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=====Definition=====
[[Metaphor]] is usually defined as a trope in which one thing is described by comparing it to another, but without directly asserting a comparison.
However, [[Lacan]]'s use of the term owes little to this definition and much to the work of [[Roman Jakobson]], who, in a major article published in 1956, established an opposition between [[metaphor]] and [[metonymy]].
[[Metaphor]] thus corresponds to [[Saussure]]'s paradigmatic relations (which hold ''in absentia'') and [[metonymy]] to syntagmatic relationships (which hold ''in praesentia'').<ref>Jakobson. 1956</ref>
[[Lacan]], like many other French intellectuals of the time (such as [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] and [[Roland Barthes]]), was quick to take up [[Jakobson]]'s [[interpretation|reintepretation]] of [[metaphor]] and [[metonymy]].
In the very same year that [[Jakobson]]'s seminal article was published, [[Lacan]] refers to it in his [[seminar]] and begins to incorporate the opposition into his [[linguistic]] rereading of [[Freud]].<ref>{{S3}} p.218-20, 222-30</ref>
A year later he dedicates a whole paper to a more detailed analysis of the opposition.<ref>Lacan. {{L}} 1957b.</ref> --
=====Substitution=====
Following [[Jakobson]]'s [[identification]] of [[metaphor]] with the substitutive axis of [[language]], [[Lacan]] defines [[metaphor]] as the substitution of one [[signifier]] for another, and provides the first formula of [[metaphor]].<ref>{{E}} p.164</ref>
[[Image:Lacan-firstmetaphor.jpg|center]]
[[Image:Lacan-secondmetaphor.jpg|center]]
=====Signification=====
The idea behind this rather obscure formulation is that there is an inherent [[resistance]] to [[signification]] in [[language]] (a [[resistance]] which is [[symbolize]]d by the [[bar]] in the [[Saussure]]an [[sign|algorithm]]).
[[Metaphor]] is thus the passage of the [[signifier]] into the [[signified]], the creation of a new [[signified]].
=====Second Formula=====[[Lacan]] presents another formula for [[metaphor]] in a paper written a few months later.<ref>{{E}} p.200</ref> --
[[Lacan]]'s own explanation of this second formula is as follows:
<blockquote>The capital Ss are signifiers, x the unknown signification and s the signified induced by the metaphor, which consists in substitution in the signifying chain of S for S'. The elision of S', represented here by the bar through it, is the condition of the success of the metaphor.<ref>{{E}} p.200</ref></blockquote>
=====Contexts=====
[[Lacan]] puts his concept of [[metaphor]] to use in a variety of contexts.
===The ==Oedipus Complex=====
[[Lacan]] analyzes the [[Oedipus complex]] in terms of a [[metaphor]] because it invovles the crucial concept of substitution; in this case, the substitution of the [[Name-of-the-Father]] for the [[desire]] of the [[mother]].
This fundamental [[metaphor]], which founds the possibility of all ther [[metaphor]], is designated by [[Lacan]] as the [[paternal metaphor]].
=====Repression and Neurotic Symptoms=====
[[Lacan]] argues that [[repression]] (secondary repression) has the [[structure]] of a [[metaphor]].
The return of the [[repressed]] (the [[symptom]]) therefore also has the [[structure]] of a [[metaphor]]; indeed; [[Lacan]] asserts that "the symptom ''is'' a metaphor."<ref>{{E}} p.175</ref>
=====Condensation=====
[[Lacan]] also follows [[Jakobson]] in linking the [[metaphor]]-[[metonymy]] distinction to the fundamental mechanisms of the dream work described by [[Freud]].
[[Lacan]] then argues that just as [[displacement]] is logically prior to [[condensation]], so [[metonymy]] is the condition for [[metaphor]].
=====The Anal Drive=====In his paper, '"[[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|On transformations of instinct as exemplified in anal eroticism]]"', [[Freud]] shows how [[anal eroticism ]] is closely connected with the possibility of substitution. [[Lacan]] takes this as grounds for linking [[anal eroticism]] to [[metaphor]]. <blockquote>"The anal level is the locus of metaphor - one object for another, gives the faeces in place of the phallus."<ref>{{S11}} p. 104</ref></blockquote> =====Identification=====[[Metaphor]] is also the [[structure]] of [[identification]], since the latter consists in substituting oneself for another.<ref>{{S3}} p. 218</ref>
=====Love=====[[LacanLove]] takes this as grounds for linking anal eroticism to is [[structure]]d like a [[metaphor]]since it involves the operation of substitution.
<blockquote>The anal level "It is insofar as the locus function of metaphor - one object for anotherthe ''érastès'', gives of the faeces lover, who is the subject of lack, comes in the place of , substitutes himself for, the function of ''érômènos'', the phallusloved object, that the signification of love is produced."<ref>{{S11S8}} p.10453</ref></blockquote>
===Identification=See Also==[[Metaphor]] is also the [[structure]] of [[identification]], since the latter consists in substituting oneself for another.<ref>{{S3See}}{{Also}} p.218</ref>
==References==
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