Torus

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French: tore

[edit] Jacques Lacan

Torus
Torus

The torus is one of the figures that Lacan analyzes in his study of topology.

[edit] Torus

In its simplest form, it is a ring, a three-dimensional object formed by taking a cylinder and joining the two ends together.

[edit] Topology

Lacan's first reference to the torus dates from 1953,[1]

but it is not until his work on topology in the 1970s that it begins to figure prominently in his work. 

[edit] Subject

The topology of the torus illustrates certain features of the structure of the subject:

One important feature of the torus is that its center of gravity falls outside its volume, just as the centre of the subject is outside himself; he is decentred, ex-centric.

[edit] Extimacy

Another property of the torus is that "its peripheral exteriority and its central exteriority constitute only one single region."[2]


This illustrates the way that psychoanalysis problematises the distinction between "inside" and "outside". (see extimacy).

[edit] See Also

[edit] References

  1. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 105
  2. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 105

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