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=====Background=====
The term "[[matheme]]" is a neologism coined by [[Jacques Lacan]] in the early 1970s.
Formed by derivation from "[[mathematics]]" and by analogy with [[phoneme]] and [[Lévi-Strauss]]'s [[mytheme]],<ref>''Mytheme'' is a term coined by [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] to denote the basic constituents of mythological systems.</ref> the term is an equivalent to "[[algebra|mathematical sign]]". It is not used in conventional [[mathematics]], but is part of [[Lacan]]'s [[algebra]].
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[[Lacan]] begins to use a variety of graphs and 'schemata' at an early stage in his work.
Originally used as teaching aids, these range from teh relatively simply '[[schema L]]' illustrating the [[imaginary]] function of the [[ego]] in the 1966 pape on [[psychosis]] to the complex chart of the workings of [[desire]] (1960).
Perhaps the most familiar is the 'algorithm' which in 1957 replaces [[Saussure]]'s simple diagram of the [[sign]]
<center>---------<BR>arbor</center>
with the notation
<center>[[Image:SAUSSUREANALGORITHM.gif|200px]]</center>
This is to be understood as demonstrating that the [[signifier]] is above the [[signified]], and that the two are separated by a [[bar]] that [[resistance|resists]] [[signification]] and forces the [[signfier]] to [[slip|slide]] endlessly.<ref>{{L}} "[[The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud|L'instance de la lettre dans l'inconscient ou la raison depuis Freud]]." ''[[Écrits]]''. Paris: Seuil, 1966: 493-528 ["[[The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud|The agency of the letter in the unconscious or reason since Freud]]." Trans. [[Alan Sheridan]] ''[[Écrits: A Selection]]''. London: Tavistock, 1977; New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1977: 146-78].</ref>
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The graphs and schemata gradually become more complex, and are eventually replaced by an "[[algebra]]" of "little letters" or [[matheme]]s in which, for instance, "P" is the [[symbolic]] [[fahter]], and "M" the [[symbolic]] [[mother]].
The function of the [[formalization]] that results in the emergence of the [[amtheme]] is said by [[Lacan]] to be the integral transmission of his teachings on [[psychoanalysis]].<BR>{{S20}}
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The two '''formulae''' which are most often referred to as [[matheme]]s were created in 1957 to designate points in the [[graph of desire]].
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The [[structural]] parallel between the two [[matheme]]s is clear; they are both composed of two [[algebra]]ic [[symbol]]s conjoined by a rhomboid (the [[symbol]] '''<>''', which [[Lacan]] calls the ''poinçon'') and enclosed by brackets.
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[[Lacan]] argues that the [[matheme]]s are "not transcendent signifiers; they are the indices of an absolute signification."<ref>{{E}} p. 314</ref>
