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The [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] are those circumstances in which the [[law]]s of the [[unconscious]] are most discernible: the [[joke]], the [[dream]], the [[symptom]], the [[lapsus]] ([[parapraxis]]). [[Freud]] referred to the fundamental mechanisms involved in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] as [[condensation]] and [[displacement]], which [[Lacan]] redefines as [[metaphor]] and [[metonymy]]. With the former, the play of [[signifier]]s creates [[sense ]] in nonsense in relation to [[truth]]. The latter reveals the [[lack]] of a [[word]], "an item of waste sent like a ball between [[code]] and [[message]]." In this [[lack]] [[substitute]] [[word]]s appear and function like "the [[metonymic]] ruins of the [[object]]."

At the junction between [[psychoanalysis]] and [[linguistics]], [[Lacan]] wants to [[formalize]] the primordial [[law]]s of the [[unconscious]] that [[Freud]] had uncovered. His [[project ]] is to define a [[topology]] of the levels of functioning of the signifier in the subject by elaborating the [[graph]]s that, under the generic [[name ]] of [[Graph of Desire]], will be at the core of "[[The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious]]" written in 1960 and published in 1966 in <i>[[Écrits]]</i>. Here the key [[concept ]] is that of [[desire]], and [[Lacan]]'s [[dialectic]] of [[desire]] is quite distinct from [[Hegel]]'s. The Graph of Desire will serve as a [[topology]] of the different steps constitutive of the [[subject]]. "It is precisely because desire is articulated that it is not articulable" in a [[signifying chain]]. [[Slavoj Zizek]] commenting on this formulation argues that [[subject]] is not substance, "it has not substantial positive [[being ]] in itself, being caught between 'not yet' and 'no longer'. The [[subject]] never is, it will have been - either it is not yet here or it is no longer here, since there is only a trace of its [[absence]]."

The [[subject]] is dependent on the [[recognition ]] of the [[Other]] who embodies "the legitimacy of the code," he alone can ratify a word as a [[joke]], as stupidity or as [[madness]]. With the [[Other]], [[Lacan]] moves on to the [[analysis]] of the [[Oedipus complex]]. [[Three ]] [[stages ]] [[structure]] the [[constitution ]] of the [[subject]]. First, the [[paternal metaphor ]] [[acts ]] intrinsically on account of the primacy given to the [[phallus]] by [[culture]]. Then, the father intervenes as the one who deprives the [[mother]]: to her he addresses the [[message]] "You will not reintegrate your product" - the [[child]] as [[phallic]] [[object]]. The [[child]] receives "a [[message]] on the [[message]]," in the [[form ]] of "You will not [[sleep ]] with your mother" that liberates and deprives him of the object of his [[desire]]. From the alternative "To be or not to be the [[phallus]]," he can move to the alternative "To have it or not to have it." The [[third ]] [[moment ]] - the exit out of the [[Oedipus complex]] - requires the [[intervention ]] of the permissive and generous father who, preferred over the [[mother]], gives [[birth ]] to the [[idea ]] of the [[ego]]. It is in this context that the problems of becoming boy or [[girl ]] - of the inverted [[Oedipus complex]] are raised.

[[Lacan]] plays with the term "[[insistence]]" in [[order ]] to [[recall ]] [[repetition]], the characteristic of the [[signifying chain]] in the [[unconscious]]. "The unconscious is neither primordial nor [[instinctual]]; what it [[knows ]] [[about ]] the elementary is but the elements of the signifier." In a previous [[writing]], "[[The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason since Freud]]," he defines the unconscious as a [[memory ]] that can be compared to that of modern [[thinking]]-machines where the chain that insists on reproducing itself in the [[transference]] can be found, and which is the [[chain]] of [[dead]] [[desire]].

In "[[The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious]]," written in 1960, [[Lacan]] states that "it is not the law that bars the [[subject]]'s access to <i>[[jouissance]]</i> but [[pleasure]]." In 1966 he will add a final [[sentence]]: "[[Castration]] means that <i>[[jouissance]]</i> must be refused, so that it can be reached on the inverted ladder (<i>échelle inversée</i>) of the [[Law]] of [[desire]]."

"The [[signification ]] of the phallus" (<i>[[Écrits: A Selection]]</i>) is a lecture given at the Max Planck Institute in Munich in 1958. All the research accomplished during <i>La relation d'[[objet]]</i> and <i>Les [[formations ]] de l'[[inconscient]]</i> culminates here, and serves as an introduction to <i>Le [[désir ]] et son [[interpretation]]</i><br>

The alternative seems ineluctable: either the [[Mother]] or the [[Father]]. To choose the [[Mother]] means to be condemned to the dependency of [[demand]], while the [[Father]] constitutes the access to [[desire]], hence to salvation. If the [[Father]] must be preferred to the [[Mother]], if the [[Father]] is the origin and the [[representative ]] of [[culture]] (and of the [[Law]]), it is because he possesses the [[phallus]] that he can give or refuse. The absolute primacy of the [[phallus]] - the single emblem of Man - has become a [[real ]] doctrinal (perhaps dogmatic) basis of [[Lacanian ]] [[theory]]: "The [[phallus]] is the [[signifier]] of [[signifier]]s, the privileged signifier of that mark in which the [[role ]] of the [[logos ]] is joined with the advent of [[desire]]," its function "touches on its most profound rapport: that in which the Ancients embodied the <i>Nous</i>, the [[Mind]], and the <i>Logos</i>, [[discourse]], [[reason]]." Why such a privilege? "This [[signifier]] is chosen as the most tangible element in the real of [[sexual ]] copulation; it is the most [[symbolic ]] in the literal sense," since "it is equivalent to the [[logical ]] copula." Moreover, "by virtue of its turgidity, it epitomizes the [[image ]] of the vital flow as it is transmitted in generation." [[Freud]] says, there is only one [[libido]], [[masculine ]] in [[nature]]. Later, [[Lacan]] will assert that "[[there is no such thing as sexual rapport]]," <i>[[il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel]]</i>, in the sense of proportion or relation: one sex counts for both [[sexes]]. Thus the [[phallus]] can only appear as veiled.

<b>Le séminaire, Livre V: Les formations de [[l'inconscient]].</b><br>[[French]]: (texte établi par Jacques-[[Alain ]] [[Miller]]), [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1998.<br>[[English]]: unpublished.

|width="100%"| [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]]. [[Seminar I|The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book II : The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis 1954-1955 (Seminar of Jacques Lacan)]]. Ed. [[Jacques-Alain Miller]]. Trans. [[Sylvana Tomaselli]]. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991. Paperback, [[Language]]: English, ISBN: 0393307093. <small><small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr].</small></small>

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