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{{Top}}exist|existence{{Bottom}}
The term "[[existence]]" is employed by [[Lacan]] in various ways:
==Existence in the Symbolic=======No Prediscursive Reality=====
This sense of [[existence]] is to be understood in the context of [[Freud]]'s discussion of the "judgement of existence," by which the [[existence]] of an entity is affirmed prior to attributing any quality to it.
Only what is integrated in the [[symbolic]] [[order]] fully "[[exist]]s", since "there is no such thing as a prediscursive reality."<ref>{{S20}} p.33</ref>
=====Absence and Presence in the Symbolic==========Differential Relations in the Symbolic==Non-Existence===
It is important to note that, in the [[symbolic order]], "nothing exists except on an assumed foundation of [[absence]]. Nothing exists except insofar as it does not exist."<ref>{{Ec}} p.392</ref>
It was [[Saussure]] who first pointed this out when he argued that in [[language]] there are no positive terms, only differences.<ref>[[Saussure|Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. (1916) ''[[Saussure|Course in General Linguistics]]'', ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana.</ref>
==Existence in the Real==
In this sense, it is only that which is [[impossible]] to [[symbolize]] that [[exists]]: the [[impossible]] [[Thing]] at the heart of the [[subject]].
<blockquote>"There is in effect something radically unassimilable to the signifier. It's quite simply the subject's singular existence."<ref>{{S3}} p.179</ref></blockquote>
This is the [[existence]] of the [[subject]] of the [[unconscious]], '''S''', which [[Lacan]] describes as an "ineffable, stupid [[existence]]."<ref>{{E}} p.194</ref>
=====Relation to the First Definition==Being===
This second sense of the term [[existence]] is exactly the opposite of [[existence]] in the first sense.
Whereas [[existence]] in the first sense is synonymous with [[Lacan]]'s use of the term [[being]], [[existence]] in the second sense is opposed to [[being]].
[[Lacan]] coins the neologism ''[[existence|ex-sistence]]'' to express the idea that the heart of our [[being]] (''Kern unseres Wesen'') is also radically [[Other]], strange, [[outside]];<ref>{{Ec}} p.11</ref> the [[subject]] is decentered, his center is [[outside]] of himself, he is [[extimacy|ex-centric]].
[[Lacan]] also speaks of the "[[existence|ex-sistence]] (''[[existence|Entstellung]]'') of desire in the dream,"<ref>{{E}} p.264</ref> since the [[dream]] cannot represent [[desire]] except by distorting it.
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Absence]]
* [[Being]]
* [[Unconscious]]
* [[Woman]]
{{Also}}
==References==