Order

French: ordre

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the concept of order refers to the foundational triad of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real—three distinct but interrelated registers that structure all human subjectivity and psychic experience. Introduced explicitly by Jacques Lacan in the early 1950s, these three orders form the backbone of his reinterpretation of Freudian theory. Far from being stages or mere categories, they represent modes of being, fields of meaning, and structures of relation that interlock to constitute the unconscious and its manifestations. Lacan’s topological model of the Borromean knot illustrates their interdependence: severing any one of the three dissolves the integrity of the whole. As such, the notion of “order” in Lacanian thought is both a classification and a structural necessity, central to clinical practice and theoretical formulation alike.

Jacques Lacan

The Three Orders (Les Trois Ordres)

Although Jacques Lacan makes use of the terms Imaginary, Symbolic, and Real from early in his work, it is only in 1953—during his "Rome Discourse" and the foundational moments of his return to Freud—that he explicitly begins to describe these as three “orders” (ordres) or “registers” (registre). From that point onward, the triad of Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary (RSI) becomes the organizing principle of Lacanian theory, serving as the structural framework for understanding the psyche, subjectivity, and psychoanalytic experience.

These three orders are not stages in development nor isolated psychic domains, but distinct yet interdependent dimensions of human experience. They form a conceptual architecture through which Lacan revises and reinterprets core Freudian insights, enabling a more precise differentiation between phenomena that had previously been conflated in classical psychoanalytic theory.

Reconfiguring Psychoanalytic Theory

Lacan's theory of the three orders allows for critical clarification of concepts that, in Freud’s work, remained ambiguous or overlapping. One of the clearest examples is Lacan's reworking of the concept of the father. Where Freud evokes the father as a mythic, historical, and structural figure—such as in the primal horde or the Oedipus complex—Lacan distinguishes three different fathers:

• The Imaginary Father: A narcissistic imago, an image of the father as seen or fantasized by the child.
• The Symbolic Father: The Name-of-the-Father (Nom-du-Père), the structural function that introduces the child into the law of language and prohibition.
• The Real Father: The unsymbolizable, traumatic dimension of the paternal function—what escapes both law and image.

This tripartite division exemplifies Lacan’s project: to use the distinction of orders to disentangle layered psychic realities that Freud intuited but did not systematize.

Without these three systems to guide ourselves by, it would be impossible to understand anything of the Freudian technique and experience.

Defining the Orders

Each of the three orders refers to a radically heterogeneous mode of experience and psychic structuring:

1. The Imaginary (l’Imaginaire)

The domain of images, mirrors, and identifications. It originates in the mirror stage, where the subject first assumes a coherent image of the self. The Imaginary is the realm of ego formation, dual relations, misrecognition (méconnaissance), and narcissism. It is fundamentally alienating, structured by illusory wholeness.

2. The Symbolic (le Symbolique)

The domain of language, law, and structure. The Symbolic introduces the subject into a field of difference, absence, and subjection to the Other. It is here that the subject becomes divided by language, caught in the chain of signifiers. The Symbolic is the order of the Name-of-the-Father, the Oedipus complex, and the unconscious as structured like a language.

3. The Real (le Réel)

That which is outside symbolization and resists integration into both the Imaginary and Symbolic. The Real is not simply the “objective” world but rather that which is missing from our maps of reality—what returns as trauma, rupture, or impossibility. It is the kernel of the unassimilable, surfacing in psychosis, jouissance, and the limits of representation.

Common Structure and the Borromean Knot

Despite their radical heterogeneity, Lacan treats the three orders as structurally interdependent. This interdependence is most famously illustrated in his use of topology, specifically the Borromean knot.

In the Borromean knot, three rings are linked in such a way that if any one ring is severed, the other two also fall apart. Lacan uses this as a topological metaphor to show how each order—Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary—holds the psyche together. The subject exists only insofar as these orders are knotted together; a disturbance in one order (e.g., a failure of symbolic inscription) can lead to structural disintegration, as seen in psychotic foreclosure.

In his 1974–75 seminar RSI, Lacan devotes significant attention to formalizing this knotting, positing that psychoanalytic structure is not linear or developmental, but topological and relational.

This model marks a departure from Freud’s structural model of id, ego, and superego. While Freud's agencies can be understood as forces or psychic domains, Lacan’s orders are registers of experience, modes of structuring the subject’s reality, and relational structures rather than static parts.

Interdependence and Dynamism

Though conceptually distinct, the three orders are in constant interaction and mutual implication. The Symbolic determines the meaning of the Imaginary, the Imaginary can distort or veil the Symbolic, and the Real disrupts both. Importantly, these orders are not stable or immutable; they shift, influence, and redefine one another within each analytic situation.

Indeed, Lacan insists that to understand any symptom, fantasy, or structure, one must consider how the RSI interact in a particular configuration. Clinical phenomena—such as hysteria, obsession, psychosis, or perversion—can be read as different knottings or failings of this tripartite system.

See Also

Borromean knot Imaginary Symbolic

Real Topology Name-of-the-Father