The blind point of the repetition. A missed encounter between Lacan and Merleau-Ponty

According to his Seminar entitled The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis, in 1964, Lacan modifies his view on the concept of repetition: it is now articulated with the category of the real and not only with the category of the symbolic. We know that this new definition of repetition is based upon philosophical references such as Aristote and Kierkegaard. However, the importance of Lacan's reading of The Visible and the invisible is usually not considered as related to this new view on repetition. In this regard, the question of the split of the eye and the gaze tends to be isolated from the concept of repetition. The authors point out the occurrences of the word "restoration" (which Lacan singles out from The Visible and the invisible) to enlight the dialectic of repetition and identity. They aim at showing to what extent Lacan is referring to the concept of flesh. (C) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.