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===Speech===Whenever [[Lacan]] uses the term "[[discourse]]" (rather than, say, "[[speech]]") it is in order to stress the [[intersubjectivity|transindividual ]] nature of [[language]], the fact that [[speech]] always implies another [[subject]], an interlocutor.

Thus the famous [[Lacan|Lacanian formula]], "the unconscious is the discourse of the Other" designates the [[unconscious]] as the effects on the [[subject]] of [[speech]] that is addressed to him from elsewhere; by another [[subject]] who has been forgotten, by another [[scene|psychic locality ]] (the other [[scene]]).

===Four DiscoursesSocial Bond===

From this point on the term designates "a social bond, founded in language."<ref>{{S20}} p.21</ref>

[[Lacan]] identifies four possible types of [[discourse|social bond]], four possible articulations of the [[symbolic order|symbolic network]] which regulates [[intersubjectivity|intersubjective relations]].

[[Lacan]] represents each of the [[four discourses]] by an [[matheme|algorithm]]: each [[matheme|algorithm ]] contains the following four [[algebraic]] [[symbol]]s:.

[[Image:Lacan-fourdiscourseletters.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Algebra]]ic [[symbol]]s from the [[Four Discourses]]]]

===Four Positions===What distinguishes the [[four discourses]] from one another is the positions of these four symbols[[symbol]]s.

There are four positions in the algorithms [[matheme|algorithm]]s of the [[four discourses]], each of which is designated by a different name.

The names of the four positions are shown below; [[Lacan]] gives different names to these positions at different points in his work, and this figure is taken from the 1972-3 seminar.<ref>{{S20}} p.21</ref>

[[Image:Lacan-structurefourdiscourses.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The structure of the four discourses]]

The top-left position ("[[discourse|the agent]]") is the dominant position which defines the [[discourse]].

In addition to the four [[symbol]]s, each [[matheme|algorithm ]] also contains an arrow going from the [[discourse|agent ]] to the [[discourse|other]].

The [[four discourses]] are shown in the figure belowto the right.

===Arrows===In 1971, [[Lacan]] proposes that the position of the [[discourse|agent ]] is also the position of the [[semblance]].

In 1972, [[Lacan]] inscribes two arrows in the formulas isntead [[matheme|formula]]s instead of one; one arrows arrow (which [[Lacan]] labels "impossibility") goes from the [[discourse|agent ]] to the [[discourse|other]], and the other arrow (which is labelled "powerlessness") goes from [[discourse|production ]] to [[discourse|truth]].<ref>{{S20}} p.21</ref>

===The Discourse of the Master===The discourse of the master is the basic discourse from which the other three discourses are derived.  The dominant position is occupied by the [[master signifier ]] (Si[[Image:SS1.gif]]), which represents the [[subject ]] ('''S''') for another [[signifier ]] or, more precisely, for all other [[signifiers ]] (S2[[Image:SS2.gif]]); however, in this signifying operation there is always a [[surplus]], namely, ''[[objet petit a]]''.

The [[discourse ]] of the [[master ]] "masks the division of the subject."<ref>{{S17}} p.118</ref>

The [[discourse ]] also illustrates clearly the [[structure ]] of the [[dialectic ]] of the [[master ]] and the [[slave. The master (S1) is the agent who puts the slave (S2) (O WOrk; the result of this work is a surplus (a) that the master attempts to appropriate]].

The [[master]] ([[Image:Lacan-fourdiscoursesSS1.jpggif]]) is the [[discourse|thumbagent]] who puts the [[slave]] ([[Image:SS2.gif]]) to work; the result of this work is a [[surplus]] (''[[objet (petit) a|right|The four discoursesa'') that the [[master]]attempts to appropriate.

[[Image:UNIVERSITYDISCOURSE.jpg|thumb|right|[[Discourse]] of the [[University]]}}The [[discourse ]] of the [[university ]] is produced by a quarter turn of the [[discourse ]] of the [[master ]] (anticlockwise).

The dominant position is occupied by [[knowledge ]] (''[[savoir]]'').

This illustrates the fact that behind all attempts to impart an apparently '"neutral' " [[knowledge ]] to the [[other ]] can always be located an attempt at mastery [[master]]y (mastery [[master]]y of [[knowledge]], and domination of the [[other ]] to whom this [[knowledge ]] is imparted).

The [[discourse ]] of the [[university ]] represents the hegemony of [[knowledge]], particularly visible in modernity in the form of the hegemony of [[science]].

[[Image:HYSTERICDISCOURSE.jpg|thumb|right|[[Discourse]] of the [[Hysteria|Hysteric]]}}The [[discourse ]] of the [[hysteric ]] is also produced by a quarter turn of the [[discourse ]] of the [[master]], but in a clockwise direction.

It is not simply '"that which is uttered by a hysteric'", but a certain kind of [[discourse|social bond ]] in which any [[subject ]] may be inscribed.

The dominant position is occupied by the [[split|divided ]] [[subject]], the [[symptom]].

This [[discourse ]] is that which points the way towards [[knowledge]].<ref>{{S17}} p.23</ref>.

[[Psychoanalytic treatment ]] involves '"the structural intro- duction of the discourse of the hysteric by means of artificial conditions'"; in other words, the [[analyst ']] "[[hysteria|hystericises' ]]" the [[patient]]'s [[discourse]].<ref>{{S17}} p.35<./ref>

[[Image:ANALYSTDISCOURSE.jpg|thumb|right|[[Discourse]] of the [[Analyst]]]]The [[discourse ]] of the [[analyst ]] is produced by a quarter turn of the [[discourse ]] of the [[hysteric ]] (in the same way as [[Freud ]] developed [[psychoanalysis ]] by giving an [[interpretation|interpretative ]] turn to the [[discourse ]] of his [[hysterical patients]] [[patient]]s).  The position of the agent, which is the position occupied by the analyst in the treatment, is occupied by objet petit a; this illustrates the fact that the analyst must, in the course of the treatment, become the cause of the analysand's desire.<ref>Sl7, 41</ref>

The fact that this position of the [[discourse |agent]], which is the inverse of position occupied by the [[analyst]] in the discourse of [[treatment]], is occupied by ''[[objet (petit) a|objet petit a]]''; this illustrates the master emphasises fact thatthe [[analyst]] must, for Lacanin the course of the [[treatment]], psychoanalysis is an essentially subversive practice which undermines all attempts at domination and masterybecome the [[cause]] of the [[analysand]]'s [[desire]].<ref> For further information on the four discourses, see Bracher et al., 1994{{Sl7}} p.41</ref>