sinthematica:
When Freud claims that ‘hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences’ (SE II, p. 7), he does not mean that they are nostalgically reminiscing about the past, thinking about how wonderful it was; he means that they are wracked with regrets and guilt about having given up on their own desire to say or do something.
And when Lacan says that we feel guilty when we give up on our own desire, he is merely summarizing what Freud has already laid out for us here. Lacan points out that the term Freud usually uses in this context is Versagung,… Lacan interprets ‘Versagung’ as meaning renunciation,… ‘Renunciation’ implies that one wanted to do something and gave up on it, often as if one were giving in to someone else’s wishes… In other words, it suggests a situation in which one allows someone else’s will to prevail over one’s own (or allows what one imagines someone else’s will to be to prevail over one’s own) and regrets it forever thereafter.
[footnote] In Seminar VIII, Lacan comments that ‘Versagung implies not making good on a promise, on a promise for which one has already given up everything’ (p. 300); this promise may be a promise one has made to oneself.
— A Clinical Introduction to Freud Techniques for Everyday Practice, Bruce Fink
