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==Charles Peirce==
==Sign==
In the typology of [[sign]]s devised by Charles S. [[Peirce]], the North American semiotician, the [[index]] is a [[sign]] which has an "existential [[relationship]]" to the [[object]] it represents (i.e. the [[index]] is always spatially or temporally contiguous with the [[object]]).
==Symbol==
Peirce contrasts the [[index]] with the [[symbol]], which, like [[Saussure]]'s [[concept]] of the [[sign]], is characterized by the [[absence]] of all necessary connections between the [[sign]] and its [[object]].
For example, smoke is an [[index]] of fire.
==Signifier==
In [[Lacan]]'s [[discourse]], the term "[[index]]" functions in opposition to the term [[signifier]].
[[Lacan]] thus conceives the [[index]] as a "[[nature|natural]]" [[sign]], one in which there is a fixed, bi-univocal correspondence between [[sign]] and [[object]] (unlike the [[signifier]], which has no fixed link with any one [[signified]]).
This opposition between [[index]] and [[signifier]] underpins the following distinctions in [[Lacan]]'s [[work]]. ==References=The Psychoanalytic and Medical Concepts of the Symptom===Whereas in [[medicine]], the [[symptom]] is regarded as an [[index]] of the disease, in [[psychoanalysis]] the [[symptom]] is not an [[index]] but a [[signifier]].<ref>{{E}} p. 129<references/ref> Hence in [[psychoanalysis]] there is no one-to-one fixed link between pathological phenomena and the underlying [[structure]]. ===Codes (Animal) and Language (Human)===[[Code]]s are composed of [[index|indices]], whereas [[language]] is composed of [[signifier]]s.
This explains why [[code]]s [[lack]] the most important feature of [[language]]: its potential for ambiguity and equivocation.
The opposition between [[signifier]] and [[index]] is complicated by the [[existence]] of certain [[signifier]]s which also function as [[index|indices]]; these are called [[shifter]]s.
==See Also==
{{See}}* [[codeCode]]* [[Language]]||* [[Linguistics]]* [[Shifter]]||* [[Sign]]* [[Signified]]||* [[Signifier]]* [[Structure]]||* [[Symbol]]* [[Symptom]]{{Also}}
==References==
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
[[Category:Practice]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Imaginary]]
[[Category:Terms]]
