Changes

When Lacan uses the term 'structure' in his early work of the 1930s, it is to refer to 'social structures', by which he means a specific set of affective relations between family members. The child perceives these relations much more profoundly than the adult, and internalises them in the [[complex]] (Ec, 89). The term serves as a peg upon which Lacan can hang his own views of the 'relational' nature of the psyche, in opposition to the atomistic theories then current in psychology (Lacan, 1936). From this point on, the term 'structure' retains this sense of something both intersubjective and intrasubjective, the internal representation of interpersonal relations. This remains a key point throughout Lacan's work, in which the emphasis on structure is a constant reminder that what determines the subject is not some supposed 'essence' but simply his position with respect to other subjects and other signifiers. Already in 1938, we find Lacan arguing that 'the most notable defect of analytic doctrine' at that time was that it tended 'to ignore structure in favour of a dynamic approach' (Lacan, 1938: 58). This anticipates his later emphasis on the symbolic order as the realm of structure which analysts have ignored in favour of the imaginary; 'social structures are symbolic' (Ec, 132).