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− | Borromean knot (noeud borromÈen) References to knots can be
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− | found in Lacan's work as early as the 1950s (e.g. E, 281), but it is not until the
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− | early 1970s that Lacan begins to examine knots from the point of view of their
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− | topological properties. The study of knot theory marks an important develop-
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− | ment in Lacan'S TOPOLOGY; from the study of surfaces (the moebius strip, the
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− | torus, etc.) Lacan moves to the much more complex area of the topology of
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− | knots. Topology is increasingly seen as a radically non-metaphorical way of
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− | exploring the symbolic order and its interactions with the real and the
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− | imaginary; rather than simply representing structure, topology is that struc-
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− | ture. In this late period of his work, one kind of knot comes to interest Lacan
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− | more than any other: the Borromean knot.
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− | The Borromean knot (shown in Figure 1), so called because the figure is
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− | found on the coat of arms of the Borromeo family, is a group of three rings
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− | which are linked in such a way that if any one of them is severed, all three
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− | become separated (S20, 112). Strictly speaking, it would be more appropriate
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− | to refer to this figure as a chain rather than a knot, since it involves the
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− | interconnection of several different threads, whereas a knot is formed by a
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− | single thread. Although a minimum of three threads or rings are required to
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− | form a Borromean chain, there is no maximum number; the chain may be
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− | extended indefinitely by adding further rings, while still preserving its
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− | Borromean quality (i.e. if any of the rings is cut, the whole chain falls apart).
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− | Lacan first takes up the Borromean knot in the seminar of 1972-3, but his
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− | most detailed discussion of the knot comes in the seminar of 1974-5. It is in
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− | this seminar that Lacan uses the Borromean knot as, among other things, a way
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− | of illustrating the interdependence of the three orders of the real, the symbolic
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− | and the imaginary, as a way of exploring what it is that these three orders have
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− | in common. Each ring represents one of the three orders, and thus certain
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− | elements can be located at intersections of these rings.
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− | In the seminar of 1975-6, Lacan goes on to describe psychosis as the
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− | unravelling of the Borromean knot, and proposes that in some cases this is
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− | prevented by the addition of a fourth ring, the SINTHOME, which holds the other
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− | three together.
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− | == References ==
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− | <references/>
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− | [[Category:Lacan]]
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− | [[Category:Terms]]
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− | [[Category:Concepts]]
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− | [[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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