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==Nature and Language==A constant theme running throughout Lacan's work is the distinction he draws between human beings and other animals, or, as Lacan puts it, between "human society" and "animal society."<ref>{{S1Top}}nature{{Bottom}} p.223</ref>
The basis of this distinction is [[language]]; [[human]]s have [[language]], whereas [[animal]]s merely have [[code]]s.
The consequence of this fundamental difference ==Human Beings and Animals==A constant theme running throughout [[Lacan]]'s work is that animal psychology is entirely dominated by the distinction he draws between [[imaginaryhuman]][[being]]s and other [[animal]]s, or, whereas as [[humanLacan]] puts it, between "[[psychologynature|human society]] is complicated by the additional dimension of the " and "[[symbolicnature|animal society]]."<ref>{{S1}} p.223</ref>
---==Languages and Codes==The basis of this distinction is [[Jacques Lacanlanguage]] posits a distinction between ; [[human]]s and other have [[language]], whereas [[animal]]s, the basis of which is merely have [[languagecode]]s.<ref>{{S1}} p.223</ref>
==Symbolic and Imaginary==The consequence of this fundamental difference is that [[Humanbiology|animal psychology]]s have is entirely dominated by the [[languageimaginary]], whereas [[animalhuman]] [[psychology]]s merely have is complicated by the additional dimension of the [[codesymbolic]]s.
As a result, ==Double Sense of the Term==Within the context of this bindary opposition between [[animalhuman]] [[psychologybeing]] is entirely dominated by the s and other [[imaginaryanimal]]s, whereas [[humanLacan]] [[psychology]] is complicated by the additional dimension of uses the term "[[symbolicnature]]" in a complex double sense.
===Nature and Culture==Within the context of this bindayr opposition between human beings and other animals, Lacan uses the term 'nature' in a complex doubl sense.=On the one hand, he uses it to designate one term in the oppositon, 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 by Incest ProhibitionTaboo===
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]].
===Imaginary for Animals and Human Beings===
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 regulation of kinship by the [[incestimaginary]] is what [[animal]]s and [[taboohuman]] points to the fact [[being]]s have in common, except that the paternal function is at the heart of the rift between in [[human]] [[being]]s and it is no longer a natural [[animalimaginary]]s.
By insribing a line of descent from Hence [[maleLacan]] to [[male]] and thus ordering repudiates "the doctrine of a series of generations, the [[Father]] marks the difference discontinuity between the [[symbolic]] animal psychology and the [[imaginary]]human psychology which is far away from our thought."<ref>{{Ec}} p.484</ref>
In other words, what is unique about [[human]] beings is not that in human beings the [[imaginary]] [[order]] is distorted by the added dimension of the [[symbolic]]. The imaginary is what animals and human beings have in common, except that in human beings 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> ==NatureNatural Order of Human Existence==On the other hand, LAcan [[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> This great [[fantasy]] of [[nature]] underlies modern [[psychology]], which attempts to explain [[human]] [[behavior]] by reference to ethological categories such as [[instinct]] and [[adaptation]].  ----
==Biology 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 Alienates Human Beings 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]] [[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.
== References ==
<references/>
 
[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Science]]
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