On Viability and Indebtedness—or “Get Away From Her, You Bitch!”: Commentary on Simon's “Spoken Through Desire”.

Tracy L. Simon's case of Nora and her eloquent discussion of the traumatic dimensions of assisted reproductive technology portray the psychic burden of indebtedness when one's viability depends on an Other from whom one feels psychically and corporeally estranged. Inherent in a claustrophobic drama of indebtedness such as Nora's, be it rendered to the appellation “miracle” child or commanded by a technological marvel, socio-historical and intersubjective fonts of meaning lurk internally as mordant self-satire—all the while held as an intention and contained as viable representatives of meaning in the embodied space that awaits transference. In the first part of this essay, I write while trapped in my reverie (captive to Donald Meltzer'sClaustrumand Ridley Scott's filmAlien). Then, in a calmer tone, I parse the intersubjective and embodied meaning of viability—a quality of therapeutic movement during psychic standstill held gracefully by Simon in her work with Nora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]