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French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Psychology
French term or phrase:Le vel
This is the name of a film about dealing with cancer. I have searched numerous dictonaries and cannot find this word. Is it even French?
Context: Le vel ou l’impossible choix, ou comment annoncer une mauvaise nouvelle (1998) s’appuie sur le récit d’une patiente atteinte d’un cancer du rectum réputé inoperable.
Nope, it wasn't wartime (and if it had been, he wouldn't have said "gay" (which he didn't anyway)). Nope, it's from The History Boys, a film of a few years back:
"I'm a Jew... I'm small... I'm homosexual... and I live in Sheffield... I'm fucked".
And nope, I don't believe he had cancer to boot.
I just wondered if there was some sort of sub-plot in the film (Jewishness, (perceived) persecution, etc.) that might have related to that. Was it a famous English person (or not) who said around the start of WWII, "I'm short, I'm gay, I'm Jewish: I'm stuffed!"? I don't know that he had cancer to boot.
Sorry, I have been accused of being over-literal in interpreting things. However, given the history of the Vel d'Hiver it seemed somewhat insensitive to knowingly suggest it in this context, so I assumed that you didn't know.
Thank you, Rebecca. I must wait the customary 24 hours, but I will award the points to you, as this is obviously the answer, as we are speaking about the "alternative" to life which is death. The film is an interesting treatment of the role of psychiatry in facing cance.
Le « choix forcé » - Cairn.info
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6 posts
by C Hoffmann - 2002 - Related articles
... implique ce qu'il a appelé le vel de l'aliénation, ou un choix forcé. ... S'il choisit le sens en acceptant qu'il y a de l'impossible, du non-sens, ... www.cairn.info/le-transfert-adolescent--9782865869855-page-...
L'aliénation réside dans le division du sujet que nous venons de désigner dans sa cause. - cette structure est celle d'un vel [principe en mathématiques de la réunion] - Cette réunion est telle que le vel que nous disons d'aliénation n'impose un choix entre ses termes qu'à éliminer l'un d'entre eux - [style:] "la bourse ou la vie" (...) "la liberté ou la mort".
1. Reading seminars I and II: Lacan's return to Freud - Google Books Result
Richard Feldstein, Bruce Fink, Maire Jaanus - 1996 - Literary Collections - 444 pages
Lacan's classic example of his vel of alienation is the mugger's threat "Your money or your life!" (Seminar XI, p. 212). As soon as you hear those words ...
books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0791427803
Alienation: International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
Thus the theme of alienation in Lacan refers to what is called a forced choice, or vel, which is the Latin word expressing an alternative where it is ... www.enotes.com/psychoanalysis-encyclopedia/alienation - Cached - Similar
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 9 hrs (2011-03-26 21:00:49 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Alienation: International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
Thus the theme of alienation in Lacan refers to what is called a forced choice, or vel, which is the Latin word expressing an alternative where it is ... www.enotes.com/psychoanalysis-encyclopedia/alienation - Cached - Similar
Trauma and the Material Signifier - Postmodern Culture
The logic of this lost origin, produced after the fact of the advent of the symbolic, is nicely illustrated by Lacan's notion of the vel, the forced choice ...
pmc.iath.virginia.edu/text-only/issue.101/11.2belau.txt - Cached
Reading Seminar XI: Lacan's Four fundamental concepts of ... - Google Books Result
Richard Feldstein, Bruce Fink, Maire Jaanus - 1995 - Education - 291 pages
Lacan uses the logical definition of union, which is a vel. There are two classic vels and Lacan creates a third. The first vel he calls the vel of ...
books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0791421481
sending this in out of interest, nothing more
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 9 hrs (2011-03-26 21:02:04 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
alienation: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com
The vel is alienating in that it gives a false choice, a forced choice ("your money or your life," "me or you"). The Master's freedom, which must pass ... www.answers.com › ... › Literature & Language › Dictionary - Cached - Similar
liz askew United Kingdom Local time: 19:56 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 18
Reference information: Faut-il dire la vérité ou ne faut-il pas dire la vérité ?
Voici la question qui surgit chaque fois qu'on parle du cancer.
En fait, plutôt que de "la vérité" c'est d'une bonne information qu'il s'agit. Dans ce souci, le médecin pourrait proposer au malade un choix qui n'en est pas un. C'est un faux choix, c'est un VEL. http://www.canal-u.tv/themes/sciences_de_la_sante_et_du_spor...
Comment sont determinees les deux affirmations sous ] esquclles appa-raft la premiere des writes scion I'ordre de la philosophic premiere? (VEL'>,
<<quoties a me profcrtur, VEL mente concipitur>'. Serait-ce une ontologie du
cogitable a double entree?
[ .. ]
La signification de «VEL» est a comprendre dans cc contexte de langage
attentif et de paroles mcnces au ras du pour mcttre a nu la premiere verite.
Est-ce un <<vel>> d'exclusion qui signifierait une alternance du signe d'idce
et de la conception tnentale? http://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000084\00000043...
Lâcheté (donc savoir) ou audace (donc vérité) constituent d'une manière un VEL où se trouve la VÉRITÉ FORMELLE du sujet – sa liberté à quoi ... www.philosophie-en-ligne.com/page188.htm
Etant donné que nous nous trouvons face à UN VEL EXCLUSIF, LA VÉRITÉ D'UNE PROPOSITION EXCLUT LA VÉRITÉ DE L'AUTRE PROPOSITION. ... www.acte-psychanalytique.org/serafino.htm
xxxBourth France Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 7
Reference information: Le vel ou l'impossible choix ou comment ne pas annoncer une mauvaise nouvelle
Résumé :
Faut-il dire la vérité ou ne faut-il pas dire la vérité ?
Voici la question qui surgit chaque fois qu'on parle du cancer.
En fait, plutôt que de "la vérité" c'est d'une bonne information qu'il s'agit. Dans ce souci, le médecin pourrait proposer au malade un choix qui n'en est pas un. C'est un faux choix, c'est un VEL.
Madame T. en témoigne.
Tant il est vrai que se vérifie, fois après fois, que l'enjeu n'est pas entre science et ignorance mais entre savoir et vérité du sujet. Ce qui doit nous guider dans ce qu'il est convenu avec Freud de désigner comme "le tact médical".
"I. conj. and adv. old imv. of volo prop., will, choose, take your choice; hence,
I. As disjunctive conjunction, to introduce an alternative as a matter of choice or preference, or as not affecting the principal assertion [...]"
Martin Cassell United Kingdom Native speaker of: English
The translation workplace 
