Difference between revisions of "Matheme"

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==See Also==
 
==See Also==
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* [[Algebra]]
 
* [[Algebra]]
 
* [[Drive]]
 
* [[Drive]]

Revision as of 18:39, 24 August 2006

French: mathème

Neologism

The term "mathème" is a neologism which Lacan derives from the word "mathematics" -- presumably by analogy with the term mytheme.[1]

Algebra

The mathemes are part of Lacanian algebra.

Jacques Lacan

Although the term matheme is not introduced by Lacan until the early 1970s, the two formulae which are most often referred to as mathemes date from 1957.

Drive and Fantasy

These formulae, which were both created to designate points in the graph of desire, are the matheme for the drive, ($ <> D), and the matheme for fantasy, ($ <> a).

Structure

The structural parallel between the two mathemes is clear; they are both composed of two algebraic symbols conjoined by a rhomboid (the symbol <>, which Lacan calls the poinçon) and enclosed by brackets.

The rhomboid symbolizes a relation between the two symbols, which includes the relations of "envelopment-development-conjunction-disjunction."[2]

Signification

Lacan argues that the mathemes are "not transcendent signifiers; they are the indices of an absolute signification."[3]

They are "created to allow a hundred and one different readings, a multiplicity that is admissible as long as the spoken remains caught in their algebra."[4]

Psychoanalytic Theory

They are constructed to resist any attempt to reduce them to one univocal signification, and to prevent the reader from an intuitive or imaginary understanding of psychoanalytic concepts: the mathemes are not to be understood but to be used.

In this way, they constitute a formal core of psychoanalytic theory which may be transmitted integrally.

"One certainly doesn't know what they mean, but they are transmitted."[5]

See Also

References

  1. Mytheme is a term coined by Claude Lévi-Strauss to denote the basic constituents of mythological systems.
  2. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.280
  3. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 314
  4. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 313
  5. Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre XX. Encore, 1972-73. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1975. p. 100