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A [[quaternary]] is a [[structure]] which comprises four elements.
Although [[Lacan]]'s [[rejection ]] of dualistic schemas in favour of an emphasis on the [[triangular ]] structure of the [[symbolic]] involves a predominance of triadic schemes in his [[work]], Lacan also insists on the importance of fourfold schemes:
<blockquote>A quadripartite structure has, since the introduction of the [[unconscious]], always been required in the con- struction of a [[subjective ]] ordering.<ref>{{Ec}} p. 774</ref></blockquote>
==Anthropology==
The emphasis on the [[quaternary]] first comes to the fore in Lacan's work in the early 1950s, and is perhaps due to the influence of Claude LÈvi-[[Strauss]], whose work on the structure of the avunculate shows that the basic unit of kinship always involves a minimum of four [[terms]].<ref>[[Levi-Strauss]], 1945</ref>
Thus, in a 1953 paper which deals with the [[neurotic]]'s '[[individual ]] [[myth]]' ([[another ]] reference to Levi-Strauss), Lacan remarks that "there is within the neurotic a quartet [[situation]],"<ref>{{L}} 1953b: 231</ref> and adds that this quartet can demonstrate the particularities of each [[case ]] of [[neurosis ]] more rigorously than the traditional triangular thematisation of the [[Oedipus ]] [[complex]].<ref>{{L}} 1953b:232</ref>
He concludes that "the [[whole ]] [[oedipal ]] [[schema ]] [[needs ]] to be re-examined."<ref>{{L}} 1953b: 235</ref>
Thus, in addition to the [[three ]] elements of the [[Oedipus complex ]] ([[mother]], [[child]], [[father]]), Lacan often speaks of a fourth element; sometimes he argues that this fourth element is [[death]],<ref>{{L}} 1953b: 237; S4, 431</ref> and at [[other ]] [[times ]] he argues that it is the [[phallus]].<ref>{{S3}} p.319</ref>
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In 1955, [[Lacan]] goes on to compare [[psychoanalytic treatment]] to bridge, "a [[game ]] for four players."<ref>{{E}} p.139, 229-230</ref>
In the same year, he describes a [[quaternary]] made up of a [[triad]]ic [[structure]] plus a fourth element (the [[letter]]) which circulates among these three elements.<ref>{{L}} 1955a</ref>
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Other important [[quaternary]] [[structure]]s which appear in [[Lacan]]'s work are [[schema L]] (which has four nodes), the four [[partial ]] [[drives ]] and their four corresponding [[part-object]]s, and the [[four discourses]] (each of which has four [[symbols ]] assigned to four places).
[[Lacan]] also enumerates four "fundamental [[concepts ]] of [[psychoanalysis]]"<ref>{{L}} 1964a</ref> and speaks of the [[sinthome]] as a fourth ring which prevents the other three rings in the [[borromean knot]] (the three [[orders ]] of the [[real]], the [[symbolic]] and the [[imaginary]]) from becoming separated.
