Discourse

French: discours

Discourse of the Other

The term "discourse" is used by Lacan to emphasize the transindividual nature of language, the fact that speech always implies another subject, an interlocutor.

The unconscious is the "discourse of the Other", the effect on the subject of speech that is addressed to that subject from elsewhere, by another subject (who has been forgotten), by an other scene or psychic locality.

Social Bond

In 1969, Lacan begins to use the term "discourse" to denote a "social bond, founded in language."

He identifies four types of social bonds, four articulations of the symbolic network which regulates intersubjective relations.

Four Discourses

These "four discourses" are

• the discourse of the master,
• the discourse of the university,
• the discourse of the hysteric, and
• the discourse of the analyst.

Four Algorithms

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Algebraic symbols from the Four Discourses

Each of the four discourses is represented by an algorithm which contains four algebraic symbols.

The names of these four symbols are shown to the right.

Four Symbols

The four symbols correspond to four different positions in each algorithm of the four discourses.

Each algorithm of the four discourses has four different positions with which the four symbols correspond.

Four Positions

The four discourses are distinguished from one another by the positions of these four symbols.

The four discourses are distinguished from one another by the positions of these four symbols in each algorithm.

The four discourses are defined by the positions of these four symbols.

Each of the four discourses are defined by the positions of these four symbols.

The four discourses are defined by the positions of these four symbols in each algorithm.

Each of the four discourses are defined by the positions of these four symbols in its algorithm.

The algorithms of the four discourses are distinguished from one another by the positions of these four symbols.

Each algorithm of the four discourses is distinguished by the positions of these four symbols.

Each discourse is defined by writing the four algebraic symbols in a different position.

Each discourse is defined by writing the four algebraic symbols in a different position.

Each discourse has four positions, which stand in a fixed relationship to one another.

There are four positions in each discourse, which stand in a fixed relationship to one another.

There are four positions in the algorithms of the four discourses, each of which is designated by a different name.

Four Names

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The structure of the four discourses

The first position (with which each discourse starts) is called the agent.

The second position is called the other.

The third position is called the product.

The four position is called the truth.

The names of the four positions are shown below.