Extimacy

The term 'extimacy' (French: extimitè) was coined by Jacques Lacan by combining the prefix 'ex' (from exterieur or 'exterior') to the French word intimitè ('intimacy').

This neologism indicates the manner in which psychoanalysis problematizes the opposition between inside and outside.

Examples

For example, the real is just as much inside as outside.

The unconscious is not a purely interior psychic system but an intersubjective structure ('the unconscious is outside').

The Other is "something strange to me, although it is at the heart of me."

The center of the subject is outside; the subject is ex-centric.

The structure of extimacy is perfectly expressed in the topology of the torus and of the moebius strip.

See Also

• Inside
• Outside
• Unconscious
• Structure
• Torus
• Moebius strip