http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAl8sL-_E1k

As I read "The Mirror Stage" by Lacan, his tone seemed instructional, informational, a defining of his theory that was presented with supportive evidence. However, suddenly I felt as though the tone changed when Lucan got to his mention of existentialism. Of course, one of the prime examples of existentialism in literature is The Stranger by Camus. It had been many years since I had read the book, and yet as I read Lucan's description of "freedom that is never more authentic than when it is within the walls of a prison; ...the impotence of a pure consciousness to master any situation; a voyeuristic-sadistic idealization of the sexual relation; ...a consciousness of the other that can be satisfied only by Hegelian murder," I was immediately reminded of the book. I sensed an antagonistic attitude in Lacan's tone that was contrary to the neutral voice that had narrated the text (445). Since Camus is a Twentieth Century artist, I went to Youtube.com in hopes that there might be some insight. There was a clip from the film, of which I was not aware, but it did not really capture the mood that was most relevant to Lacan's thesis. I thought that this video clip was an interview with Camus, but it was not. However, I did find it interesting to see how the generations reacted so differently to the work.
After reading. the opening of "The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason since Freud" I better understand why Lacan was so hostile to the views Camus expressed in his book. The themes that Camus puts forth are opposed to the theories Lacan states as certainties. Camus paints his protagonist, Meursault, as having no feelings about the loss of his mother, no interest in seeking an object of desire as a way of restoring what was lost, no motivations, no reaction, except those that are considered atypical. Yet, Camus paints his hero as the Muse of the modern world. Certainly, this lack of self awareness, the refusal to have hopes, dreams, or emotional attachment to anything violates the concept of being driven by any unconscious desires. This accounts for the feelings of animosity that emerge as a challenge to the popularity of Camus' work.