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Lack
,→Lack of an Object
==Lack of an Object==
In 1956, [[lack]] comes to designate the [[lack]] of an [[object]]. [[Lacan]] distinguishes between three kinds of [[lack]], according to the nature of the [[object]] which is [[lack]]ing, as shown in the figure below.<ref>{{S4}} p. 269</ref><!-- In the child as in the adult, the lack of the object can appear in three specific modes: frustration, privation, and castration. In each of these three cases there is lack of the object, but in each case the nature of the lack is qualitatively different. The same is true of the type of object in question. -->
{| style="width:85%; height:200px" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|+ '''[[:Image:Lacan-threelacks.jpg|Table of three types of lack of object]]'''<BR>
| align="center" | [[Symbolic]] [[phallus]]
|}
Of these three forms of [[lack]], [[castration]] is the most important from the point of view of [[treatment|analytic experience]], and the term "[[lack]]" tends to become synonymous with [[castration]].
In 1957, when [[Lacan]] introduces the [[algebraic]] [[symbol]] for the [[bar]]red [[Other]] (<strike>A</strike>), [[lack]] comes to designate the [[lack]] of a [[signifier]] in the [[Other]]. [[Lacan]] introduces the [[symbol]] '''S(<strike>A</strike>)''' to designate "the signifier of a lack in the Other." No matter how many [[signifier]]s one adds to the [[signifying chain]], the [[chain]] is always [[lack|incomplete]]; it always [[lack]]s the [[signifier]] that could complete it. This "[[lack|missing signifier]]" (written '''-1''' in [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]]) is constitutive of the [[subject]].
==See Also==
