Roger
Article
Roger is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between April 26, 2022 and September 12, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as “A man (‘Roger’), has a weak father who is easily dominated by his mother”; “haven’t received payment details for Roger”. It most often appears alongside A Clinical Introduction To Lacanian Psychoanalysis, aphantasis, Astralcodexten Com.
Metadata
- Category: People
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: April 26, 2022
- Last seen: September 12, 2022
Appears In
Related Pages
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- A Clinical Introduction To Lacanian Psychoanalysis (1 shared issues)
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- aphantasis (1 shared issues)
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- Astralcodexten Com (1 shared issues)
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- Astralcodexten Com (1 shared issues)
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- Atlanta (1 shared issues)
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- Ayn Rand (1 shared issues)
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- Berkeley (1 shared issues)
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- Bored Ape NFTs (1 shared issues)
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- Bruce Fink (1 shared issues)
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- bulletin board (1 shared issues)
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- Cambridge (1 shared issues)
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- Chaostician (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
Fink presents a (supposedly) real case study of psychosis. A man (“Roger”), has a weak father who is easily dominated by his mother. He frequently complains about this to his analyst in suspiciously Lacanian language (“There is no name for a father like mine”, he says). He starts doubting that his father is really his father, and goes to the county records office to check his birth certificate for his father’s name. Finally, he comes up with a plan: write a new last name for himself, which combines his real father’s name with the name of his psychoanalyst. He writes the name, buries it in the foundation of his family home, and feels pretty good about himself. Then one day, he tells his therapist about a dream: he is in a golden cage, and his therapist is watching him. The therapist says maybe means he thinks he’s stuck and wants his therapist’s approval. Upon hearing this, Roger immediately goes insane. Fink’s commentary: by being confronted with the fact that his dream has a meaning, Roger was forced to reckon with language and symbolism. But as a psychotic person, he can’t do these things: the relationship of symbol, meaning, and person who is figuring out the meaning is a triad too close to mother, child, and father, and he lacks the “father” part of the triad. His flimsy fake ego falls apart. Later, another therapist carefully avoids making Roger confront symbolism, and he does fine thereafter.
1: Book Review Contest winners should have received their money and subscriptions. If you think you should have, but haven’t, email me at scott@slatestarcodex.com. I haven’t received payment details for Roger or Chaostician; please email me, and if you’ve already tried emailing me please include “This is a genuine nonspam message” in your email to make sure my spam filter didn’t get it.