Changes

[[Lacan]] sees the game of ''[[fort-da|fort!/da!]]'', which [[Freud]] describes in ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'', as a primitive phonemic opposition representing the child's entry into the [[symbolic order]].  The two sounds made by the [[development|child]], O/A, are "a pair of sounds modulated on presence and absence, and these sounds are related "to the presence and absence of persons and things."<ref>{{E}} p.65, 109, n.46</ref>

Because of the mutual implication of [[absence]] and [[absence|presence]] in the [[symbolic order]], [[absence]] can be said to have an equally positive [[existence]] in the [[symbolic]] as [[absence|presence]].  This is what allows [[Lacan]] to say that "the nothing" (''le rien'') is in itself an [[object]] (a [[partial object]]).<ref>{{S4}} p.184-5</ref>

It is around the [[absence|presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phallus]] that [[sexual difference]] is [[symbolically]] apprehended by the [[development|child]].  [[Sexual difference]] is apprehended by the [[child]] [[symbolic]]ally around the [[absence|presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phallus]].