Changes
Gap
,The LinkTitles extension automatically added links to existing pages (https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles).
{{Topp}}béance{{Bottom}}
==Definition==
The [[French]] term ''[[gap|béance]]'' is an antiquated [[literary]] term which means a "large [[hole]] or opening."
It is also a [[scientific]] term used in [[medicine]] to denote the opening of the larynx.
==Jacques Lacan==
The term is used in several ways in [[Lacan]]'s [[work]].
In 1946, he speaks of an "interrogative gap" which opens up in [[madness]], when the [[subject]] is perplexed by the phenomenona which he experiences ([[hallucinations]], etc).<ref>{{Ec}} pp. 165-6</ref>
==Man and Nature==
In the early 1950s, the term comes to refer to the fundamental rupture between [[man]] and [[nature]], which is due to the fact that "in man, [[the imaginary]] relation has deviated, in so far as that is where the gap is produced whereby [[death]] makes itself felt."<ref>{{S2}} p. 210</ref>
This [[gap]] between [[man]] and [[nature]] is evident in the [[mirror stage]]:
<blockquote>"One has to assume a certain [[biological]] gap in him [man], which I try to define when I talk to you [[about]] the [[mirror]] [[stage]].... The [[human]] [[being]] has a special relation with his own [[image]] - a relation of gap, of [[alienating]] tension.<ref>{{S2}} p. 323</ref></blockquote>
==Imaginary==
The function of the [[imaginary]] is precisely to fill this [[gap]], thus covering over the [[subject]]'s [[division]] and presenting an [[imaginary]] [[sense]] of [[fragmented body|unity]] and [[lack|wholeness]].
==Sexual Relationship==
In 1957 the term is used in the context of the [[relationship]] between the [[sex]]es; "in the relation between man and [[woman]]... a gap always remains open.<ref>{{S4}} p.374; {{S4}} p.408</ref>
This anticipates [[Lacan]]'s later remarkes on the [[existence|non-existence]] of the [[sexual relationship]].
==Split Subject==
In 1964, [[Lacan]] argues that "the relation of the subject to the [[Other]] is entirely produced in a [[process]] of gap,"<ref>{{S11}} p. 206</ref> and states that the [[subject]] is constituted by a [[gap]], since the [[subject]] is essentially [[divided]].
He also argues that the [[concept]] of [[causality]] is essentially problematic because there is always a mysterious, inexplicable [[gap]] betwen [[cause]] and effect.<ref>{{S11}} p.21-2</ref>
=="Dehiscence"==
[[Lacan]] also uses the term "[[gap|dehiscence]]" in a way that makes it practically synonymous, in his [[discourse]], with the term "gap".
[[gap|Dehiscence]] is a botanical term which designates the bursting open of mature seed-pots; [[Lacan]] uses the term to refer to the [[split]] which is constitutive of the [[subject]]: there is "a vital dehiscence that is constitutive of man."<ref>{{E}} p. 21</ref>
This [[split]] is also the [[division]] between [[culture]] and [[nature]] which means that [[man]]'s relation to the latter "is altered by a certain dehiscence at the heart of the organism, a primordial Discord."<ref>{{E}} p. 4</ref>
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Alienation]]
* [[Cause]]
||
* [[Imaginary]]
* [[Mirror stage]]
||
* [[Nature]]
* [[Split]]
||
* [[Sexual relationship]]
* [[Subject]]
{{Also}}
==References==
<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Subject]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
