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Primacy of the [[Signifier]]

The phrase "the primacy of the signifier" suggests that signifier and [[signified ]] do not coevally constitute the [[sign]]. The primacy of the signifier is, however, primarily of interest in [[parole ]] (actual instances of [[discourse]]) and therefore in the study of the [[individual ]] [[psyche]]. Parole is signifier-driven [[human ]] interaction where the signified is introduced and the psyche is inscribed by the associated interaction happening in "[[real ]] [[time]]" and real relationships where the messy business of everyday [[life ]] is shaping the [[subject]]. [[Signifiers ]] [[drive ]] discursive engagement so that we are infused and influenced by signifiers moderating and informing every [[experience ]] and creating [[links ]] with experiences and exchanges at [[other ]] [[times ]] and places. The [[words ]] used may evoke words that you heard your [[father ]] say, or catch the tone of [[voice ]] and phrasing of your estranged lover; they may make you cringe or fill you with a [[sense ]] [End Page 67] of your own inadequacy. Importantly, the primacy of the signifier does not mean that the signifier ever [[exists ]] without the signified, but it does mean that we are multiply inscribed by signifiers and that those inscriptions [[form ]] our psyches and inform our subjectivities.

The [[psychic ]] effects of the signifier are not fully explicable by detailing semantic [[contents ]] (as ideally [[captured ]] by [[public ]] sense; [[Husserl]]'s or Frege's Sinn). The [[significance ]] of a sign to a subject is, as [[Lacan ]] says, a function of its resonance with the subject's [[unconscious]]. We should also note that signifiers function not only on the basis of their associated semantic [[content]], but also grammatically and even acoustically. That is why writers like [[Lewis Carroll ]] can [[construct ]] [[poetry ]] out of nonsense words without making [[explicit ]] exactly what is [[being ]] signified: His "vorpel blade went snicker snack" has an obvious resonance through something like onomatopoeia and neologistic signifiers generally evoke [[meanings ]] that are quirky or amusing through far less immediately recognizable [[associations]].

These are all cases of [[conscious ]] activities involving the primacy of the signifier in [[society ]] where it is well accepted not only as a [[cause ]] of semantic mistakes but as a legitimate way of evoking new and unusual semantic effects. A quick glance at the neurobiological implications of this [[reading ]] of Lacan paves the way for a [[summary ]] of his relevance for the [[philosophy ]] of [[psychiatry]].