Punctuation

punctuation (ponctuation) To punctuate a SIGNIFYING CHAIN IS CO

produce meaning. Before punctuation, there is simply a chain of discourse;

it is the listener/receiver who punctuates this discourse and thereby sanctions

retroactively one particular meaning of an utterance. The punctuation of the

signifying chain is that which creates the illusion of a fixed meaning: 'the

punctuation, once inserted, fixes the meaning' (E, 99; see POINT DE CAPITON).

This is essential in the structure of COMMUNICATION, where 'the sender receives

his own message from the receiver', and is illustrated in the 'elementary cell'

of the GRAPH OF Desire.

     The operation of punctuation may be illustrated by reference to two situa-

tions which are of fundamental importance to psychoanalysis: the mother-

child relation, and the relation between analysand and analyst. In the first of

these situations, the baby who has not yet acquired speech can only articulate

his needs in a very primitive kind of DEMAND, namely by screaming. There is no

way of knowing for sure whether a scream articulates hunger, pain, tiredness,

fear, or something else, and yet the mother interprets it in one particular way,

thus determining its meaning retroactively.

     Punctuation is one of the forms which the intervention of the analyst may

take; by punctuating the analysand's discourse in an unexpected way, the

analyst can retroactively alter the intended meaning of the analysand's

speech: 'changing the punctuation renews or upsets' the fixed meaning that

the analysand had attributed to his own speech (E, 99). Such punctuation is a

way of 'showing the subject that he is saying more than he thinks he is' (Sl,

54). The analyst can punctuate the analysand's discourse simply by repeating

part of the analysand's speech back to him (perhaps with a different intonation

  or in a different context). For example, if the analysand says tu es ma mËre

('you are my mother'), the analyst may repeat it in such a way as to bring out

the homophony of this phrase with tuer ma mËre ('to kill my mother') (E, 269).

Alternatively, the analyst can also punctuate the analysand's speech by a

  moment of silence, or by interrupting the analysand, or by terminating the

session at an opportune moment (see E, 44).

     This last form of punctuation has been a source of controversy throughout

the history of Lacanian psychoanalysis, since it contravenes the traditional IPA

practice of sessions of fixed duration. Lacan's practice of sessions of variable

duration (Fr. sÈances scandÈes - wrongly dubbed 'short sessions' by his

critics) came to be one of the main reasons that the IPA gave for excluding

him when the SFP was negotiating for IPA recognition in the early 1960s.

Today, the technique of punctuation, especially as expressed in the practice of

sessions of variable duration, continues to be a distinctive feature of Lacanian

psychoanalysis.