Two-handed Conversations

Communication is asymptotic.


On the one hand:

The subject begins the analysis by talking about himself without talking to you or talking to you without talking about himself. When he can talk to you about himself the analysis is over.
(Lacan: Introduction to Jean Hyppolite's commentary on Freud's Verneinung. Cf Écrits, 1966, p373)

And on the other:

We have to be patient with each other, and rejoice whenever we manage (both us and other people) to move forward. We can't just stay where we are.
(Károly Kerényi, letter to Furio Jesi, 5 October 1964, as quoted by Wu Ming I)