The Space of the Lacerated Subject: Architecture And Abjectiion

Abstract

In Powers of Horror (1980),1 the psychoanalyst Julia
Kristeva presented the first explicit, elaborated
theory of ‘abjection,’ which she defines as the
casting off of that which is not of one’s “clean and
properâ€2 self. According to Kristeva, abjection is a
demarcating impulse which establishes the basis of
all object relations, and is operative in the Lacanian
narrative of subject formation in early childhood
via object differentiation. (I am a subject: me.
That is an object: not me.) Abjection continues to
operate post-Oedipally to prevent the dissolution
of the subject by repressing identification with
that which is other, and particularly that which is
only tenuously other: the abject. Though Kristeva’s
theory is braided into problematic Freudian
premises, this essay will argue that abjection
remains operative independent of the Oedipal
model.