Success is Failure: The Investigative Jouissance in Eating Disorders and Twin Peaks.

This article examines the structural homology between Lynch's investigative framework in Twin Peaks and the symptom formation in eating disorders, arguing that both operate through what we term "investigative jouissance"--a form of satisfaction derived from the endless deferral of resolution rather...

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Publicado en:International Journal of Žižek Studies Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 1 - 17
Autor principal: Nuckols, Brian J.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: International Journal of Zizek Studies 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Success is Failure: The Investigative Jouissance in Eating Disorders and Twin Peaks.
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        au: Nuckols, Brian J.
        affil: Pacifica Graduate University, US
      su:
        Eating disorders
        Twin Peaks (TV program)
        Delay of gratification
        Medical practice
        Paradox
        Lynch, David, 1946-2025
        Žižek, Slavoj, 1949-
        Psychoanalysis
        Social criticism
        Neoliberalism
      sug:
        subj:
          Eating disorders
          Twin Peaks (TV program)
          Delay of gratification
          Medical practice
          Paradox
          Lynch, David, 1946-2025
          Žižek, Slavoj, 1949-
          Psychoanalysis
          Social criticism
          Neoliberalism
      ab: This article examines the structural homology between Lynch's investigative framework in Twin Peaks and the symptom formation in eating disorders, arguing that both operate through what we term "investigative jouissance"--a form of satisfaction derived from the endless deferral of resolution rather than its achievement. Drawing on Žižek's distinction between desire and drive, we demonstrate how medical "success" in eating disorder treatment represents the subject's deepest terror, precisely parallel to how "solving" Twin Peaks would destroy the narrative's organizing structure. Through analysis of Lynch's formal techniques, contemporary Lacanian clinical work, and detailed clinical material from intensive eating disorder treatment, this piece reveals how the eating disorder subject finds jouissance not in achieving an ideal weight, but in maintaining the investigative relationship to their body as an endless source of evidence requiring interpretation. Using contemporary cultural parallels from Sex and the City to QAnon, we argue that investigative jouissance represents a distinctly neoliberal form of symptomatic satisfaction that organizes around the deferral of the very resolution everyone else demands. This analysis has significant implications for both clinical practice and cultural criticism, suggesting new approaches to treatment that work with rather than against the investigative structure.
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    language: English
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