In the apparatus of the psyche, the Thing represents the secret center of human desire, the nucleus of pleasure/unpleasure. This nucleus is opposed to the reality principle, which it threatens to undermine. The Thing, also called the "lost object," acts as the cause of desire and a sign of longing for an impossible reunion with the object.
Sigmund Freud first referred to the Thing in 1895, in "A Project for a Scientific Psychology" (1950a). He used the term again in 1925 in his essay "Negation." Jacques Lacan fully elaborated this Freudian notion in In his seminar The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1992). An instance of on the Thing develops from a complex set ethics of cathected perceptions and memory images that have given pleasure in the past. This set includes a stable kernelpsychoanalysis, called the Thing, and a variable element, or predicate. The Thing arises in the primordial relation between the infant seeking fulfillment of its vital needs and the primary caregiver, the "fellow being," who is also the first hostile object. The kernel or nucleus is inaccessible Lacan sought to judgment, while the predicate is the object of a judgment that must verify whether the memory image corresponds to reality. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, this process clarify Freud’s definition of judging forms the basis for the ego. The Thing is situated in the unconscious articulation of desire. In its origin, it posits the Other as unconscious, as the force withholding the signifier of satisfaction, while reality is subverted by and especially the symbolic function question of memory traces of the lost object, from which the subject's desire what is alienatedrepressed.
== ''das Ding'' ==
Lacan's discussion of 'the Thing' constitutes one of the central themes in the seminar of 1959-60 (‘’L'éthique de la psychanalyse’’ – “[[The Ethics of Psychoanalysis]]”), where he uses the French term ‘’la Chose’’ interchangeably with the German term ‘’das Ding’’. There are two main contexts in which this term operates.
The distinction between 'word-presentations' (‘’Wort- vorstellungen’’) and 'thing-presentations' (‘’Sachvorstellungen’’) is prominent in Freud's metapsychological writings, in which he argues that the two types of presentation are bound together in the preconscious-conscious system, whereas in the unconscious system only thing-presentations are found.<ref>Freud, 19l5e</ref>
This seemed to some of Lacan's contemporaries to offer an objection to Lacan's theories about the linguistic nature of the unconscious.
Lacan counters such objections by pointing out that there are two words in German for 'thing': ‘’das Ding’’ and ‘’die Sache’’.<ref>see S7, 62-3, 44-5</ref>
It is the latter term which Freud usually employs to refer to the thing-presentations in the unconscious, and Lacan argues that although on one level ‘’Sachvorstellungen’’ and ‘’Wortvorstellungen’’ are opposed, in the symbolic level 'they go together'.
Thus ‘’die Sache’’ is the representation of a thing in the [[symbolic]] [[order]], as opposed to ‘’das Ding’’, which is the thing in its “dumb reality”,<ref>7, 55</ref> the thing in the [[real]], which is “the beyond-of-the-signified.”<ref>S7, 54</ref>
The thing-presentations found in the unconscious are thus still linguistic phenomena, as opposed to ‘’das Ding’’ which is entirely outside [[language]], and outside the [[unconscious]].
“The Thing is characterised by the fact that it is impossible for us to imagine it.”<ref>87, 12</ref>
Lacan's concept of the Thing as an unknowable x, beyond symbolisation, has clear affinities with the Kantian 'thing-in-itself'.
In his seminar on the ethics of psychoanalysis, Lacan sought to clarify Freud’s definition of the unconscious and especially the question of what is repressed.
For Freud there can be no unconscious without repression, but what exactly is it that is repressed: words, images, feelings?
For Lacan, what is repressed is not iamges, words or emotions but something much more fundamental.
Freud hit upon this when, in ‘’[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]’’, he suggested that there was a hard impenetrable core of the dream – what he called the ‘navel’ of the dream – that is beyond interpretation.
What is repressed, argues Lacan, is this hard impenetrable core.
This is always a core of the real that is missing from the symbolic and all other representations, images and signifiers are no more than attempts to fill this gap.
In seminar VII Lacan identified this repressed element as ‘’the representative of the representation’’, or ‘’dad Ding’’ (the Thing).
The Thing is the beyond of the signified – that which is unknowable in itself.
It is something beyond symbolization, and therefore associated with the real, or as Lacan puts it, “the thing in its dumb reality.”<ref>1992: 55</ref>
The Thing is a lost object that must be continually refound.
However, it is more importantly an ‘object that is nowhere articulated, it is a lost object, but paradoxically an object that was never there in the first place to be lost.”<ref>1992: 58</ref>
As well as =More=In the object apparatus of [[language]], ‘’das Ding’’ is the [[object of desire]]. It is the lost object which must be continually refoundpsyche, it is the prehistoric, unforgettable Other<ref>S7, 53</ref> - in other words, Thing represents the forbidden object secret center of incestuous human desire, the mothernucleus of pleasure/unpleasure.<ref>S7, 67</ref>The [[pleasure principle]] This nucleus is opposed to the law reality principle, which maintains the [[subject]] at a certain distance from the Thing,<ref>S7, 58, 63</ref> making the subject circle round it without ever attaining itthreatens to undermine.<ref>S7, 95</ref>The Thing is thus presented to the subject as his Sovereign Good, but if also called the subject transgresses the pleasure principle and attains this Good"lost object, it is experienced " acts as suffering/evil,<ref>Lacan plays on the French term mal, which can mean both suffering cause of desire and evil, see S7, 179</ref> because a sign of longing for an impossible reunion with the subject “cannot stand the extreme good that ‘’das Ding’’ may bring to himobject.”<ref>S7, 73</ref> It is fortunate, then, that the Thing is usually inaccessible.<ref>S7, 159</ref>
After Sigmund Freud first referred to the seminar of 1959-60Thing in 1895, in "A Project for a Scientific Psychology" (1950a). He used the term ‘’das Ding’’ disappears almost entirely from again in 1925 in his essay "Negation." Jacques Lacan's workfully elaborated this Freudian notion in his seminar The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1992). However, An instance of the ideas associated with it provide the essential features Thing develops from a complex set of the new developments cathected perceptions and memory images that have given pleasure in the concept of past. This set includes a stable kernel, called the ‘’[[objet petit Thing, and a]]’’ as Lacan develops it from 1963 onwardsvariable element, or predicate. For example The Thing arises in the primordial relation between the ‘’objet petit a’’ is circled by infant seeking fulfillment of its vital needs and the [[drive]]<ref>Sllprimary caregiver, 168the "fellow being,</ref> and " who is also the first hostile object. The kernel or nucleus is seen as inaccessible to judgment, while the cause of desire just as ‘’das Ding’’ predicate is seen as “the cause the object of a judgment that must verify whether the most fundamental human passionmemory image corresponds to reality.”<ref>S7, 97</ref>AlsoIn Lacanian psychoanalysis, this process of judging forms the fact that basis for the ego. The Thing is not the imaginary object but firmly situated in the register unconscious articulation of desire. In its origin, it posits the realOther as unconscious, <ref>S2as the force withholding the signifier of satisfaction, l 12</ref> and yet while reality is “that which in subverted by the real suffers from symbolic function of memory traces of the signifierlost object,”<ref>S7, 125</ref> anticipates from which the transition in Lacansubject's thought towards locating objet petit a mcreasingly in the register of the real from 1963 ondesire is alienated. == ''das Ding'' ==
The Thing is “the cause of the most fundamental human passion”;<ref>1992, 1986, 97</ref> it is the object-cause of desire and can only be constituted retrospectively.
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==See Also==
* ——. (1950c [1895]). A project for a scientific psychology. SE, 1: 281-387.
* Lacan, Jacques. (1992). The seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book 7: The ethics of psychoanalysis, 1959-1960 (Dennis Porter, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton.
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[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
