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[[Image:Lacan-saussureanalgorithm.jpg|200px|right|thumb|[[Saussurean algorithm|The Saussurean algorithm]]]]

The term "[[bar]]" first appears in [[Lacan]]'s work in 1957, where it is introduced in the context of a discussion of [[Ferdinand de Saussure]]'s concept of the [[sign]].<ref>{{E}} p.149</ref>

In this context, the [[bar]] is the line that separates the [[signifier]] from the [[signified]] (in the [[Saussurean algorithm]]), and stands for the [[resistance]] inherent in [[signification]] which is only crossed in [[metaphor]].

Not long after the 1957 paper in which the term first appears, in the [[seminar]] of 1957-8, [[Lacan]] goes on to use the [[bar]] to strike through his [[algebraic]] [[symbol]]s '''S''' and '''A''' in a manner reminiscent of [[Heidegger]]'s practice of crossing out the word "[[being]]."<ref>[[Heidegger|Heidegger, Martin]]. (1956) ''The Question of Being'', trans. William Kluback and Jean T. WIlde, London: Vision, 1959.</ref>

Thus whereas before 1957 '''S''' designates the [[subject]] (e.g. in [[schema L]]), from 1957 on '''S''' designates the [[signifier]] and [[Image:StrikeS.gif]] designates the ([[divided]]) [[subject]].

The [[bar]] is also used to strike through the '''A''' (the [[big Other]]) to produce the [[algebra]]ic notation for the "[[bar|barred Other]]," '''A'''.

The [[bar]]red [[Other]] is the [[Other]] insofar as it is [[castration|castrated]], [[lack|incomplete]], marked by a [[lack]], as opposed to the [[lack|complete]], [[fragmented body|consistent]], [[castration|uncastrated]] [[Other]], an [[un-barred]] '''A''', which does not [[existence|exist]].

In 1973 the [[bar]] is used to strike through the definite article ''la'' whenever it precedes the noun ''[[woman|femme]]'' ("[[woman]]"), as in [[Lacan]]'s famous phrase ''[[woman|la femme n'existe pas]]'' ("[[woman|woman does not exist]]").

The definite article in [[French]] indicates universality, and by crossing it out [[Lacan]] illustrates his thesis that [[femininity]] is resistant to all forms of generalisation.<ref>{{S20}} p.68</ref>

In addition to these functions, the [[bar]] can also be interpreted as the [[symbolic]] [[phallus]] (which itself is never [[bar]]red), as the [[symbol]] of [[negation]] in the [[formulae of sexuation]] (see [[sexual difference]]), and as the ''trait unaire'' (see [[identification]]).

* [[Algebra]]

* [[Other]]

* [[Woman]]

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