Ordinary Unhappiness 119: Lacan, Knowledge, Fantasy feat. Nick Stock and Nick Peim
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Oct 25, 2025 In this discussion, Nick Peim, an experienced academic in education, and Nick Stock, a postdoctoral researcher, unpack the complexities of teaching through a Lacanian lens. They explore how teachers’ narratives shape their identities and how these fantasies often lead to disillusionment. The conversation dives into concepts of desire, lack, and the pleasures intertwined in educational practices. Ultimately, they advocate for a deeper theoretical understanding of teaching, revealing how knowledge itself is often elusive and inherently unstable.
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Teaching As An Addictive Response
- Teaching often functions like an addictive response to a persistent feeling of lack rather than a pure vocation.
- Nick Stock and Nick Peim describe finishing terms as producing emptiness replaced by the next cohort's arrival.
Origins In A Supervisor–Supervisee Bond
- Nick Stock and Nick Peim recount meeting through a supervisor–supervisee relationship that led to collaborative Lacanian reading.
- Their shared study of Lacan grew from doctoral work into the joint book project on teaching.
The Teacher Is A Loaded Signifier
- The signifier 'teacher' carries overdetermined fantasies shaping why people choose teaching.
- Lacanian theory shows those desires are often borrowed from broader symbolic discourses, not pure individual motives.
