"I Think Where I am Not"

In the Derrida film, Derrida says “And there where there is improvisation I am not able to see myself.” He relates this idea of improvisation to pure forgiveness and reconciliation. He states that to achieve pure forgiveness is impossible. One would reach this level of forgiveness by being able to forgive what may seem to be the unforgivable. Reconciliation is not to forgive, per se, but to do so for a purpose of diplomacy, of therapeutic means, and so on and so forth. Improvisation is to “reproduce stereotypical discourse.” The notion of improvisation is almost like a mask being worn by a person, concealing one’s true self. He goes on to say that improvisation inhibits a person from being able to fully visualize the self.
Lacan reverses Descartes recognized philosophy “I think therefore I am,” by saying “I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think.” Descartes’ view is that the self is the conscious mind which is the very center of selfhood. Lacan states the opposite. He says that the center of selfhood is the unconscious mind. This is where the true self dwells. Very much like Derrida’s concept of the self and the Other, Lacan poses the question ‘who is this other to whom I am more attached than myself, since at the heart of my assent to my own identity it is still he who wags me?(113Barry). As Derrida uses deconstruction to interpret a particular subject matter, Lacan deconstructs the self to reveal it as a linguistic result and not a fundamental being. He relates the unconscious to language. Like Derrida’s concepts, Lacan interprets language to live as a structure even prior to the admission of the person.