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The [[French]] term ''[[point de capiton]]'' is variously translated in [[English]] editions of [[Lacan]]'s work as '"[[quilting point]]' " or '"[[anchoring point]]'. "

It literally designates an [[upholstery button]], the analogy being that just as [[upholstery button]]s are places where "the mattress-maker's needle has worked hard to prevent a shapeless mass of stuffing from moving too freely about,.<ref>Bowie, 1991: 74</ref>

The ---For [[Lacan]] the link between [[signifier]] and [[signified]] is so precarious that whereas [[Saussure]] saw the whole [[system]] as more or less grounded, [[Lacan]] sees only occasional points of [[stability]].  These points of [[stability]] are referred to as ''[[point points de capiton]]'' is thus the point in the [[signifying chain]] at , or "quilting points," points "by which "the signifier stops the otherwise endless movement of the significationto produce " and produces the necessary [[illusion]] of a fixed [[meaning]].<ref>{{E}} p.303</ref>"---

For [[Lacan]] the link between [[signifier]] ==Diachrony and signified is so precarious that whereas [[Saussure]] saw the whole [[system]] as more or less grounded, [[Lacan]] sees only occasional points of [[stability]]. Synchrony==

These points of The ''[[stabilitypoint de capiton]] are referred to as '' is thus the point in the [[points de capitonsignifying chain]], or "quilting points," points at which "by which the signifier stops the otherwise endless movement to produce of the signification"and produces the necessary [[illusion ]] of a fixed [[meaning]]."<ref>{{E}} p.303</ref>

<blockquote>"The [[synchronic]] [[structure]] (of the ''[[point de capiton]]'') is more hidden, and it is this [[structure]] that takes us to the source. It is [[metaphor]]."<ref>{{E}} p.303</ref>. ==Ideology==The [[signifiers]] or [[signifying chain]] are unstable and liable to [[slippage]]s of [[meaning]]. How does an [[ideology]] maintain its consistency?What keeps of [[ideological]] field of [[meaning]] consistent?Any given [[ideological]] field is "quilted" by the ''[[point de capiton]]''A point de capiton unifies an ideological field and provides it with an identity.  What is at issue in the conflict of [[ideologies]] is precisely the ''[[point de capiton]]''. [[Signifiers]] such as "[[freedom]]", "[[democracy]]", "[[human rights]]," etc. are open-ended.Their [[meanings]] can slide about depending on the context of their use. For example, a [[right-wing]] [[interpretation]] of the word "[[freedom]]" might use it to designate the [[freedom]] to speculate on the [[market]], whereas a [[left-wing]] [[interpretation]] of it might use it designate [[freedom]] from the inequalities of the [[market]].  The word "[[freedom]]" therefore does not mean the same thing in all possible worlds: what pins its [[meaning]] down is the ''[[point de capiton]]''.  ==Imaginary==Perhaps the most important feature of the ''[[point de capiton]]'' is that the [[stability]] it provides is, however necessary, an [[illusion]]. The ''[[point de capiton]]'' is an instance of [[imaginary]] [[identification]] disrupting the integrity and [[rationality]] of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] itself.  Though these disruptions are strictly speaking inimical to the [[symbolic]] [[order]], they are also vital to its [[existence]] as a field for producing [[meaning]], for such disruptions serve to anchor the [[signifying chain]] and keep it from devolving into a [[psychotic]] process of pure [[linguistic]] [[self-referentiality]] without even the [[illusion]] of [[external]] reference.</blockquote>