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Borromean knot (noeud borromÈen) References to knots can be
found in Lacan's work as early as the 1950s (e.g. E, 281), but it is not until the
early 1970s that Lacan begins to examine knots from the point of view of their
topological properties. The study of knot theory marks an important develop-
ment in Lacan'S TOPOLOGY; from the study of surfaces (the moebius strip, the
torus, etc.) Lacan moves to the much more complex area of the topology of
knots. Topology is increasingly seen as a radically non-metaphorical way of
exploring the symbolic order and its interactions with the real and the
imaginary; rather than simply representing structure, topology is that struc-
ture. In this late period of his work, one kind of knot comes to interest Lacan
more than any other: the Borromean knot.
The Borromean knot (shown in Figure 1), so called because the figure is
found on the coat of arms of the Borromeo family, is a group of three rings
which are linked in such a way that if any one of them is severed, all three
become separated (S20, 112). Strictly speaking, it would be more appropriate
to refer to this figure as a chain rather than a knot, since it involves the
interconnection of several different threads, whereas a knot is formed by a
single thread. Although a minimum of three threads or rings are required to
form a Borromean chain, there is no maximum number; the chain may be
extended indefinitely by adding further rings, while still preserving its
Borromean quality (i.e. if any of the rings is cut, the whole chain falls apart).
Lacan first takes up the Borromean knot in the seminar of 1972-3, but his
most detailed discussion of the knot comes in the seminar of 1974-5. It is in
this seminar that Lacan uses the Borromean knot as, among other things, a way
of illustrating the interdependence of the three orders of the real, the symbolic
and the imaginary, as a way of exploring what it is that these three orders have
in common. Each ring represents one of the three orders, and thus certain
elements can be located at intersections of these rings.
In the seminar of 1975-6, Lacan goes on to describe psychosis as the
unravelling of the Borromean knot, and proposes that in some cases this is
prevented by the addition of a fourth ring, the SINTHOME, which holds the other
three together.
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Lacan]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
