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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 Master===
The discourse of the master is the basic discourse from which the other three discourses are derived.
The dominant position is occupied by the master signifier (Si), which represents the subject (S) for another signifier or, more precisely, for all other signifiers (S2); however, in this signifying operation there is always a surplus, namely, objet petit a.
The point is that all attempts at totalisation are doomed to failure.
The discourse of the master "masks the division of the subject."<ref>{{S17}} p.118</ref>
The discourse also illustrates clearly the structure of the dialectic of the master and the slave. The master (S1) is the agent who puts the slave (S2) (O WOrk; the result of this work is a surplus (a) that the master attempts to appropriate.
[[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>
