Difference between revisions of "Absence"

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==Word==
  
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[[Lacan]] notes that the [[symbol]] -- or [[word]] -- is "a [[presence]] made of [[absence]]" because:
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# the [[symbol]] is used in the [[absence]] of the [[thing]] and
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# [[signifiers]] only exist insofar as they are opposed to other [[signifiers]].<ref>{{E}} p.65</ref>
  
 
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Revision as of 04:14, 30 July 2006


Symbolic

The symbolic order is characterized by a binary opposition between absence and presence.[1]

In the symbolic order "nothing exists except upon an assumed foundation of absence."[2]


Real

This is a basic difference between the symbolic and the real.

"There is no absence in the real. There is only absence if you suggest that there may be a presence there where there isn't one."[3]


Word

Lacan notes that the symbol -- or word -- is "a presence made of absence" because:

  1. the symbol is used in the absence of the thing and
  2. signifiers only exist insofar as they are opposed to other signifiers.[4]


Word

Lacan notes that the symbol -- or word -- is "a presence made of absence" because:

  1. the symbol is used in the absence of the thing and
  2. signifiers only exist insofar as they are opposed to other signifiers.[5]







See Also


References

  1. Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre IV. La relation d'objet, 19566-57. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.67-8
  2. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p.392
  3. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-55. Trans. Sylvana Tomaselli. New York: Nortion; Cambridge: Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1988. p.313
  4. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.65
  5. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.65