Homeostasis and Feelings

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Religion is an attempt to deal with this nothingness within our being, and to understand this nothingness as a kind of a spring board for everything that is meaningful about human life. I can explain all that in more detail if you want but it was kind of like this idea that the lack was not our enemy. So actually, that's exactly what i do want to hear you expound on a little bit more. But if you will indulge me for a minute, i want to propose an analogy, or maybe it's even an equivalent, with a physics concepts here. Because, just ond, i'm realyta at about the world. The psychological version of that sory

Neuroscience has given us great insights into how our brains work. But there is still room for purely humanistic disciplines to help us think through our thoughts and emotions, not to mention the meaning of our lives. Mari Ruti is a professor of English literature, with expertise in critical theory, gender studies, and psychoanalysis, especially the work of French theorist Jacques Lacan. We talk about the psychological drive that is motivated by what Lacan calls “lack,” which is related to “desire.” We use this as a way to think about such essential human experiences as mourning, creativity, and love. (We don’t talk about love enough here on the podcast.)

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Mari Ruti received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University. She is currently a Distinguished Professor of critical theory and gender and sexuality studies at the University of Toronto. She is the co-editor of the Psychoanalytic Horizons book series for Bloomsbury.

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