Recall Hegel’s mysterious phrase from The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807): “the self-repulsion of the selfsame and the self-attraction of the unlike” (§164). Since Hegel has been talking about the law of gravity for some paragraphs before this phrase, it sounds like a metaphoric reference to electromagnetic forces: In static electricity, positively charged particles repel positively charged particles and they attract negatively charged particles, and vice versa. Or in magnetism, north pole repels north pole and it attracts south pole, and vice versa.

But this phrase can’t be a physics metaphor because Hegel is not interested in non-universal private statements that are only allowed to apply to the objects of a particular field of expertise like physics. Hegel’s subject is the Spirit which consists of symbolic articulations [1]. So when Hegel says that “The unification of all laws in universal attraction expresses no other content than just the mere Notion of law itself, which is posited in that law in the form of being” (§150) he is referring to the law of gravity as a symbolic articulation that is no longer restricted to the specialized field of physics. For Hegel, the law of gravity as “universal attraction” is the Notion of law that goes to the heart of being itself. What can this mean?

The clue is in the last sentence: “The expression, universal attraction, is of great importance in so far as it is directed against the thoughtless way in which everything is pictured as contingent, and for which determinateness has the form of sensuous independence.” (§150) In psychoanalytic terms, universal attraction refers to the separation that follows alienation: At first it’s the symbolic separation (“universal”) that follows imaginary alienation, then it’s the real separation (“attraction”) that follows symbolic alienation; one follows the other, the process is the same [2]. Hegel makes a short-circuit between the gravitational attraction exerted by a physical matter and, say, the ideological attraction exerted by a grave subject-matter. Hegel’s idealism is compatible with current theories of emergent gravity [3].

Due to the short-circuit between matter and Notion, we can take a crucial step: The electrical charging or magnetization of the matter evokes the hystericization of the subject-matter (remember that magnetic charges are subject to hysteresis). The first process is caused by an external physical drive, whereas the second process is caused by a psychic drive [4].

Now let’s leap from electromagnetism to hystericization [5]: The “selfsame” electric/magnetic charge is now the selfsame Master-Signifier S₁. The “self-repulsion of the selfsame” is the hysteric subject ($) that constantly disturbs the Master-Signifier’s wholeness/unity and forces it to divide into a multiplicity of signifiers. This division is driven by the “unlike” which is the object-cause of desire (a). This desire gathers the resulting multiplicity of signifiers together in the form of a knowledge S₂ that exhibits the “self-attraction of the unlike”.

This lets us take a physical look at the four discourses: Master’s discourse is the authority of a selfsame (e.g. king, chief) that conceals its self-repulsion (indecision) in order to force a self-attraction (e.g. community, people) to give products unlike any other (tax, profit, etc.). University discourse is a self-attraction (field of study, department, etc.) that conceals its selfsameness (dull, monotonous paperwork) in order to appeal to the unlike (capture the social difference of the youth) and inflict them with a self-repulsion (insecurity, indecisiveness, precarity). Hysteric’s discourse is a self-repulsion (experience of drive) that conceals the unlike (symptomatic specificity) in order to strike a selfsame (authority figure) and force it to feed its self-attraction (additional knowledge). Analytic knowledge is an unlike (specificity, uncommonsense [6]) that conceals its self-attraction (symbolic knowledge in brackets) in order to intervene to a self-repulsion (experience of drive) and let it reach a selfsame (signifier as Spirit).

Işık Barış Fidaner is a computer scientist with a PhD from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul. Admin of Yersiz Şeyler, Editor of Žižekian Analysis, Curator of Görce Writings. Twitter: @BarisFidaner

Notes:

[1] See “Hegelian Force: Being-for-self represents the subject for being-for-another”

[2] See “Imaginary Alienation (Posturing Wholeness) and Symbolic Alienation (Posturing Allness)”, “Symbolic Separation and Real Separation”, “The Authority-Body Complex”, “Three Lacanian True Choices”

[3] About emergent gravity, see “Ideology is grave matter indeed!”

[4] To associate these two drives, see “Dissipative Adaptation is Death Drive”

[5] About hysteria and electromagnetism see “The Desire to Know the Master Analysis”

[6] See “Refusing and Defusing The Moral Bomb”