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===Double Sense of the Term===Within the context of this bindary opposition between [[human]] [[Jacques Lacanbeing]] posits a distinction between human beings s and other animals[[animal]]s, that is, between 'human society' and 'animal society'.<ref>S1 p.223</ref>The basis of this distinction is [[languageLacan]] uses the term "[[nature]]" in a [[complex]]; humans have [[languagedouble]], whereas animals merely have [[codessense]].As a result==Nature / Culture Opposition==On the one hand, animal psychology is entirely dominated by he uses it to designate one term in the imaginaryopposition, whereas human psychology is complicated by the additional dimension of namely the [[symbolicnature|animal world]]. In this sense, [[Lacan]] adopts the traditional [[anthropology|anthropological ]] opposition between [[nauturenature]] and [[culture]] ([[culture ]] being, in Lacanian [[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 humans [[human]]s and animals[[animal]]s. By insribing 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 beings ]] [[being]]s is not that they lack the imaginary dimension of animal psychology, but that in [[human beings this ]] [[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 beings ]] [[being]]s from the [[natural givens]] [[order]]. <blockquote>In the [[human ]] [[world]], even "those significations [[signification]]s that are closest to [[need]], significations [[signification]]s that are relative to the most purely [[biological ]] insertion into a nutrittive and captivating [[environment]], primordial significations[[signification]]s, are, in theri their sequence and in their very foundation, subject to the laws [[law]]s of the [[signifier]].<ref>{{S3}} p. 198</ref></blockquote> ===Mythical Pre-Linguistic State of Nature===[[Lacan ]] thus argued argues that '"the [[Freudian ]] discovery teaches us that all natural [[harmony ]] in man is profoundly disconcerted."<ref>{{S3}} p. 83</ref>THere 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 even [[sexualityhuman]], which might seem to be the [[significationsexuality]] closest to nature in the human being, is completely entirely caught up in the [[cultural ]] [[order; there ]]. ====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}}* [[Adaptation]]* [[Alienation]]* [[Biology]]||* [[lawCode]]* [[prohibitionCulture]]* [[biologyDrive]]||* [[Instinct]]* [[Language]]* [[Law]]||* [[Need]]* [[Perversion]]* [[Sexual relationship]]{{Also}}