Living Memory 1988–1990 411
Things soon took a turn for the worse. Several participants
threatened to withdraw from the steering committee if the off ending
title were kept. Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, chair of the CIPh that
year, was very keen on having Badiou there, as he felt quite close
to him politically. A compromise was eventually found, with Major
agreeing to replace the second part of his title, ‘Is there a Derridean
psychoanalysis?’, with a mere dash. He would comment on this
unusual erasure, turning the incident into the starting point for his
paper.
The conference took place from 24 to 27 May 1990 in the great
auditorium of Unesco; it was an enormous success. Derrida gave the
closing paper. Under the title ‘For the love of Lacan’, he set out the
history of his turbulent relationship with the author of the Écrits,
sometimes ironically, sometimes admiringly. ‘And if I were to say at
this point: “You see, I believe that we loved each other quite a lot,
Lacan and I.. .,” I am almost certain that many of you could not
bear it. And for that reason, I am not yet sure as to whether or not I
will say it.’^24 Nearly ten years had gone by since Lacan’s death and
the ideological context that now prevailed had made Derrida feel
closer to him.
Whether concerning philosophy, psychoanalysis, or theory in
general, what the restoration now in progress attempts to cover
up, deny or censure, is the fact that nothing of that which could
transform the space of thought in recent decades would have
been possible without some explanation with Lacan, without
Lacanian provocation (however it is received or discussed)
[.. .].^25In his paper, Derrida alludes without naming it to the recent
roman à clef published by Julia Kristeva, The Samurai, in which
Lacan was turned into Lauzun and Derrida was called Saïda. They
were both described as adulterated goods, only good for export, but
Derrida was treated more sarcastically. The attack was full-on; the
fact this was a roman à clef made it even more wounding:
Saïda took advantage of May to pluck up his courage and
seize the occasion. His meditations, inspired by Finnegans
Wake and Heidegger, irritated philosophers and reduced the
literature merchants to silence – both bodies were confronted
with their own transcendental stupidity. Everyone was tight-
lipped, no one was won over. The ceremony used to last nearly
there hours, and sometimes there were even two sessions – six
hours in all. The survivors could be counted up afterward.
They were to be the fi rst fans of the ‘condestruction’ theory:
the word was invented to show that one should never construct