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[[Lacan]] introduces the term in 1975, as the title for the 1975-6 [[seminar]], which is both a continuing elaboration of his [[topology]], extending the previous [[seminar]]'s focus on the [[borromean knot]], and an exploration of the writings of [[James Joyce]].
Through this ''coincidentia oppositorum'' -- bringing together [[mathematics|mathematical theory]] and the intricate weave of the [[James Joyce|Joycean]] [[text ]] -- [[Lacan]] redefines the [[psychoanalytic]] [[symptom]] in [[terms ]] of his final [[topology]] of the [[subject]].
=====Development of the Concept of the "Symptom"=====
Before the [[appearance ]] of [[sinthome]], divergent currents in [[Lacan]]'s [[thinking ]] lead to different inflections of the [[concept ]] of the [[symptom]].
=====Symptom Inscribed in Writing Process=====
As early as 1957, the [[symptom]] is said to be "inscribed in a writing [[process]],"<ref>{{Ec}} p.445</ref> which already implies a different view to that which regards the symptom as a ciphered [[message]].
=====Symptom as pure ''Jouissance''=====
In 1963 [[Lacan]] goes on to [[state ]] that the [[symptom]], unlike [[acting out]], does not call for [[interpretation]]; in itself, it is not a call to the [[Other]] but a pure ''[[jouissance]]'' addressed to no one.<ref>{{L}} 1962-3. ''[[Seminar X|Le Séminaire. Livre X. L'angoisse]]'', 1962-3, unpublished.</ref>
=====The Way in Which the Subject Enjoys the Unconscious=====
Such comments anticipate the radical transformation of Lacan's [[thought ]] implicit in his shift from the [[linguistic]] definition of the [[symptom]] - as a [[signifier]] - to his [[statement]], in the 1974-5 [[seminar]], that "the symptom can only be defined as the way in which each subject [[enjoys ]] [''jouit''] the unconscious, in so far as the unconscious determines him."<ref>{{L}} 1974-5. ''[[Seminar XXII|Le Séminaire. Livre XXII. RSI]]'', 1974-5, published in ''[[Ornicar?]]'', nos. 2-5, 1975.</ref>
=====Symptom as the Particular Modality of the Subject's ''Jouissance''=====
This move from conceiving of the [[symptom]] as a [[message]] which can be deciphered by reference to the [[unconscious]] "[[structured ]] like a language," to [[seeing ]] it as the trace of the [[particular ]] modality of the [[subject]]'s ''[[jouissance]]'', culminates in the introduction of the term ''[[sinthome]]''.
=====Kernel of Enjoyment Beyond the Symbolic=====
=====Organization of ''Jouissance''=====
Far from calling for some [[analytic ]] "[[dissolution]]," the ''[[sinthome]]'' is what "allows one to live" by providing a unique organisation of ''[[jouissance]]''.
=====Identification with the ''Sinthome''=====
=====Shift from Linguistics to Topology=====
The [[theoretical ]] shift from [[linguistics]] to [[topology]] which marks the final period of Lacan's [[work ]] constitutes the [[true ]] status of the [[sinthome]] as unanalysable, and amounts to an exegetical problem beyond the familiar one of [[Lacan]]'s dense [[rhetoric]].
=====''Sinthome'' as Fourth Ring in Borromean Knot=====
The 1975-6 [[seminar]] extends the [[theory ]] of the [[borromean knot]], which in the previous seminar had been proposed as the essential [[structure]] of the [[subject]], by adding the ''[[sinthome]]'' as a fourth ring to the [[triad]] of the [[real]], the [[symbolic]] and the [[imaginary]], tying together a [[knot]] which constantly threatens to come undone.
This [[knot]] is not offered as a [[model ]] but as a rigorously non-[[metaphorical ]] description of a [[topology]] "before which the [[imagination ]] fails."<ref>{{L}} 195-6. ''[[Seminar XXIII|Le Séminaire. Livre XXIII. Le sinthome, 1975-76]]'', published in ''[[Ornicar]]?'', nos 6-11, 1976-7. 9 December 1975.</ref>
Since [[meaning]] (''sens'') is already figured within the [[knot]], at the intersection of the [[symbolic]] and the [[imaginary]], it follows that the function of the ''[[sinthome]]'' -- intervening to [[knot]] together [[real]], [[symbolic]] and [[imaginary]] - is inevitably beyond [[meaning]].
In the 1975-6 [[seminar]], [[Joyce]]'s [[writing]] is read as an extended ''[[sinthome]]'', a fourth term whose addition to the [[borromean knot]] of ''RSI'' allows the [[subject]] to cohere.
Faced in his [[childhood ]] by the radical non-function / [[absence]] (''carence'') of the [[Name-of-the-Father]], [[Joyce]] managed to avoid [[psychosis]] by deploying his [[art]] as ''suppléance'', as a supplementary cord in the [[subject]]ive [[knot]].
[[Lacan]] focuses on [[Joyce]]'s youthful "epiphanies" (experiences of an almost [[hallucinatory ]] intensity which were then recorded in enigmatic, fragmentary [[texts]]) as instances of "radical [[foreclosure]]," in which "the real forecloses meaning."<ref>[[Seminar]] of 16 March 1976</ref>
====="Destructive" Refashioning of Language=====
The [[Joycean]] text -- from the epiphany to ''[[James Joyce|Finnegans Wake]]'' -- entailed a special relation to [[language]]; a "destructive" refashioning of it as ''[[sinthome]]'', the invasion of the [[symbolic order]] by the [[subject]]'s private ''[[jouissance]]''.
One of [[Lacan]]'s puns, ''[[sinthome|synth-homme]]'', implies this kind of "artificial" [[self]]-creation.
=====Lacan's Engagement with Joyce's Writing=====
[[Lacan]]'s engagement with [[Joyce]]'s writing does not, he insists, entail "applied [[psychoanalysis]]."
=====Topological Theory=====
[[Topology|Topological theory]] is not conceived of as merely [[another ]] kind of representational account, but as a [[form ]] of writing, a praxis aiming to [[figure ]] that which escapes the [[imaginary]].
=====''Saint Homme''=====
=====New Way of Using Language to Organize Enjoyment=====
To that extent, rather than a theoretical [[object ]] or "[[case]]," [[Joyce]] becomes an exemplary ''[[sinthome|saint homme]]'' who, by refusing any [[imaginary]] solution, was able to invent a new way of using [[language]] to organise [[enjoyment]].
==See Also==
