Changes

{{Les termes}}   The term '[[existence]]' is employed by [[Lacan ]] in various ways (see éiûek, 1991: 136-7):

 This sense of [[existence ]] is to be understood in the context of [[Freud]]'s discussion of the 'judgement of existence', by which the [[existence ]] of an entity is affirmed prior to attributing any quality to it (see Freud, 1925h; see BEJAHUNG).  [[Lacan]] argues that "there is no such thing as a prediscursive reality."<ref>{{S20}} p.33</ref> Only what is integrated in the [[symbolic ]] [[order ]] fully 'exists[[exist]]s' in this sense, since 'there is no such thing as a prediscursive reality' (S20, 33).  It is in this sense that [[Lacan ]] argues that 'woman does not exist' (Lacan, 1973a: 60); the symbolic order contains no signifier for femininity, and hence the feminine position cannot be fully symbolised.It is important to note that, in the [[symbolic ]] [[order]], 'nothing exists except on an assumed foundation of [[absence]].  Nothing exists except insofar as it does not exist.' (<ref>{{Ec, }} p.392). </ref> In other words, everything that exists in the [[symbolic ]] [[order ]] only exists by virtue of its difference to everything else.  It was [[Saussure ]] who first pointed this out when he argued that in [[language ]] there are no positive terms, only differences (.<ref>Saussure, 1916).</ref>

In this sense, it is only that which is [[impossible ]] to [[symbolise ]] that exists: the [[impossible ]] [[Thing ]] at the heart of the [[subject]].  'There is in effect something radically unassimilable to the signifier.  It's quite simply the subject's singular existence.' (<ref>{{S3, }} p.179). </ref>  This is the [[existence ]] of the [[subject ]] of the [[unconscious]], S, which [[Lacan ]] describes as an 'ineffable, stupid [[existence]].' (<ref>{{E, }} p.194).</ref> This second sense of the term [[existence ]] is exactly the opposite of existence in the first sense.  Whereas [[existence ]] in the first sense is synonymous with [[Lacan]]'s use of the term BEING[[being]], [[existence ]] in the second sense is opposed to being. [[Lacan ]] coins the neologism [[ex-sistence ]] to express the idea that the heart of our [[being ]] (Kern unseres Wesen) is also radically Other, strange, [[outside ]] (Ec, l1); the [[subject ]] is decentred, his centre is [[outside ]] of himself, he is ex-centric. [[Lacan ]] also speaks of the '[[ex-sistence ]] (''Entstellung'') of desire in the dream,' (<ref>{{E, }} p.264), </ref> since the [[dream ]] cannot represent [[desire ]] except by distorting it.  ==References==<references/> [[Category:Dictionary]][[Category:Symbolic]][[Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Dictionary]][[Category:Help]]{{Les termes}}