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The [[langugelanguage]] phenomena most notable in [[psychosis]] are ''disorders'' of [[language]], and [[Lacan]] argues that the [[presence]] of such disorders is a necessary condition for a diagnosis of [[psychosis]].<ref>{{S3}} p.92</ref>
Among the psychotic language disorders which Lacan draws attention to are holophrases and the extensive use of neologisms (which may be completely new words coined by the psychotic, or already existing words which the psychotic redefines).<ref>{{Ec}} p.167</ref>
The lack of sufficient points de capiton means that the psychotic experience is characterized by a constant slippage of the signified under the signifier, which is a disaster for [[signification]]; there is a continual "casscade of reshapings of the signifier fromw hich the increasing disaster of the imaginary proceeds, until the level is reached at which signifier and signified are stablized in the delusional metaphor."<ref>{E}} p.217</ref>
Another way of desribing this is as "a relationship between the subject and the signifier in its most formal dimension, in its dimension as a pure signifier."<ref>{{S3}} p.250</ref>
This relationship of the subject to the signifier in its purely formal aspect constitutes "the nucleus of psychosis."<ref>{{S3}} p.250</ref>
"If the neurotic inhabits language, the psychotic is inhabited, possessed, by language."<ref>{{S3}} p.250</ref>
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Of all the various forms of psychosis, it is [[paranoia]] that most interests Lacan, while schizophrenia and mani-depressive psychosis are rarely discussed.<ref>{{S3}} p.3-4</ref>
Lacan follows Freud in maintaining a structural distinction between paranoia and schizophrenia.
