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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]]." To avoid the confusion resulting from this variety of [[translation]], the term has here been [[left ]] in the original [[French]].

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, Malcolm. (1991) ''Lacan'', [[London]]: Fontana. p.74</ref>," so the ''[[points de capiton]]'' are points at which the "signified and signifier are knotted together."<ref>{{S3}} p. 268</ref>

[[Lacan]] introduces the term in his 1955-6 [[seminar]] on [[the psychoses]] to account for the fact that despite the continual [[slip]]page of the [[signified]] under the [[signifier]], there are nevertheless in the normal ([[neurotic]]) [[subject]] certain fundamental "attachment points" between the [[signified]] and the [[signifier]] where this [[slip]]page is temporarily halted. A certain minimum [[number ]] of these points are "necessary for a person to be called normal," and "when they are not established, or when they give way'" the result is [[psychosis]].<ref>{{S3}} pp. 268-9</ref> This helps to explain how it is that in the [[psychotic]] [[experience]], "the signifier and the signified [[present ]] themselves in a completely [[divided ]] [[form]]."<ref>{{S3}} p. 268</ref>.

Since the [[signifying chain]] has both a [[diachronic]] and a [[synchronic]] [[dimension]], so also does the ''[[point de capiton]]'':

The [[diachronic]] dimension of the ''[[point de capiton]]'' lies in the fact that [[communication]] is always a [[retroactive]] effect of [[punctuation]]. It is only when the [[sentence ]] is completed that the [[sense ]] of the first [[words ]] is determined [[retroactively]]. This function is illustrated in the [[graph of desire|elementary cell]] of the [[graph of desire]], in which the ''[[point de capiton]]'' is the leftmost point of intersection between the vector '''S - S'''' and the vector.

<!-- But if each signification refers to [[another ]] signification, and that signification refers to another one, in an endless [[chain]], how do we decide what words mean? The [[Lacanian ]] term point de capiton (literally, an upholstery stud) refers to a point of convergence. Just as an upholstery stud or button is the center for the converging lines or creases on the surface of a taut fabric, so the [[linguistic ]] ''point de capiton'' provides a vantage point from which everything that happens in a given [[discourse ]] can be situated both retroactively and prospectively. The subject attaches [[significance ]] to certain signifier; these [[signifiers]], like upholstery buttons, pin down the [[floating ]] mass of [[signification]]. Lacan stresses the fact that we do not [[understand ]] a sentence until we [[know ]] we have reached the end; its meaning remains in suspense until the closure. A point de capiton, then, is the "anchoring point" by which the signifier stops the otherwise endless movement of signification. Its diachronic function is to put a halt to the otherwise endless [[process ]] whereby signifier refers to signifier. -->