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[[semblance ]] ([[French]]: ''[[semblant]]'')
==False Appearance==Running throughout [[Lacan]]'s work is the idea that appearances are deceptive, an idea that is closely connected to the classical philosophical opposition between appearance and essence (see Sll, 103ff.). The very distinction between the [[Imaginaryappearance]] and the [[Symbolic]] implies this opposition between appearance and essence. The [[Imaginary]] is the [[Real]]m of observable phenomena which act as. bres, while the [[Symbolic]] is the realm of underlying structures which cannot be observed but which must be deduced<ref>{{Sll}} p.103ff</ref>
Similatrly, in [[psychoanalysis]], as in [[science]], "only he who escapes from false appearances can achieve truth."<ref>{{S7}} p.310</ref>
However, [[false]] [[appearance]] in [[psychoanalysis]] is different from [[false]] [[appearance]] in the [[natural]] [[sciences]].
For the [[natural]] [[scientist]], the [[false]] [[appearance]] lacks the dimension of deliberate [[deception]], which is why [[Lacan]] states that the axiom of [[natural science]] is the [[belief]] in an honest, non-deceitful [[God]].<ref>{{S3}} p.64</ref>
However, in the conjectural [[science]]s, and in [[psychoanalysis]], there is always the problem that the [[falsity]] of the [[appearance]] may be due to [[deception]].
==Jacques Lacan==
[[Lacan]] uses two terms to refer to [[false]] [[appearance]]s.
The term ''apparence'' is that used in [[philosophical]] discussions of the distinction between [[essence]] and [[appearance]].
The term ''semblant'' is less technical, but acquires a growing importance in [[Lacan]]'s work over the years.
It appears as early as 1957,<ref>e.g. {{Ec}} p.435; {{S4}} p.207</ref> and is used several times in the [[seminar]] of 1964,<ref>{{S11}} p.107</ref> but it is not until the early 1970s that the term comes to occupy an important place in [[Lacan]]'s [[theoretical]] [[vocabulary]].
==Other meanings==
At first [[Lacan]] uses the term to refer to such issues as [[feminine]] [[sexuality]], which is characterised by a dimension of [[masquerade]].
Later on, [[Lacan]] uses the term to characterise general features of the [[symbolic]] order and its relations to the [[imaginary]] and the [[real]].
==Truth and Appearance==
Thus [[Lacan]] devotes his 1970-1 [[seminar]] to "a discourse that would not be semblance," in which he argues that [[truth]] is not simply the opposite of [[appearance]], but is in fact continuous with it; [[truth]] and [[appearance]] are like the two sides of a [[moebius strip]], which are in fact only one side.
==Love and Jouissance==
In the [[seminar]] of 1972-3, [[Encore]], [[Lacan]] goes on to state that ''[[objet petit a]]'' is a "semblance of being,"<ref>{{S20}} p.84</ref> that [[love]] is addressed to a [[semblance]],<ref>{{S20}} p.85</ref> and that ''[[jouissance]]'' is only evoked or elaborated on the basis of a [[semblance]].<ref>{{S20}} p.85</ref>
==See Also==
* [[Appearance]]
* [[Reality]]
* [[Falsity]]
* [[Truth]]
* [[Science]]
* [[Reality]]
* [[Deception]]
* [[Moebius Strip]]
* ''[[Jouissance]]''
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Imaginary]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]