Changes

Against such a misconception, Lacan insists on the function of the symbolic in the analytic process, which introduces the Other as the third term in the analytic encounter. 'It is within a three- rather than two-term relation that we have to formulate the analytic experience' (Sl, ll). Rather than seeing the treatment as a power struggle in which the analyst must overcome the patient's resistance, which is not psychoanalysis but suggestion, the analyst must realise that both he and the patient are equally subjected to the power of a third term: language itself.

Lacan's rejection of duality can also be seen in his rejection of all dualistic schemes of thought in favour of triadic schemes; 'all two-sided relationships are always stamped with the style of the imaginary' (Lacan, 1956b: 274). For example instead of the traditional binary opposition between what is real and what is imaginary, Lacan proposes a tripartite model of real, imaginary and symbolic. Other such triadic schemes are the three clinical structures of neurosis, psychosis and perversion; the three formations of the ego (ego- ideal, ideal ego and superego); the triad nature-culture-society; etc. However, as if to counteract this trend, Lacan also emphasised the importance of schemes involving four elements (see QUATERNARY).