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One of the most distinctive features of [[Lacanian psychoanalysis]] is [[Lacan]]'s approach to questions of [[time]].
Broadly speaking, [[Lacan]]'s approach is characterized by two important innovations: the concept of [[logical time]], and the stress on [[retroaction]] and [[anticipation]].
===Tripartite Structure===
The fact that [[logical time]] is not [[objective]] does not mean that it is simply a question of [[subjective]] [[feeling]]; on the contrary, as the adjective "[[logical]]" indicates, it is a precise [[dialectical]] [[structure]] which may be formulated rigorously in [[mathematical]] [[terms]]. In the 1945 paper, [[Lacan]] argues that [[logical time]] has a [[tripartite]] [[structure]], the three moments of which are:
# the instant of [[seeing]];
# the time for [[understanding]];
# the moment of concluding.
By means of a sophism (the problem of the [[three prisoners]]) [[Lacan]] shows how these three moments are constructed not in terms of objective chronometric units but in terms of an [[intersubjective]] [[logic]] based on a tension between waiting and haste, between hesitation and urgency. [[Logical time]] is thus "the [[intersubjective]] [[time]] that [[structure]]s [[human]] [[action]]."<ref>{{E}} p.75</ref> =====Psychoanalytic Treatment=====[[Lacan]]'s notion of [[logical time]] is not just an exercise in logic; it also has practical consequences for [[psychoanalytic treatment]]. The most famous of these consequences, historically speaking, has been [[Lacan]]'s use of [[sessions of variable duration]] ([[French]]: séances scandées), which was regarded by the [[International Psycho-Analytical Association]] ([[IPA]]) as sufficient grounds for excluding him from membership. However, to focus exclusively on this particular [[practice]] is to miss various other interesting clinical dimensions of the theory of [[logical time]], such as the way in which [[Lacan]]'s concept of "[[time|the time for understanding]]" can throw light on the [[Freud]]ian concept of [[working-through]].
=====Saussurean Linguistics==Treatment===[[Lacan]]'s concept notion of [[logical time]] anticipates his incursions into is not just an exercise in logic; it also has practical consequences for [[psychoanalytic treatment]]. The most famous of these consequences, historically speaking, has been [[Lacan]]'s use of [[Saussuresessions of variable duration]]an ([[linguisticsFrench]]: séances scandées), which is based on the distinction between was regarded by the [[diachronicInternational Psycho-Analytical Association]] (or temporal[[IPA]]) and as sufficient grounds for excluding him from membership. However, to focus exclusively on this particular [[practice]] is to miss various other interesting clinical dimensions of the theory of [[synchroniclogical time]], such as the way in which [[Lacan] (]'s concept of "[[time|atemporalthe time for understanding]]" can throw light on the [[Freud]]) aspects ian concept of [[languageworking-through]].
===Saussurean Linguistics===[[Lacan]]'s concept of [[logical time]] anticipates his incursions into [[Saussure]]an [[linguistics]], which is based on the distinction between the [[diachronic]] (or temporal) and the [[synchronic]] ([[time|atemporal]]) aspects of [[language]]. Hence [[Lacan]]'s increasing stress, beginning in the 1950s, on [[synchronic]] or [[timeless]] [[structure]]s rather than on [[developmental]] "[[stages]]". Thus when [[Lacan]] uses the term "[[time]]", it is usually to be understood not as a fleeting [[diachronic]] moment but as a [[structure]], a relatively [[stable]] [[synchronic]] [[state]].
<blockquote>"[[History]] is not the past. [[History]] is the [[past]] inso far as it is [[historicised]] in the [[present]]."<ref>{{S1}} p. 12</ref></blockquote>
Hence the [[pregenital]] [[stage]]s are not to be seen as real events chronologically prior to the [[genital]] [[stage]], but as forms of [[demand]] which are [[project]]ed [[retroactively]] onto the [[past]].<ref>{{E}} p. 197</ref> [[Lacan]] also shows how [[discourse]] is [[structure]]d by [[retroaction]]; only when the last [[word]] of the [[sentence]] is uttered do the initial [[word]]s acquire their [[full]] [[meaning]] (see [[punctuation]]).<ref>{{E}} p. 303</ref>
=====Anticipation=====
If [[retroaction]] refers to the way the [[present]] affects the [[past]], [[anticipation]] refers to the way the [[future]] affects the [[present]]. Like [[retroaction]], [[anticipation]] marks the [[structure]] of [[speech]]; the first [[word]]s of a [[sentence]] are ordered in [[anticipation]] of the [[word]]s to come.<ref>{{E}} p. 303</ref> In the [[mirror stage]], the [[ego]] is [[construct]]ed on the basis of the [[anticipation]] of an imagined [[future]] [[wholeness]] which never, in fact, arrives. The [[structure]] of [[anticipation]] is best illustrated [[linguistically]] by the future-perfect tense.<ref>{{E}} p. 306</ref> [[Anticipation]] also plays an important role in the [[tripartite]] [[structure]] of [[logical time]]; the moment of concluding "is arrived at in haste, in [[anticipation]] of [[future]] [[certainty]]."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 209</ref>
=====See Also=====