Wittgenstein's Masturbation Diaries

As told 4

“it was not screwing a man or a woman or whatever, it was debating with philosophers abstract questions.”
1:43:07 Slavoj Žižek, "'Unbehagen in der Natur': On Thinking the End of Nature"2022-11-02 · 2:25:59

“He describes what he's thinking about when he was masturbating... discussing with colleagues philosophical questions and so on, that's the spirit.”
32:08 Only a Catastrophy Can Save Us2023-03 · 1:21:56

“he also reports what he was dreaming while masturbating not any gay orgies he was dreaming debating mathematical problems with fellow philosophers no that's what I claim true ethics”
36:52 The Function of Fantasy in the Lacanian Real2012 · 1:25:19

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

contents · one story, 3 jobsuses

fundamental gap in sexuality ×1 fantasy support ×1 infantile sexuality ×1

Its cast and sources

populated by

Kirill I of Moscow2 Gustáv Husák1 Lino Ventura1 Simone Signoret1 Rade Šerbedžija1 Jean Cavaillès1 "Jean-Pierre Melville"1 Andrew Schally1

alongside works

On Totalitarianism1 Unfaithful1 The Sorrows of Young Werther1 L'Armée des ombres (Army of Shadows)1 Apocalypse Now1 Project Syndicate1 Nibelung1 Introduction to the Philosophy of Right1

Told together with

20% Taliban-China Deal 2 shared talks 17% Glasgow Climate Conference 2 shared talks

Every retelling 4

1:43:07 Slavoj Žižek, "'Unbehagen in der Natur': On Thinking the End of Nature"2022-11-02 · 2:25:59

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, while masturbating during WWI, dreamed of debating abstract philosophical questions rather than engaging in sexual acts, illustrating that sexuality is always structured by a 'gap' and fantasy/thought., illustrating fantasy support,consciousness-mind

32:08 Only a Catastrophy Can Save Us2023-03 · 1:21:56

Wittgenstein's newly published WWI diaries reveal he was thinking about philosophical debates with colleagues during masturbation, illustrating Freud's question: not 'are you always thinking about sex?' but 'what are you thinking about when you are having sex?', illustrating infantile sexuality,human sexuality as fantasy-structured

36:52 The Function of Fantasy in the Lacanian Real2012 · 1:25:19

A private Viennese publisher showed Žižek Ludwig Wittgenstein's WWI front diaries, in which Wittgenstein records both masturbation and what he fantasized about: not sexual scenes but debating mathematical problems with fellow philosophers, illustrating that fantasy always requires a non-sexual scenario even during sex., illustrating perversion is constitutive,fantasy supplement to sexuality,the inexistence of pure sex

~0:00 How are we embedded in Ideology?2007-11-16 · 1:15:40

Wittgenstein's WWI diaries reveal he thought about mathematical debates with friends while masturbating at the front, illustrating the psychoanalytic point that fantasy mediates even seemingly autonomous desires., illustrating fantasy,the function of fantasy in desire