Therapy follows the Analyst’s Discourse. This requires the agent to function as "object a"—the cause of desire.
LLMs are trapped in the University Discourse (S2). They can’t "not know." They have no lack, so they have no silence to offer.
paulhoard.substack.com/p/constitutive-lack
Thanks! I’ve been having fun trying to explore more of how ai is shaping us. It’s been fascinating.
LLMs offer "knowledge without a knower." In the University Discourse, AI provides data but lacks the constitutive lack that makes human inquiry honest.
New post is up: Knowledge Without a Knower 🦋
paulhoard.substack.com/p/knowledge-...
#Lacan #AI #Theory
I just posted a new piece: "The Anatomy of a Question."
I’m looking at how we’ve moved from "ordering" Alexa around to "interrogating" AI. It’s a shift from a position of mastery to a position of seeking—and it changes our social bonds entirely.
paulhoard.substack.com/p/from-command-to-question
New article out: “Lacan Plays Catan: Unconscious Desire in Tabletop Gaming.”
A primer on Lacanian ideas and an attempt to use psychoanalysis to read games and play more carefully.
#BoardGames
#Psychoanalysis
open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...
AI can’t "miss the mark" because it has no mark to miss. My new essay uses Lacan’s "Four Discourses" to explain why we talk to Alexa differently than to each other.
Read more: paulhoard.substack.com/p/the-failure-of-communication
#Lacan #AI #Philosophy
Oh that’s great!
Anthropic’s 'Constitution' isn't just a policy document. It’s a rhetorical one. I wrote about how we use 'master signifiers' like safety and ethics to try and anchor the slippery drift of AI language. These systems are mirrorsthey reflect our own desire. paulhoard.substack.com/p/claudes-co...
Most systems in life are built to produce success.
Games are built to produce losers.
Why do we return to structures designed to defeat most of us?
New essay: on losing, repetition, and why winning is only a pause.
open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...
Is your game night a defense mechanism?
We often treat "Alpha Players" as a flaw. But psychoanalytically, groups install them to escape the anxiety of shared uncertainty.
New post on the big Other and being a "co-author of uncertainty":
paulhoard.substack.com/p/quarterbacking-in-cooperative-games
Such a fun conversation. Thanks for having me on!
If you missed the live stream of @trippfuller.bsky.social, @paulhoard.bsky.social, and I talking about AI and the Christmas story, fear not! You can watch the recording here. In this clip, we riff on desire, flourishing, The Good Place & Zechariah losing his voice. open.substack.com/pub/personal...
@paulhoard.bsky.social and I are so honored to have our book included on Dwight's Top 10 books of the year! And this list is fantastic. I absolutely recommend all of these!
dwightfriesen.com/2025/12/5204...
A book cover with the left half black and the right half red.
A trans woman with half her head shaved and a pierced right eyebrow stands on a rainbow crosswalk looking up at the camera
A man smiles at the camera with his arms crossed over his chest with trees on the background.
Welcome to the season finale of @queerpolifaith.bsky.social! Today's episode is a conversation I had with @billieiswriting.bsky.social and @paulhoard.bsky.social about #bullshit. It is part 2 of our conversation about their book #Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life from August
Y'all this event is going to be February, virtual registration is available (and free to students I believe), @paulhoard.bsky.social and I are gonna be presenting, and my counselor friends will even get CEUs for it. You should definitely sign!!!
open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...
NGL I like how the ridiculous threats from Hegseth have prompted Kelly to start treating this fascist regime with the disdain it deserved all along.
They will come for the rest of you and it will be better to act together now.
Today I am dropping the first of my brother @paulhoard.bsky.social 's Essay in his Lacanian Virtue Ethics Series. I plan to post Paul's essays (with a little additional commentary from me at the end) as my Friday posts for a while.
open.spotify.com/episode/798d...
Thanks for having us!!! Fun to talk with you
Had a couple of really good conversations now with @paulhoard.bsky.social and @billieiswriting.bsky.social regarding their new book, Eucontamination. This one is focused more on the Bible and theology.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...
“For if we ever fully belonged—if we were completed—we would lose the very condition that makes love possible.”
A thoughtful, provocative essay.
It prompted this in me: loving my community is sorta like loving my own body — it isn’t perfect; it’s mine & I accept it even as I try to improve it.
Thanks!!
