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{{Top}}natural|nature{{Bottom}} =Jacques Lacan===Human Beings and Animals==A constant theme running throughout [[Lacan]]'s [[work]] is the [[distinction]] he draws between [[human]] [[being]]s and [[other]] [[animal]]s, or, as [[Lacan]] puts it, between "[[nature|human society]]" and "[[nature|animal society]]."<ref>{{S1}} p. 223</ref> ===Languages and Codes===The basis of this distinction is [[language]]; [[human]]s have [[language]], whereas [[animal]]s merely have [[code]]s. ===Symbolic and Imaginary===The consequence of this fundamental [[difference]] is that [[biology|animal psychology]] is entirely dominated by the [[imaginary]], whereas [[human]] [[psychology]] is complicated by the additional [[dimension]] of the [[symbolic]]. ===Double Sense of the Term===Within the context of this bindary opposition between [[human]] [[being]]s and other [[animal]]s, [[Lacan]] uses the term "[[nature]]" in a [[complex]] [[double]] [[sense]]. ==Nature/ Culture Opposition==On the one hand, he uses it to designate one term in the opposition, namely the [[nature|animal world]]. In this sense, [[Lacan]] adopts the traditional [[anthropology|anthropological]] opposition between [[nature]] and [[culture]] ([[culture]] being, in [[Lacan]]ian [[terms]], the [[symbolic]] [[order]]). ===Regulation of Kinship===Like [[Claude Levi-Strauss]] and other [[anthropology|anthropologists]], [[Lacan]] points to the [[prohibition]] of [[incest]] as the kernel of the [[law|legal]] [[structure]] which differentiates [[culture]] from [[nature]]. <blockquote>The primordial Law is therefore that which in regulating [[marriage]] superimposes the kingdom of culture on that of a nature abandoned to the law of mating.<ref>{{E}} p.66</ref></blockquote> ===Paternal Function===The regulation of kinship by the [[incest]] [[taboo]] points to the fact that the [[Name-of-the-Father|paternal function]] is at the heart of the rift between [[human]]s and [[animal]]s. By inscribing a line of descent from [[male]] to [[male]] and thus ordering a series of generations, the [[Father]] marks the difference between the [[symbolic]] and the [[imaginary]]. ===Human and Animal Imaginary===In other [[words]], what is unique [[about]] [[human]] [[being]]s is not that in [[human]] [[being]]s the [[imaginary]] [[order]] is distorted by the added dimension of the [[symbolic]]. The [[imaginary]] is what [[animal]]s and [[human]] [[being]]s have in common, except that in [[human]] [[being]]s it is no longer a natural [[imaginary]]. Hence [[Lacan]] repudiates "the [[doctrine]] of a discontinuity between animal psychology and human psychology which is far away from our [[thought]]."<ref>{{Ec}} p.484</ref> ==Natural Order of Human Existence==On the other hand, [[Lacan]] also uses the term "[[nature]]" to denote the [[idea]] that there is a "[[nature|natural order]]" in [[human]] [[existence]], an idea which [[Lacan]] calls the "great fantasy of ''nautra mater'', the very idea of nature."<ref>{{S1}} p.149</ref> ===Biological Basis of Human Behavior===This great [[fantasy]] of [[nature]] underlies modern [[psychology]], which attempts to explain [[human]] [[behavior]] by reference to [[biology|ethological categories]] such as [[instinct]] and [[adaptation]]. ===Symbolic Alienation from Natural Order===[[Lacan]] is highly critical of all such attempts to explain the phenomena in terms of [[nature]]. He argues that they are based on a failure to recognize the importance of the [[symbolic order]], which radically [[alienation|alienates]] [[human]] [[being]]s from the [[natural]] [[order]]. <blockquote>In the [[human]] [[world]], even "those [[signification]]s that are closest to [[need]], [[signification]]s that are relative to the most purely [[biological]] insertion into a nutrittive and captivating [[environment]], primordial [[signification]]s, are, in their sequence and in their very foundation, subject to the [[law]]s of the [[signifier]].<ref>{{S3}} p.198</ref></blockquote> ===Mythical Pre-Linguistic State of Nature===[[Lacan]] thus argues that "the [[Freudian]] discovery teaches us that all natural [[harmony]] in man is profoundly disconcerted."<ref>{{S3}} p.83</ref> There is not even a pure [[nature|natural state]] at the beginning in which the [[human]] [[subject]] might [[exist]] before being caught up in the [[symbolic]] [[order]]. <blockquote>"The Law is there ''ab origine''."<ref>{{S3}} p.83</ref></blockquote> [[Need]] is never [[present]] in a pure [[pre-oedipal phase|pre-linguistic state]] in the [[human]] [[being]]: such a "[[mythical]]" [[linguistic|pre-linguistic]] [[need]] can only be hypothesized after it has been articulated in [[demand]]. ===Human Sexuality, Nature and Culture===The [[absence]] of a [[natural]] [[order]] in [[human]] [[existence]] can be seen most clearly in [[human]] [[sexuality]]. [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] both argue that [[human]] [[sexuality]] is entirely caught up in the [[cultural]] [[order]]. ====Perversion====There is no such [[thing]], for the [[human]] being, as a ''[[nature|natural]]'' [[sexual relationship]]. One consequence of this is that [[perversion]] cannot be defined by reference to a supposed [[natural]] or [[biological]] [[norm]] governing [[sexuality]]. ====Instincts and Drives====Whereas [[animal]] [[instincts]] are relatively invariable, [[human]] [[sexuality]] is governed by [[drive]]s which are extremely variable and do not aim at a [[biology|biological]] function. ==See Also=={{See}}* [[Adaptation]]* [[Alienation]]* [[Biology]]||* [[Code]]* [[Culture]]* [[Drive]]||* [[Instinct]]* [[Language]]* [[Law]]||* [[Need]]* [[Perversion]]* [[Sexual relationship]]{{Also}} == References ==<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small"><references/></div>
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