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"[[matheme]]" (''[[mathème]]'')
The term "[[mathème]]" is a neologism which [[Lacan]] derives from the word "[[mathematics]]" -- presumably by analogy with the term ''mytheme''.<ref>''Mytheme'' is a term coined by [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] to denote the basic constituents of mythological systems.</ref>
The [[mathemes]] are part of [[Lacan]]ian [[algebra]].
==Drive and Fantasy==
Although the term [[matheme]] is not introduced by [[Lacan]] until the early 1970s, the two formulae which are most often referred to as [[matheme]]s date from 1957.
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'').
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.
The rhomboid [[symbolize]]s a relation between the two [[symbol]]s, which includes the relations of "envelopment-development-conjunction-disjunction."<ref>{{E}} p.280</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[matheme]]s are "not transcendent signifiers; they are the indices of an absolute signification."<ref>{{E}} p.314</ref>
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."<ref>{{E}} p.313</ref>
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.
<blockquote>"One certainly doesn't know what they mean, but they are transmitted."<ref>{{S20}} p.100</ref></blockquote>
==See Also==
* [[Graph of desire]]
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
