistances
that can be an object [Gegenstand]
correlates.Everything
the corresponding
of our internalperceptionis virtual,like the image producedin a telescope
But we are justifiedin assumingthe existenceof
by the passage of light-rays.
[ourunderthe systems-whichare notin any waypsychicalentitiesthemselves
lining]and can neverbe accessibleto our psychicalperception-likethe lenses
of the telescope,whichcast the image.And,if we pursuethisanalogy,we may
comparethe censorshipbetweentwo systemsto the refraction[the breaking
which takes place when a ray of lightpasses
of the ray: Strahlenbrechung]
into a new medium(p. 615-616).
in termsof the
Thisrepresentation
alreadycannotbe understood
ofa simple,homogeneous
The changein medium
structure.
spatiality
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Whereupon
indicatethissufficiently.
of refraction
and themovement
an inthe
same
in
to
machine,
proposes
reference
Freud, a further
in thesectionon "ReIn thesamechapter,
teresting
differentiation.
he attempts
to explainthe relationbetwenmemoryand
gression,"
trace:
in thememory
perception
What is presentedto us in thesewordsis the idea of psychicallocality.I shall
entirelydisregardthe idea thatthe mentalapparatuswithwhichwe are here
concernedis also known to us in the form of an anatomicalpreparation
and I shall carefullyavoid the temptation
[Prdparat:laboratorypreparation],
to determine
psychicallocalityin any anatomicalfashion.I shall remainupon
psychologicalground,and I propose simplyto followthe suggestionthat we
which carriesout our mentalfunctionsas reshould picturethe instrument
apparatus,or something
semblinga compoundmicroscope,or a photographic
of the kind.On thatbasis, psychicallocalitywill correspondto a place (Ort)
stagesof an imagecomes
insidethe apparatusat whichone of thepreliminary
into being.In the microscopeand telescope,as we know,these occur in part
at ideal points,regionsin whichno tangiblecomponentof the apparatusis
of thisor of any
situated.I see no necessityto apologizefortheimperfections
similarimagery(p. 541).
provesusefulfor
Beyondits pedagogicalvalue,thisillustration
is not
itsdistinction
system
system
andpsyche:thepsychical
between
Next,
and in thisdescription
is concerned.
onlythesystem
psychical,
it is the operationof the apparatuswhichinterests
Freud,how it
as it is
timing
ofitsmovements
runsand in whatorder,theregulated
speakcaughtand localizedin thepartsof themechanism:"Strictly
are
thatthepsychical
systems
ing,thereis no needforthehypothesis
if a fixed
in a spatialorder.It wouldbe sufficient
actuallyarranged
by thefactthatin a givenpsychicalprocess
orderwereestablished
the excitation
temporal
in a particular
through
the systems
passes
capturelight; in the
sequence."Finally,theseopticalinstruments
7
it. Freud alreadywantsto
theyregister
exampleof photography
7 The metaphorof a photographicnegativeoccurs frequently.
Cf. "The
Dynamicsof Transference"(G. W., xiii, p. 364-65).The notionsof negative
and copy are theprincipalmeansof theanalogy.In theanalysisof Dora, Freud
in termsof editionsand reeditions:simplereprintsor
definesthe transference
revisedand correctededitions.In "Notes on the Conceptof the Unconscious
in Psychoanalysis,"1913 (G. W., x, p. 436), Freud comparesthe relations
betweenthe consciousand the unconsciousto a photographic
process: "The
firststage of the photographis the negative; everyphotographic
image must
98

JacquesDerrida
accountforthephotographic
or inscription
oflightandhere
negative
is the differentiation
whichhe introduces.
It will
(Differenzierung)
reducethe"imperfections"
ofhisanalogyandperhaps"excuse"them.
Aboveall itwillthrow
intorelieftheapparently
contradictory
requirementwhichhas hauntedFreudsincetheProjectand willbe satisfied
onlyby a writing
machine,the "MysticPad":
a firstdifferentiation
at the sensory
Next, we have groundsfor introducing
end [of the apparatus].A trace(Spur)is leftin our psychicalapparatusof the
perceptionswhichimpingeupon it. This we may describeas a 'memory-trace'
and to the functionrelated to it we give the name of
(Erinnerungsspur),
'memory'.If we are in earnestover our plan of attachingpsychicalprocesses
to systems,memory-traces
can only consistin permanentmodifications
of the
elementsof the system.But, as has alreadybeen pointedout elsewhere,there
are obvious difficulties
involvedin supposingthat one and the same system
can accuratelyretainmodifications
of its elementsand yet remainperpetually
open to the receptionof freshoccasionsfor modification
(p. 534).
Two systems
willthusbe necessary
in a singlemachine.This double
system,
combining
freshness
of surfaceand depthof retention,
could
be represented
byan opticalmachineonlydistantly
and"imperfectly."
"By analysing
dreamswe cantakea stepforward
in ourunderstanding
of the composition
of thatmostmarvelous
and mostmysterious
of
all instruments.
Only a smallstepno doubt; but a beginning..."
Thus do we read in thefinalpages of the Traumdeutung
(p. 614).
Onlya smallstep.The graphicrepresentation
of the(non-psychical)
systemof the psychicalis not yet readyat a timewhensuch a
representation
ofthepsychical
alreadyoccupies,in theTraumdeutung
a largearea. Let us measurethisdelay.
itself,
We have alreadydefinedelsewhere
thefundamental
property
of
in a difficult
writing,
senseof theword,as spacing:diastemand time
becomingspace; an unfolding
as well,in a new kindof site,of
pass the "negative"test,and those whichhave reactedwell to that test are
admittedto the "positive"process endingin the picture."Hervey de SaintDenys devotesan entirechapterof his book to thesame analogy.The intentions
are the same. They suggesta precautionthatwe will findagain in the "Note
Upon the MysticWriting-Pad":"Memory,comparedto a camera,has the
marveloussuperiority
of naturalforces: to be able to renewby itselfitsmeans
of action."
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Yale FrenchStudies
movingfrompresent
linearconsecution,
meanings
whichirreversible,
pointto presentpoint,could not but tendand (to a certainextent)
writing.
The latter's
in so-calledphonetic
failto repress.
In particular
by the
withthe logos (or the timeof logic),dominated
complicity
thecornerstone
of all metaphysics
of
of non-contradiction,
principle
Nowin thissilentor notwhollyphonicspacing
presence,
is profound.
arepossiblewhichno longerobeythe
concatenations
outofmeaning,
or preconsciousness,
linearity
oflogicaltime,thetimeofconsciousness
space
thetimeof "verbalrepresentations".
Betweenthenon-phonetic
of writing(even "phonetic"writing)and the space of the stage
is unsure.
[scene]of dreamstheboundary
thenifFreud,in orderto suggest
the
We shouldnotbe surprised
relationsin dreams,constantly
strangeness
of the logico-temporal
rebuses,
and the spatialsynopsesof pictograms,
adduces writing,
in general.Synopsisand not
writing
hieroglyphics,
and non-phonetic
stasis: stageand nottableau.The laconic,lapidaryqualityof dreams
is nottheimpassive
signs.8
presenceofpetrified
It has revealed
has spelledout thedreamelements.
Interpretation
the workof condensation
It is stillnecessaryto
and displacement.
whichcomposesand stagesthewhole.The
accountforthesynthesis
mustbe quesresourcesof the mise en scene (die Darstellungsmittel)
is irreconcilof dreamrepresentation
tioned.A certainpolycentrism
of pure verbal
able withthe apparently
linear,unlinearunfolding
of consciousspeech
The logicaland ideal structure
representations.
and becomesubordinate
to it,
mustthussubmitto thedreamsystem
likea partof its machinery.
The different
portionsof this complicatedstructurestand,of course,in the
most manifoldlogical relationsto one another.They can representforeand illustrations,
chainsof evconditions,
digressions
groundand background,
is
Whenthewholemass of thesedream-thoughts
idenceand counter-arguments.
and its elementsare turned
broughtunder the pressureof the dream-work,
and jammedtogether-almostlike pack-ice-the
about,brokeninto fragments
whichhave hitherto
questionarisesof whathappensto the logical connections
What representation
[miseen scene] do dreamsprovide
formedits framework.
8 "Dreams are parcimonious,indigent,laconic" (G. W., ii/iii,p. 284).
Dreams are "stenographic"(cf. above).
100

JacquesDerrida
and all the otherconjunctions
for 'if','because','just as', 'although','either-or',
withoutwhichwe cannotunderstandsentencesor speeches?(p. 316-317).
(miseen scene)mayat firstbe comThis typeof representation

in speech:
whichare likewriting
paredto thoseformsof expression
whichinscribein a common
the paintingor sculpture
of signifiers
Freudsetsthem
whichthespokenchainmustsuppress.
spaceelements
"whichcan makeuse of speech(Rede)." Butmay
offagainstpoetry,
thedreamnot as welluse spokenlanguage?"In dreamswe see but
we do nothere,"said theProject.In pointoffact,Freud,likeArtaud
of speechon
lateron, meantless theabsencethanthesubordination
then
Far fromdisappearing,
changespurpose
speech
thedream-stage.
invested(in all sensesof the
surrounded,
and status.It is situated,
9It figures
in dreamsmuchas captionsdo incomic
word),constituted.
in whichthe phonetic
combinations
strips,thosepicto-hieroglyphic
in
the
and not central
tellingof thetale: "Before
textis secondary
by which
paintingbecameacquaintedwiththe laws of expression
it is governed,... in ancientpaintingssmall labels were hung from
in written
characters
containing
themouthsofthepersonsrepresented,
representing
of
the
artist
despaired
the speecheswhich
(als Schrift)
(p. 317).
pictorially"
and puts
of dreamsexceedsphoneticwriting
The overallwriting
or rebuses,voice is
speechback in its place. As in hieroglyphics
on "TheDreamFromtheverybeginning
ofthechapter
circumvented.
Freudstilluses
Work,"no doubtis leftus on thissubject,although
of
will
later
on
cast suspicion.
on whichhe
thatconcept translation
The dream-thoughts
and the dream-content
(the latentand the manifest)are
presentedto us like two versions[misesen scenes]of the same subject-matter
in two different
seemslike a
languages.Or, moreproperly,the dream-content
into anothermode of exof the dream-thoughts
transference
(Ubertragung)
pression,whose charactersand syntacticlaws it is our businessto discover
are imby comparingthe originaland the translation.The dream-thoughts
as soon as we have learntthem.The dream-content,
mediatelycomprehensible,
on theotherhand,is expressedas it werein a pictographic
script(Bilderschrift),
9 One meaningof the French investissement
(Besetzung)is, of course,
cathexis.-Ed.
101

Yale French Studies

the charactersof whichhave to be transposedindividuallyinto the language
of the dream-thoughts.
Bilderschrift:
not an inscribedimage but a figurative
script,an image
invitingnot a simple,conscious,presentperceptionof the thingitself
-assuming it exists-but a reading.
If we attemptedto read these charactersaccordingto theirpictorialvalue
insteadof accordingto theirsymbolicrelation(Zeichenbeziehung),
we should
clearlybe led into error... A dreamis a picturepuzzle (Bilderratsel)of this
sortand our predecessorsin the fieldof dream-interpretation
have made the
mistakeof treatingthe rebus as a pictorialcomposition.
The figurative
contentis thenindeed a formof writing,a signifying
chain in scenicform.In thatsense,of course,it summarizesa bit of
speech, it is the economyof speech. The entirechapteron "Representability"(Aptitudea la mise en scene; Darstellbarkeit)shows this
quite well. But the reciprocaleconomictransformation,
the totalreassimilationinto speech, is, in principle,impossibleor limited.This
is firstof all because words are also and "primarily"things.Thus
in dreamstheyare absorbed,"'caught" by the primaryprocess. It is
then not enough to say that in dreams,words are condensed by
to a
"things"; thatinverselynon-verbalsignifiers
may be interpreted
certaindegreein termsof verbalrepresentations.
be
that
must
seen
It
words,in so far as theyare attracted,lured into the dream,toward
the fictivelimit of the primaryprocess, tend to become pure and
simple things.An equally fictivelimit,moreover.Pure words and
pure thingsare thus,like the idea of the primaryprocess and, consequently,the secondaryprocess,"theoreticalfictions."The interval
in "dreams" and the intervalin "wakefulness"may not be distinguishedessentiallyin so far as the natureof languageis concerned.
"Words are oftentreatedas thingsin dreams and thus undergothe
10In the formalregression
same operationsas thingpresentations."
10 The "Metapsychological
Supplementto the Theory of Dreams," 1916,
to formalregression,
(G. W., ii/iii,p. 419) devotesan importantdevelopment
which,accordingto the Traumdeutung,
entailsthe substitution
of "primitive
modes of expressionand representation
(mise en scene) for those we are accustomedto" (p. 554). Freud insistsabove all on the role of verbalrepresenta-
102

JacquesDerrida
of dreams,wordsare not overtaken
by the spatialization
of representation
(la miseen scene).The processcould not even succeed,
moreover,
if wordshad notalwaysbeensubjectin theirmateriality
to themarkof theirinscription
or sceniccapacity,
theirDarstellbarkeitand all theformsof theirspacing.This last factorcouldonly
havebeenrepressed
byso calledliving,
alertspeech,byconsciousness,
logic,thehistory
ofthelanguage,
etc.Spatialization
doesnotsurprise
thetimeof speechor theidealityof meaning,
it does nothappento
themlike an accident.Temporalization
presupposesthe possibility
of symbolism,
and everysymbolic
evenbeforefallinginto
synthesis,
a space "outside,"includeswithinitselfa spacingas difference.
Whichis whythe purephonicchain,to the extentthatit implies
or flowof time.Difference
differences,
is itselfnota purecontinuum
is thearticulation
of space and time.The phonicchainor thechain
ofphonetic
are alwaysalreadydistended
of
writing
bythatminimum
andanyformal
essentialspacingon whichthedream-work
regression
in generalcan beginto operate.It is nota questionof a negation
of
time,of a cessationof timein a presentor simultaneity,
but of a
a different
different
stratification
of time.Here once more
structure,
a comparison
withwriting-phonetic
writing
thistime-castslight
on writing
as wellas on dreams:
They [dreams]reproducelogical connectionby simultaneity
in time.Here they
are actinglike the painterwho, in a pictureof the School of Athensor of
in one groupall the philosophersor all the poets who
Parnassus,represents
were never,in fact,assembledin a singlehall or on a singlemountain-top...
Dreams carrythis mode of representation
[mise en scene] down to details.
Whenevertheyshow us two elementsclose together,
thisguaranteesthatthere
is some speciallyintimateconnectionbetweenwhatcorresponds
to themamong
the dream-thoughts.
In the same way, in our systemof writing,'ab' means
that the two lettersare to be pronouncedin a single syllable.If a gap is
tions: "It is very remarkablehow littlethe dream-workadheres to verbal
representations;
it is alwaysreadyto exchangeone wordforanothertillit finds
the expressionmost favorablefor plastic representation."
This passage is
followedby a comparison,fromthe pointof view of word-representations
and
thing-representations,
of the dreamer'slanguageand the languageof schizophrenia.It shouldbe analyzedclosely.We wouldperhapsfind(againstFreud?)
that a rigorousdetermination
of the anomalyis impossible.On the role of
verbal representation
in the preconsciousand the (consequently)secondary
characterof visual elements,cf. The Ego and the Id, ch. 2.
103

Yale FrenchStudies
leftbetween
the'a' and the'b', it meansthatthe'a' is thelastletterof one
wordand the'b' is thefirst
of thenextone (p. 319).
The model of hieroglyphic

writingassemblesmore strikingly
-thoughwe findit in everyformofwriting-the
diversity
of modes
and functions
of signsin dreams.Everysign-verbalor otherwisemaybe usedat different
levels,in configurations
and functions
which
are neverprescribed
by its "essence"butemergefroma playof differences.
Summarizing
all thesepossibilities,
Freudconcludes:"Yet,
in spiteof all thisambiguity,
it is fairto say thattheproductions
which,it mustbe remembered,
[misesen scene]of thedream-work,
are notmade withtheintention
of beingunderstood,
presentno greater
difficulties
to theirtranslators
thando theancienthieroglyphic
scripts
to thosewhoseekto readthem"(p. 346-347).
More thantwenty
yearsseparatethefirsteditionof the Traumdeutungfromthe "Note Upon the Mystic Writing-Pad."If we con-
tinueto followthetwoseriesofmetaphors-those
thenonconcerning
psychicalsystem
of thepsychical
and thoseconcerning
thepsychical
itself-whathappens?
On the one hand, the theoreticalimportof the psychographic
refined.
A methodological
willbe increasingly
metaphor
inquirywill,
to a certainextent,
be devotedto it.It is witha graphematics
stillto
come ratherthanwitha linguistics
dominated
by an aged phonoseesitselfas destined
logismthatpsychoanalysis
to collaborate.
Freud
recommendsthis literallyin a text from 1913, and in this case we
have nothingto add, interpret,
alter.11 The interestwhich psychoanalysis brings to linguisticspresupposes a "transgression"of the
habitual meaningof the word "language." "By the word 'language',
in this case, we ought not to understandsimplythe expressionof
thoughtin words, but the language of gesturesas well, and every
otherformof expression
of psychical
suchas writing."
activity,
And
11 "The Interestin Psychoanalysis,"

G. W., viii, p. 390. The second part
of this text,devotedto "non-psychological
sciences,"is concernedfirstof all
with the science of language (p. 493)-before philosophy,biology,history,
sociology,pedagogy.
104

JacquesDerrida
havingrecalledthearchaiccharacter
in dreams,which
of expression
12 and valorizes
acceptscontradiction
visibility,
Freudspecifies:
It seems to us more accurateto comparedreamsto a systemof writingthan
to a language.In fact.the interpretation
of a dreamis thoroughly
comparable to the deciphering
of an ancientfigurative
script,such as Egyptianhierogyphics.In both cases, thereare elementswhichare not determined
for interpretationor reading,but, in theirrole as determinatives,
are theresimplyin
order to assure the intelligibility
of other elements.The ambiguityof the
different
elementsof a dreamhas its counterpart
in these ancientsystemsof
writing... If untilnow thisconceptionof dreamproduction(miseen scene)has
not been exploitedit is because of a situationwhichis easilyunderstandable:
the point of view and body of knowledgewithwhich a linguistwould approach the subjectof dreamsare totallyalien to a psychoanalyst
(p. 404-5).
On theotherhand,thesameyear,in thearticleon "The Unconsof theapparatusitselfwillbeginto be taken

cious,"theproblematic
up in termsof scriptural
as in theProject,in a
concepts:neither,
topologyof traceswithoutwriting,
nor, as in the Traumdeutungg,
in theoperations
of opticalmachines.
The debatebetweenthefunctionalhypothesis
and thetopographic
concernsthe locahypothesis
tionsof an inscription
(Niederschrift):
Whena psychicalact (let us confineourselveshereto an act of representation
is transferred
[Vorstellung.Our underlining])
fromthe systemUcs into the
systemCs (or Pcs), are we to supposethat thistransposition
involvesa fresh
fixation,comparableto a new inscriptionof the representation
in question,
situated,moreover,in a freshlocalityin themindand side by side withwhich
the originalunconsciousinscription
continuesto exist? Or are we ratherto
believe that the transformation
consistsin a change in the state of the representation,
involvingthe same materialand occurringin the same locality?
(G. W., x, p. 272-3).
The discussionwhichfollowsdoes not concernus directly

here.Let
us simply
recallthattheeconomic
hypothesis
andthedifficult
concept
12 As is known,the note on "The Antithetical
Sense of Primal Words"
(1910) tendsto demonstrate,
afterAbel, and witha greatabundanceof examples
borrowedfromhieroglyphic
writing,that the contradictory
or undetermined
meaningof primalwordscould be determined,
receiveits difference
and conditions of operationonly throughgestureand writing.On this textand Abel's
cf. E. Benveniste,
hypothesis,
ProblQmesde linguistique
generale,ch. vii.
105

Yale FrenchStudies
of anti-cathexis
(Gegenbesetzung:
"thesole mechanism
of primalrepresson,"p. 280), whichFreudintroduces
afterrefusing
to decide,
do noteliminate
thetopographical
difference
ofthetwoinscriptions.
13
And let us notethattheconceptof inscription
stillremainssimply
the graphicelementof an apparatuswhichis not itselfa writing
machine.The difference
betweenthesystem
and thepsychical
is still
at work: the graphicregister
is reserved
forthe description
of the
psychicalcontentor of an elementin themachine.We mightthink
thatthemachineitselfis subjectto another
principle
of organization,
anotherdestination
thanwriting.
This is perhapsthe case as well
becausetheguidingthreadof thearticleon "The Unconscious,"
its
example,as we have emphasized,
is thedestinyof a representation
afterit is firstregistered.
When perception-theapparatuswhich
originally
registers
and inscribes-will
be delineated,
the "perceptual
apparatus"willno longerbe able to be anything
buta writing
machine.The "NoteUpon theMysticWriting-Pad,"
twelveyearslater,
will describethe perceptualapparatusand the originof memory.
Long disjoinedand out of phase,the two seriesof metaphors
will
thenbe united.
Freud's Slab of Wax and the Three Analogies of Writing
In thissix page text,theanalogybetween

a certainwriting
apparatus
and theperceptual
Threestages
apparatusis gradually
demonstrated.
in thedescription
resulteachtimein an increasein rigor,inwardness,
and differentiation.
As has alwaysbeendone-at leastsincePlato-Freud firstconsiderswriting
as a technique
subservient
to memory,
an external,
auxiliarytechnique
of psychicalmemory
and notmemory
itself:hypomnesisratherthan mnnmjsaid Phaedrus.But here-something
not
is
possibleforPlato-the psychical caughtup in an apparatus,and
willbe morereadilyrepresented
whatis written
as a "materialized"
partextracted
fromtheapparatus.Suchis thefirstanalogy:
13 p. 228.Thisis thepassagewe quotedearlier,
andin whichthememorytracewas distinguished
from"memory."
106

JacquesDerrida
as we know, do so to a remarkable
If I distrustmy memory-neurotics,
extent,but normalpeople have everyreasonfor doingso as well-I am able
to completeand guarantee(erginzenund versichern)
its workingby making
a writtentrace(schriftliche
Anzeichnung).
In thatcase the surfaceupon which
this trace is preserved,the pocket-bookor sheet of paper, is as it were a
materializedportion(ein materialisiertes
Stuck) of my mnemicapparatus(des
the rest of which I carryabout with me invisible.I
Erinnerungsapparates),
have only to bear in mind the place wherethis 'memory'has been deposited
and I can then'reproduce'it at any timeI like,withthe certainty
thatit will
have remainedunalteredand so have escaped thepossibledistortions
to which
it mighthave been subjectedin myactual memory(G. W., xiv,p. 3).
Freud'sthemehereis nottheabsenceofmemory
or theprimaland
normalfinitude
of themnemicfaculty;evenless is it thestructure
of the temporalization
whichgroundsthatfinitude
or its essential
to censorship
relationship
and repression;nor is it the possibility
and the necessityof the Erganzung,the hypomnemicsupplement
whichthepsychicalmustproject"intotheworld"; norwhatis requiredin the natureof the psycheforthatsupplementation

to be
possible.At first,
it is simplya questionof considering
theconditions
whichcustomary
Those
surfacesimposeon thatoperation.
writing
conditionsfail to satisfythe doublerequirement
definedsincethe
Project:a potential
forindefinite
preservation
andan unlimited
capacityforreception.
A sheetofpaperpreserves
indefinitely
butis quickly
saturated.
A slate,whosevirginity
mayalwaysbe reconstituted
by
erasure,(thus)does notconserveits traces.All theclassicalwriting
surfacesofferonlyone of the two advantagesand alwayspresent
the complementary
inconvenience.
Such is theres extensaand the
intelligible
surfaceof classicalwriting
apparatuses.
In theprocesses
whichtheysubstitute
forourmemory,
"an unlimited
receptive
capacofpermanent
ityanda retention
tracesseemto be mutually
exclusive."
Theirextension
belongsto classicalgeometry
and is intelligible
in its
termsas pureexterior
without
relationto itself.A different
writing
space mustbe found;writing
has alwaysclaimedit.
Auxiliaryapparatuses(Hilfsapparate),
which,Freud notes,are
on the modelof the supplementary
alwaysconstituted
organ(e.g.,
spectacles,
camera,ear-trumpet)
thusseemparticularly
deficient
when
it comesto memory.
Thisremark
makesevenmoresuspecttheearlier
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Yale French Studies

that the
referenceto optical apparatuses.Freud recalls,nevertheless,
contradictoryrequirementhe is presentinghad already been recognizedin 1900. He mighthave said: in 1895.
to a suspicion
As long ago as in 1900 I gave expressionin the Traumdeutung
that this unusual capacitywas to be dividedbetweentwo different
systems
(or organs of the mental apparatus).Accordingto this view, we possess a
systemPcpt.-Cs.,which receivesperceptionsbut retainsno permanenttrace
of them,so thatit can reactlike a clean sheetto everynew perception;while
the permanent
tracesof the excitations
whichhave been receivedare preserved
in 'mnemicsystems'lying behind the perceptualsystem.Later, in Beyond
the Pleasure Principle(1920), I added a remarkto the effectthat the inexplicable phenomenonof consciousnessarises in the perceptualsysteminstead
of the permanenttraces.14
A double systemcontainedin a single differentiated

apparatus:
a perpetuallyavailable innocenceand an infinite
reserveof traceshave
at last been reconciledby this "small contrivance"placed "upon the
marketsome time ago under the name of the MysticWriting-Pad,"
and which "promises to be more efficientthan the sheet of paper
and slate." Its appearance is modest,"but if it is examined more
closely, it will be found that its constructionshows a remarkable
agreementwith my hypotheticalstructureof our perceptualapparatus." It offersboth advantages: "an ever-readyreceptivesurfaceand
permanenttraces of the inscriptionsthat have been made on it."
Here is its description:
The MysticPad is a slab of dark brownresinor wax witha paper edging;
over the slab is laid a thintransparent
sheet,the top end of whichis firmly
securedto the slab whileits bottomend restsupon it withoutbeingfixedto it.
This transparent
sheetis the moreinteresting
part of the littledevice.It itself
consistsof two layers,whichcan be detachedfromeach otherexceptat their
two ends. The upperlayeris a transparent
piece of celluloid; the lowerlayer
is made of thintranslucent
waxed paper. When the apparatusis not in use,
the lower surfaceof the waxed paper adheres lightlyto the upper surface
of the wax slab. To make use of the MysticPad, one writesupon the celluloid portionof the covering-sheet
whichrestsupon the wax slab. For this
purposeno pencil or chalk is necessary,since the writingdoes not dependon
materialbeingdepositedupon thereceptivesurface.It is a returnto theancient
14 p.
4-5. Cf. chapteriv of Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
108

Jacques Derrida
methodof writingupon tabletsof clay or wax: a pointedstilusscratchesthe
surface,the depressionsupon which constitutethe 'writing'.In the case of
but throughthemedium
the MysticPad thisscratching
is not effected
directly,
of the covering-sheet.
At the points which the stilustouches,it pressesthe
lower surfaceof the waxed paper on to the wax slab, and the groovesare
visibleas dark writingupon the otherwisesmoothwhitish-grey
surfaceof the
all thatis necessary
celluloid.If one wishesto destroywhathas been written,
is to raise the double covering-sheet
fromthewax slab by a lightpull, starting
fromthe freelowerend.15 The close contactbetweenthe vaxed paper and the
wax slab at theplaces whichhave been scratched(upon whichthe visibility
of
the writingdepended)is thusbroughtto an end and it does notrecurwhenthe
two surfacescome togetheronce more.The MysticPad is now clear of writing
and readyto receivefreshinscriptions
(p. 5-6).
Let us note that the depth of the MysticPad is at once a depth

withoutbottom,an endless reverberation,
and a perfectlysuperficial
exteriority:a stratification
of surfaceseach of whose relationto self,
whose inside,is but the implicationof anothersimilarlyexposed surface. It joins thetwo empiricalcertainties
by whichwe are constituted:
infinitedepth in the implicationof meaning,in the unlimitedenthe pellicularessence
velopmentof the present,and, simultaneously,
of being,the absoluteabsence of a grounding.
Neglectingthe device's "slightimperfections,"
interestedonly in
the analogy,Freud insistson the essentiallyprotectivenatureof the
celluloid sheet.Withoutit, the finewaxed paper would be scratched
or ripped.There is no writingwhichdoes not devise some means of
protection,to protectagainstitself,againstthe writingby whichthe
'"subject"is himselfthreatenedas he lets himselfbe written:as he
exposes himself."The layerof celluloidthusacts as a protectivesheath
for the waxed paper." It shieldsit from"injuriouseffectsfromwithout." "I may at this point recall thatin Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 16 I showed that the perceptualapparatus of our mind consists
of two layers,of an externalprotectiveshield against stimuliwhose
task it is to diminishthe strength
of excitationscomingin, and of a
15 The StandardEditionnotesherea slightinfidelity

in Freud's description.
"The principleis not affected."
We are temptedto thinkthatFreudinflects
his
descriptionelsewhereas well in orderto suitthe analogy.
16 This is stillin Chapteriv of Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
109

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surfacebehindit whichreceivesthestimuli,
namelythesystem
Pcpt.Cs" (p. 6).
Butas yetthisconcerns
or perception,
theopenness
onlyreception
of themostsuperficial
surfaceto theincisionof a scratch.Thereis
as yetno writing
in theflatness
of thisextensio.
We mustaccountfor
as a tracewhichsurvives
thescratch's
writing
present,
punctuality,
and
Freudcontinues,
"wouldnotbe ofmuchvalue
stigma."Thisanalogy,"
if it could not be pursuedfurther
than this."This is the second
analogy:
the celluloidand the waxed paperIf we liftthe entirecovering-sheet-both
offthe wax slab, the writingvanishes,and, as I have alreadyremarked,does
not re-appearagain. The surfaceof the MysticPad is clear of writingand
once more capable of receivingimpressions.
But it is easy to discoverthatthe
permanenttraceof what was writtenis retainedupon the wax slab itselfand
is legiblein suitablelights.
The contradictory requirements are satisfied by this double system,
and "this is preciselythe way in which,accordingto the hypothesis
whichI mentioned
just now,our psychicalapparatusperforms
its
The layerwhichreceivesthestimuli-thesystem
perceptual
function.
Pcpt.-Cs.-forms
no permanent
traces; the foundations
of memory
come aboutin other,supplementary,
systems."
Writing
supplements
perception
beforethelatterevenappearsto itself.
"Memory'"
[supplhe]
or writing
is the openingof thatprocessof appearanceitself.The
"perceived"may be read onlyin the past,beneathperception
and
afterit.
to theprototypes
of
Whereasotherwriting
surfaces,
corresponding
slateor paper,couldrepresent
onlya materialized
partofthemnemic
the MysticPad
systemin the psychicalapparatus,an abstraction,
not simplyin its perceptual
theapparatusin its entirety,
represents
theunconscious,
layer.The wax slab,in fact,represents
"I do not
to comparethe wax slab withthe unthinkit is too far-fetched
consciousbehindthe systemPcpt.-Cs."The becoming-visible
alterofwhatis written
wouldbe theflickernatingwiththedisappearance
ing-up(Aufleuchten)
and passing-away
(Vergehen)of consciousness
in theprocessof perception.
110

JacquesDerrida
This introduces
the thirdand finalanalogy.It is no doubtthe
mostinteresting.
Untilnow,it has beena questiononlyof thespace
itsextension
ofwriting,
reliefs
and depressions.
Butthere
andvolume,
is as well a timeof writing,
and it is nothingotherthanthe very
structure
of whatwe are now describing.
We mustcome to terms
withthetemporality
of thewax slab. For it is notoutsidetheslab,
and theMysticPad includesin its structure
whatKantdescribesas
the threemodes of timein the threeanalogies of experience:perma-
nence,succession,
whenhe wonders
simultaneity.
Descartes,
quaenam
vero est haec cera, may reduce its essence to the timelesssimplicity
of an intelligible
an operation,
object.17 Freud,reconstructing
can
reduceneithertimenor themultiplicity
of sensitive
layers.And he
will linka discontinuist
and
of time,as the periodicity
conception
witha wholechainof hypotheses
whichstretch
spacingof writing,
fromtheLettersto Fliess to BeyondthePleasurePrinciple,and which,
onceagain,are constructed,
confirmed
and solidified
in
consolidated,
theMysticPad. Temporality
as spacingwillbe notonlythehorizontal
of a chainof signs,butwriting
and
discontinuity
as theinterruption
thevariousdepthsofpsychical
of contactbetween
restoration
levels:
theremarkably
fabricofpsychical
heterogenous
temporal
workitself.
thecontinuity
ofa linenorthehomogeneity
We findneither
ofa voldurationand depthof a stage[scene],
ume; onlythedifferentiated
its spacing:
But I mustadmitthatI am inclinedto pressthe comparisonstillfurther.
On the MysticPad the writingvanisheseverytimethe close contactis broken
betweenthe paper whichreceivesthe stimulusand the wax slab whichpreservesthe impression.
This agreeswitha notionwhichI have long had about
the methodin which the perceptualapparatusof our mind functions,but
whichI have hithertokeptto myself(p. 7).
Thathypothesis
positsa discontinuous
distribution-through
rapid
periodicimpulses-of "cathecticinnervations
(Besetzungsinnervationen), fromwithintowardtheoutside,towardthepermeability
of the
systemPcpt.-Cs.These movements
are then"withdrawn"
or "removed."Consciousness
fadeseachtimethecathexis
is thuswithdrawn.
17 The reference-"butwhat is thispiece of wax"-is to the discussionof
primaryand secondaryqualitiesin Descartes'ssecondMeditation.-Ed.
I11

Yale FrenchStudies
Freudcomparesthismovement
to thefeelerswhichtheunconscious
wouldstretch
outtowardtheexternal
whenthey
worldand withdraw
had sampledthe excitations
comingfromit and warnedthe unconsciousof any threat.(Freudhad no morereservedtheimageof
the feelerfor the unconscious-wefindit in ChapterIV of Beyond... 18-thanhe had thenotionof cathecticperiodicity,
as we
notedabove.) The "originof our conceptof time"is attributed
to
this"periodicnon-excitability"
and this "discontinuous
methodof
functioning
of thesystem
Pcpt.-Cs."Timeis theeconomy
ofwriting.
This machinedoes notrunby itself.It is less a machinethana
tool.Anditis notheldwithonlyone hand.Its temporality
is marked
thereby.
Its maintenance
is not simple.The ideal virginity
of the
19 At least
present
[maintenant]
is constituted
bytheworkofmemory.
twohandsare neededto maketheapparatusfunction,
as well as a
systemof movements,
a coordination
of independent
initiatives,
an
organizedmultiplicity
of origins.It is on thisstage[scene]thatthe
"Note" ends: "If we imagineone handwriting
uponthesurfaceof
theMysticWriting-Pad
whileanotherperiodically
raisesits covering
sheetfromthewax slab,we shallhave a concrete
of
representation
thewayin whichI triedto picturethefunctioning
of theperceptual
apparatusof our mind."
Tracesthusproducethespaceoftheirinscription
onlybyacceding
in the"present"
of
to theperiodoftheirerasure.Fromthebeginning,
theirfirstimpression,
theyare constituted
by thedoubleforceof re18 We findit again,the same year,in the articleon Verneinung.
In a pasof therelationbetweennegation
sage whichconcernsus hereforits recognition
in thoughtand differance,
delay,detour(Aufschub,Denkaufschub)(difference,
union of Eros and Thanatos),the sendingout of feelersis attributednot to
the unconsciousbut to the ego (G. W., xiv, p. 14-15).On Denkaufschub,on
thoughtas retardation,
postponement,
suspension,respite,detour,differance
as
opposed to, or ratherdifferante(deferring,
differing)
from the theoretical,
fictive,and always alreadytransgressed
pole of the "primaryprocess,"cf. all
The conceptof "circuitouspath"
of ChapterVII (V) of the Traumdeutung.
(Umweg)is centralto it. "Thoughtidentity,"
entirelywovenof memory,is an
aim always already substitutedfor "perceptualidentity,"the aim of the
"primaryprocess,"and das ganze Denken ist nur ein Umweg... ("All thought
is only a circuitouspath,"p. 607). Cf. also the Umwegezum Tode in Jenseits,
p. 41. "Compromise,"in Freud's sense, is always differance.But thereis
nothingbeforethe compromise.
19The presentparticipleof the verb maintenir(to maintain,frommanutenire,to hold witha hand)is maintenant
(now).-Ed.
112

JacquesDerrida
A two-handed
and unreadability.
petitionand erasure,readability
ofagenciesor origins;is thisnottheoriginary
machine,
a multiplicity
its "primary"
of writing,
relationto the otherand the temporality
and obliteraspacing,deferring
complication:originary
(diffrraznce),
of whatwe
polemicalon theverythreshold
tionof thesimpleorigin,
The scene of dreams,"whichfollow
persistin callingperception.
Butthisis because"percepformer
frayings,"
was a sceneofwriting.
tion,"the firstrelationof lifeto its other,the originof life,had
We mustbe severalin
alwaysalreadypreparedthe representation.
of
orderto writeand alreadyto "perceive."The simplestructure
is a
intuition,
and manuscription,
like everyoriginary
maintenance
process.
as "theoretical"
as theidea of theprimary
myth,
a "fiction"
For thatidea is contradicted
by thethemeof primalrepression.
withoutrepression.
Its conditionis that
Writingis unthinkable
a permanent
contactnoran absolutebreakbetween
therebe neither
It is no accidentthat
strata:thevigilanceand failureof censorship.
shouldcome fromthe area of politics
the metaphor
of censorship
in its deletions,
withwriting
concerned
blanks,and disguises,even
seemsto makeonly
of theTraumdeutung,
if Freud,at thebeginning
of
to it. The apparentexteriority
a conventional,
didacticreference
whichbinds
politicalcensorship
giveswayto an essentialcensorship
the writerto his own writing.
there
to fraying,
purepermeability
If therewereonlyperception,
but nothingwould be
We wouldbe written
wouldbe no fraying.
repeatedas readretained,
recorded;no writing
wouldbe produced,
onlyby
does not exist: we are written
ability.But pureperception
writing
[en ecrivant],
by theinstancewithinus whichalwaysalready
or external.
The "subject"ofwriting
governs
perception,
be it internal
solitudeof the
does not existif we mean by thatsome sovereign
betweenstrata:
is a system
ofrelations
author.The subjectofwriting
of theMysticPad, of thepsyche,of society,of the world.Within
thatscenethe punctualsimplicity
of the classicalsubjectis not to
it is notenoughto recall
be found.In orderto describethatstructure,
thatone alwayswritesfor someone; and the oppositionssendercoarseinstruments.
We
etc.,remainextremely
receiver,
code-message,
113

Yale FrenchStudies
wouldsearchthe"public"in vainforthefirstreader:i.e., thefirst
authorof a work.And the"sociologyof literature"
is blindto the
war and ruses-whosestakesare the originof the work-between
theauthorwhoreadsand thefirstreaderwhodictates.The sociality
21
as dramarequiresan entirely
of writing
different
discipline.
That themachinedoes notrunby itselfmeanssomething
else: a
mechanism
without
itsownenergy.
The machineis dead.It is death.
Not becausewe riskdeathin playingwithmachines,
butbecausethe
is therelation
originofmachines
to death.In a letterto Fliess,it will
be recalled,Freud,evokinghis representation
of the psychicalapof beingfacedwitha machinewhich
paratus,had the impression
wouldsoonrunbyitself.
Butwhatwas torunbyitselfwas thepsyche
or mechanical
and notitsimitation
For thelatterdoes
representation.
is death.Whichmaybe immediately
not live. Representation
transformed
intothefollowing
proposition:
deathis (only)representation.
But it is boundto lifeand thelivingpresentwhichit repeatsoriga machineneverrunsby itself.Such
inarily.A purerepresentation,
in his analogywith
whichFreudrecognizes
at leastis thelimitation
theMysticPad. Like thefirstparagraph
of the"Note,"his gesture
thenis extremely
Platonic.Only the writing
of the soul, said the
and represent
traceis able to reproduce
Phaedrus,
onlythepsychical
itselfspontaneously.
Our readinghad skippedover the following
remarkby Freud: "Theremustcomea pointat whichtheanalogy
betweenan auxiliaryapparatusof thiskindand theorganwhichis
itsprototype
willcease to apply.It is true,too,that,oncethewriting
it fromwithin;it
has beenerased,theMysticPad cannot'reproduce'
it couldaccomplish
wouldbe a mystic
pad indeedif,likeourmemory,
themultiplicity
that."Abandonedto itself,
of layeredsurfaces
of the
without
apparatusis a dead complexity
depth.Lifeas depthbelongs
onlyto thewaxofpsychical
memory.
Freud,likePlato,thuscontinues
to opposehypomnemic
andwriting
writing
en teipsychii,itselfwoven
oftraces,empirical
memories
ofa present
truth
outsideof time.From
thenon, separatedfrompsychical
responsibility,
theMysticPad, as
20 The targets
of Derrida'spolemicin thisparagraph
are Sartre,
Jakobson,
and LucienGoldmann.-Ed.
114

JacquesDerrida
in Cartesian
a representation
abandonedto itself,stillparticipates
spaceand mechanics:naturalwax,exteriority
of theaid to memory.
All thatFreudhad thought
about the unityof lifeand death,
shouldhave led himto ask otherquestionshere.To ask
however,
themexplicitly.
the statusof the
Freuddoes not examineexplicitly
"materialized"
supplement
whichis necessaryto theputativesponweredifferentiated
in
even if thatspontaneity
taneityof memory,
itself,
thwarted
by a censorship
or repression
could
which,moreover,
not act on a perfectly
Far fromthe machine
spontaneous
memory.
itsresemblance
beinga pureabsenceof spontaneity,
to thepsychical
its existence
and itsnecessity
bearwitnessto thefinitude
apparatus,
ofthemnemic
whichis thussupplemented
spontaneity
[supplkge].The
death and finitude
machine-and,consequently,
representation-is
withinthe psyche.Nor does Freudexaminethepossibility
of that
machine,
which,in theworld,has at leastbegunto resemble
memory,
and resembles
and betterand better.
it increasingly
Muchbetterthan
the innocentMysticPad: the latteris no doubtinfinitely
more
complexthanslate or paper,less archaicthana palimpsest;but
it is a child'stoy.
comparedto othermachinesforstoring
archives,
a certainBeing-in-the-world
That resemblance-i.e., necessarily
of
thepsyche-didnot occurfromwithoutto memory
anymorethen
deathsurprises
life.It groundsmemory.
Metaphor-inthiscase the
analogybetweentwo apparatusesand the possibility
of thatrepresentationalrelation-raisesa questionwhich,despitehis premises
and forreasonswhichare no doubtessential,
Freudfailedto make
explicit,at the verymomentat whichhe had broughtit to the
threshold
of its themeand urgency.
Metaphoras a rhetorical
or
didacticdeviceis possiblehereonlythrough
thesolidmetaphor,
the
"unnatural,"
historical
production
of a supplementary
machine,
added
to the psychicalorganization
in orderto supplement
[supplier]its
finitude.
Theyveryidea of finitude
is derivedfromthemovement
of
thissupplementarity.
The historico-technical
production
of thatmetaphorwhichsurvives
individual(or evengeneric)psychicalorganizationis of an entirely
different
orderfromtheproduction
of an intrapsychical
metaphor,
assuming
thatthelatterexists(to speakaboutit
115

Yale FrenchStudies
may
bondthetwometaphors
is notenoughforthat),and whatever
Here the questionof technics(a new
maintainbetweenthemselves.
namemustperhapsbe foundin orderto removeitfromitstraditional
between
froman assumedopposition
problematic)
maynotbe derived
is here
lifeand death.Writing
thepsychicaland thenon-psychical,
techne'as relationbetweenlifeand death,betweenpresentand reIt opensup thequestion
presentation,
betweenthetwo apparatuses.
of technics:of theapparatusin generaland of theanalogybetween
apparatus.In thissense
thepsychical
apparatusan thenon-psychical
and theplay of theworld.It
writing
is the stage[scene]of history
That in Freud'sdiscannotbe exhaustedby a simplepsychology.
being
coursewhichopensontoits themeresultsin psychoanalysis's
simplypsychoanalysis.
not simplypsychology-nor
a
Thus are perhapsaugured,in the Freudianbreak-through,
beyondand a beneathof thatenclosurewe mightterm"Platonic."
of worldhistory
"subsumed"by thenameof Freud,
In thatmoment
or meta(be it neurological
mythology
traversing
an unbelieveable
outsideof
forwe neverdreamedof takingseriously,
psychological:
the
and disturbsits literalness,
the questionwhichdisarticulates
fable,whichmarksperhapsonlya minimaladmetapsychological
talesof theProject),a relationto self
vancebeyondtheneurological
was spokenwithout
sceneof writing
of thehistorico-transcendental
and simultaneouswithout
beingthought:written
beingsaid,thought
itselfwhile indicating
intraly erased,metaphorized;designating
it was represented.
worldlyrelations,
This may perhaps be recognized(as an example and let this be
in so faras Freudalso, withadmirablescope

understood
prudently)
and continuity,
performedfor us the scene of writing.But we must
thinkof thatscenein othertermsthanthoseof individualor colIt mustbe thought

lectivepsychology,
or evenofanthropology.
in the
horizonof the scene of the world,as the historyof that scene.
Freud'slanguageis caughtup in it.
Like all those
forus thesceneof writing.
Thus Freudperforms
all
know
how
to
he
who
who write.And like
write, let the scene
duplicate,
repeat,and betrayitselfwithinthescene.It is thenFreud
116

JacquesDerrida
whomwe willallowto say whatscenehe has playedforus. From
him thatwe shall borrowthe hiddenepigraphwhichhas silently
governedour reading.
In following
the advanceof metaphors
of path,trace,fraying;
of the slow marchopeninga trackby effraction
through
neurone,
lightor wax,woodor resin,in orderto marknature,matter,
matrix
the untiring
violently;in following
reference
to a drystilusand a
writing
without
ink; in following
theinexhaustible
inventiveness
and
dream-like
renewalof mechanical
models-thatmetonymy
perpetually at workon the same metaphor,
tracefor
obstinately
substituting
traceand machineformachine-wewondered
whatFreudwas doing.
And we thought
of thosetextswhere,betterthananywhere
else,
he tells us worin die Bahnung sonst besteht.In what the fraying
consists.
Of theTraumdeutung:
"It is highly
probablethatall complicated
machinery
and apparatusoccurring
in dreamsstandforthegenitals
-and as a rulethemaleones-in describing
whichdream-symbolism
is as indefatigable
as thejoke-work
(Witzarbeit)"
(p. 361).
Then, of The Problemof Anxiety:
"If writing-which
consistsin allowinga fluidto flowout froma
tubeupona piece of whitepaper-has acquiredthesymbolic
meaning of coitus,or if walkinghas becomea symbolicsubstitute
for
stampingupon the body of MotherEarth,thenbothwriting
and
walkingwill be abstainedfrom,becauseit is as thoughforbidden
sexualbehaviorwerethereby
beingindulgedin."
Mehiman
Translatedby Jeffrey
117


Derrida

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Freud and the Scene of Writing

Author(s): Jacques Derrida and Jeffrey Mehlman

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sion, would degenerateinto a blind complacency(a reasonable translation

Derrida assimilatesthe supplement,

This essay,originallya lectureat Dr. AndreGreen'sseminar,appearswith

preface and postface in L'Ecriture et la difference.

Worin die Bahnung sonst besteht,bleibt dahingestellt.

Our aim is limited: to locatein Freud'stextseveralpointsof reference

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Yale French Studies

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Neitheroutsidenor inside. They cannotbe in the externalworld,

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This is a firstmove toward the "Note." From now on, starting

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It is here that the Freudian break occurs. No doubt Freud

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And, in fact, Freud never stopped proposingcodes, rules of great

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our quotationfora moment.The conscious text

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our quotation.The metaphorof transLet us once moreinterrupt

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(miseen scene)mayat firstbe comThis typeof representation

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The model of hieroglyphic

11 "The Interestin Psychoanalysis,"

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On theotherhand,thesameyear,in thearticleon "The Unconsof theapparatusitselfwillbeginto be taken

The discussionwhichfollowsdoes not concernus directly

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