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: [[Fr]]. ''[[{{Topp}}loi]]''{{Bottom}} =====Jacques Lacan==========Claude Lévi-Strauss==Social Relations===[[Lacan]]'s discussions of the "[[Law]]" (which [[Lacan]] often writes with a [[capital ]] "L") owe much to the [[work ]] of [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]. =====Fundamental Principles of all Social Relations===== As in the work of [[Lévi-Strauss]], the [[Law]] in [[Lacan]]'s work refers not to a [[particular ]] piece of legislation, but to ''the fundamental principles which underlie all [[social ]] relations''. =====Universal Structures of Society===== The [[law]] is the set of [[universal ]] principles which make social [[existence ]] possible, ''the [[structure]]s that govern all forms of [[anthropology|social exchange]]'', whether [[anthropology|gift-giving, kinship relations or the formation of pacts. =====Symbolic Exchange==========Law of the Signifier==========Legal-Linguistic Structure=====Since the most basic form of exchange is [[communication]] itself, the [[lawanthropology|kinship relations]] is fundamentally a [[linguistic]] entity -- it is or the [[lawformation]] of the [[signifier]]: <blockquote>This law, then, is revealed clearly enough as identical with an order of language. For without kinship nominations, no power is capable of instituting the order of preferences and taboos that bind and weave the yarn of lineage through succeeding generations.<ref>{{E}} ppacts.66</ref></blockquote>

=====Human Law==========Humans and Animals=====Following [[Lévi-Strauss]], [[Lacan]] argues that the [[law]] is essentially [[human]]; it is the [[law]] which separates [[man]] from the [[other ]] [[nature|animal]]s, by regulating [[sexual relationship|sexual relations]] that are, among [[nature|animal]]s, unregulated:  <blockquote>"([[Human]] [[law]] is) the primordial Law... which in regulating [[marriage ]] ties superimposes the kingdom of [[culture ]] on that of a [[nature ]] abandoned to the law of mating. The prohibition of incest is merely its [[subjective ]] pivot."<ref>{{E}} p.66</ref></blockquote>

=====Paternal Function==========Symbolic Father=====It is the [[father]] who imposes this [[law]] on the [[subject]] in the [[Oedipus complex]]; the [[Name-of-the-Father|paternal agency]] (or [[Name-of-the-Father|paternal function]]) is no more than the [[name ]] for this prohibitive and legislative [[role]]. =====Second Time of the Oedipus Complex=========="Father of the Primal Horde"=====In the second [[time ]] of the [[Oedipus complex]] the [[father]] appears as the omnipotent "father of the [[primal ]] [[horde]]" of ''[[Totem and Taboo]]''.<ref>{{F}} 1912-13. ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Totem and Taboo]]'', 1912-13. [[SE]] XIII, 1-161.</ref>  This is the lawgiver who is not included in his own [[law]] because he ''is'' the [[Law]], denying [[others ]] access to the [[women]] of the tribe while he himself has access to [[them ]] all. =====Third Time of the Oedipus Complex=====In the [[third ]] time of the [[Oedipus complex]] the [[father]] is included in his own [[law]], the [[law]] is revealed as a pact rather than an imperative.

The [[Oedipus complex]] represents the regulation of [[desire]] by the [[law]]. It is the [[law]] of the [[pleasure principle]], which commands the [[subject]] to "[[Enjoy]] as little as possible!", and thus maintains the [[subject]] at a safe distance from the [[Thing]]. The [[relationship]] between the [[law]] and [[desire]] is, however, a [[dialectic]]al one; "desire is the reverse of the law."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 787</ref> If, on the one hand, [[law]] imposes limits on [[desire]], it is also [[true]] that the [[law]] creates [[desire]] in the first [[place]] by creating interdiction. [[Desire]] is essentially the [[desire]] to [[transgress]], and for there to be [[transgression]] it is first necesary for there to be [[prohibition]].<ref>{{S7}} p.83-4</ref> Thus it is not the [[case]] that there is a pregiven [[desire]] which the [[law]] then regulates, but that [[desire]] is [[born]] out of the [[process]] of regulation.<blockquote>"What we see here is the tight bond between desire and Law."<ref>{{S7}} p. 177</ref></blockquote>

=====Pleasure Principle=====It is the [[law]] of the [[pleasure principle]], which commands the [[subject]] to "Enjoy as little as possible<!", and thus maintains the [[subject]] at a safe distance from the [[Thing]]. =====Dialectical Relationship between Law and Desire-- =====The relationship between the [[law]Murder] and [[desire]] is, however, a [[dialectic]]al one; "desire is the reverse of the law."<ref>{{Ec}} p.787</ref> If, on the one hand, [[law]] imposes limits on [[desire]], it is also true that the [[law]] creates [[desire]] in the first place by creating interdiction. Father=====Desire to Transgress=====[[Desire]] is essentially the [[desire]] to [[transgress]], and for there to be [[transgression]] it is first necesary for there to be [[prohibition]].<ref>{{S7}} p.83-4</ref-> =====Desire Born Out of Regulation=====Thus it is not the case that there is a pregiven [[desire]] which the [[law]] then regulates, but that [[desire]] is born out of the process of regulation. <blockquote>"What we see here is the tight bond between desire and Law."<ref>{{S7}} p.177</ref></blockquote> =====Murder of the Father=====!-- If the [[law]] is closely connected to the [[father]], this is not only because the [[father]] is one who imposes the [[law]], but also because the [[law]] is born out of the murder of the [[father]]. =====Myth of the Father of the Primal Horde===== This is clearly illustrated in the [[myth]] of the [[father]] of the [[primal horde]] which [[Freud]] recounts in ''[[Totem and Taboo]]''.  In this [[myth]], the murder of the [[father]], far from freeing the sons from the [[law]], only reinforces the [[law]] which [[prohibit]]s [[incest]].-->

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