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[[Jacques Lacan]] posits a distinction between human beings and other animals, that is, between 'human society' ===Symbolic and 'animal society'.<ref>S1 p.223</ref>Imaginary===The basis consequence of this distinction is fundamental [[languagedifference]]; humans have is that [[language]], whereas animals merely have [[codebiology|animal psychology]]s.As a result, 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 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}}