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==Jacques Lacan==Whenever [[Lacan ]] uses the term '"[[discourse' (''discours'') ]]" (rather than, say, '"[[speech']]") it is in order to stress the transindividual nature of [[language]], the fact that [[speech ]] always implies another [[subject]], an interlocutor. Thus the famous Lacanian formula, 'the unconscious is the discourse of the other' (which first appears in 1953, and later becomes 'the unconscious is the discourse of the Other') designates the unconscious as the effects on the subject of speech that is addressed to him from elsewhere; by another subject who has been forgotten, by another psychic locality (the other scene).
From this point on the agent the othertruth productionFigure 2 The structure of the four discoursesSource: Jacques Lacanterm designates "a social bond, Le SÈminaire. Livre XXfounded in language. Encore, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, Paris: Seuil, 1975"<ref>{{S20}} p.21</ref>
There are four positions in the algorithms of the [[four discourses]], each of which is designated by a different name.
The names of the four positions are shown below; [[Lacan]] gives different names to these positions at different points in his work, and this figure is taken from the 1972-3 seminar.<ref>{{S20}} p.21</ref>
[[Image:Lacan-structurefourdiscourses.jpg|thumb|right|The structure of the four discourses]]
Each [[discourse]] is defined by writing the four [[algebraic]] [[symbol]]s in a different position.
The [[symbol]]s always remain in the same order, so each [[discourse]] is simply the result of rotating the [[symbol]]s a quarter turn.
The top-left position ("the agent") is the dominant position which defines the [[discourse]].
In 1971, [[Lacan]] proposes that the position of the agent is also the position of the [[semblance]].
In 1972, [[Lacan]] inscribes two arrows in the formulas isntead of one; one arrows (which [[Lacan]] labels "impossibility") goes from the agent to the other, and the other arrow (which is labelled "powerlessness") goes from production to truth.<ref>{{S20}} p.21</ref>
The discourse of the university point is produced by a quarter turn of the discourse of the master (anticlockwise). The dominant position is occupied by knowledge (savoir). This illustrates the fact that behind all attempts to impart an apparently 'neutral' knowledge to the other can always be located an attempt at mastery (mastery of knowledge, and domination of the other totalisation are doomed to whom this knowledge is imparted). The discourse of the university represents the hegemony of knowledge, particularly visible in modernity in the form of the hegemony of sciencefailure.
The discourse of the hysteric is also produced by a quarter turn of master "masks the discourse division of the master, but in a clockwise direction. It is not simply 'that which is uttered by a hysteric', but a certain kind of social bond in which any subject may be inscribed. The dominant position is occupied by the divided subject, the symptom. This discourse is that which points the way towards knowledge."<ref>$17, 23{{S17}} p.118</ref>.Psychoanalytic treatment involves 'the structural intro- duction of the discourse of the hysteric by means of artificial conditions'; in other words, the analyst 'hystericises' the patient's discourse.<ref>Sl7, 35<.ref>
The discourse of also illustrates clearly the analyst is produced by a quarter turn structure of the discourse dialectic of the hysteric (in master and the same way as Freud developed psychoanalysis by giving an interpretative turn to the discourse of his hysterical patients)slave. The position of master (S1) is the agent, which is who puts the position occupied by slave (S2) (O WOrk; the analyst in the treatment, result of this work is occupied by objet petit a; this illustrates the fact surplus (a) that the analyst must, in the course of the treatment, become the cause of the analysand's desiremaster attempts to appropriate.<ref>Sl7, 41</ref>
[[Image:Lacan-fourdiscourses.jpg|thumb|right|The four discourses]] ===The Discourse of the University===The discourse of the university is produced by a quarter turn of the discourse of the master (anticlockwise). The dominant position is occupied by knowledge (savoir). This illustrates the fact that behind all attempts to impart an apparently 'neutral' knowledge to the other can always be located an attempt at mastery (mastery of knowledge, and domination of the other to whom this knowledge is imparted). The discourse of the university represents the hegemony of knowledge, particularly visible in modernity in the form of the hegemony of science. ===The Discourse of the Hysteric===The discourse of the hysteric is also produced by a quarter turn of the discourse of the master, but in a clockwise direction. It is not simply 'that which is uttered by a hysteric', but a certain kind of social bond in which any subject may be inscribed. The dominant position is occupied by the divided subject, the symptom. This discourse is that which points the way towards knowledge.<ref>{{S17}} p.23</ref>. Psychoanalytic treatment involves 'the structural intro- duction of the discourse of the hysteric by means of artificial conditions'; in other words, the analyst 'hystericises' the patient's discourse.<ref>{{S17}} p.35<.ref> ===The Discourse of the Analyst===The discourse of the analyst is produced by a quarter turn of the discourse of the hysteric (in the same way as Freud developed psychoanalysis by giving an interpretative turn to the discourse of his hysterical patients). The position of the agent, which is the position occupied by the analyst in the treatment, is occupied by objet petit a; this illustrates the fact that the analyst must, in the course of the treatment, become the cause of the analysand's desire.<ref>Sl7, 41</ref> The fact that this discourse is the inverse of the discourse of the master emphasises that, for Lacan, psychoanalysis is an essentially subversive practice which undermines all attempts at domination and mastery.<ref> For further information on the four discourses, see Bracher et al., 1994.</ref> ==See Also==* [[Speech]] ==References==<references/> [[Category:Terms]][[Category:Concepts]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]][[Category:Dictionary]]