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The term '[[bar]]' (''barre'')In this context, used by [[Jacques Lacan]] in the context of a discussion of [[Saussurebar]]'s concept of the [[sign]], refers to is the line that separates the [[signifier]] from the [[signified]] (in the [[Saussurean algorithm]]) , and stands for the [[resistance]] inherent in [[signification]] which is only crossed in [[metaphor]].<ref>Ecrits. p.149</ref>

Not long after the 1957 paper in which the term first appears, in the seminar of 1957-8, Lacan goes on to use the bar to strike through his algebraic symbols S and A in a manner reminiscent of Heidegger's practice of crossing out the word 'being' (see Heidegger, 1956). The bar is used to strike through the S to produce, S, the 'barred subject'.

The bar here represents barred Other is the division of the subject Other insofar as it is castrated, incomplete, marked by languagea lack, as opposed to the SPLITcomplete, consistent, uncastrated Other, an un-barred A, which does not exist.

 In 1973 the [[bar]] is used to strike through the definite article ''la'' whenever it precedes the noun ''femme'' (w'oman'), as in [[Lacan]]'s famous phrase ''kffemme n existe pas'' ('[[woman does not exist]]').   The definite article in French indicates universality, and by crossing it out Lacan illustrates his thesis that femininity is resistant to all forms of generalisation (see S20, 68).In addition to these functions, the bar can also be interpreted as the symbolic phallus (which itself is never barred), as the symbol of negation in theformulae the formulae of sexuation (see SEXUAL DIFFERENCE[[sexual difference]]), and as the trait unaire (see IDENTIFICATION[[identification]]).

[[Category:Dictionary]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]]