To be or not to be a fan... that´s the question

Abstract

The present work seeks to think about the role played by fanaticism particularly in the musical field, in light of the contributions of Psychoanalysis of Lacanian orientation. From the reflections that the film “Gilda. I do not regret this love “, we try to arrive at some arguments that allow to give an account of the devotions that take place in this musical figure. The investigation about the origin of fanaticism, its etymology and meaning and the role it fulfills in adolescence, to be able to think about its use in extreme cases such as erotomania. The concepts of identification and identity will be in the text the conceptual knots from which to investigate the subject. On the other hand, the kinship that always linked fanaticism with religious ideas and currently with capitalist discourse, the market and consumption. It is intended to open the subject by introducing some of its possible effects, such as segregation: fanaticism does not admit the difference, although it exalts it, in such a way it constitutes a way of rejecting differences and an attempt to erase singularities. The work does not pretend to pathologize the practices of “fans”, but to open the wide range of which it is composed, as a way of thinking about the singular function that it fulfills in each subject, linked to its enjoyment and its symptom, highlighting them also as the keys of what is made refractory in the identifications.