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[[Lacan ]] first proposes his famous formula: ''il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel '' in 1970 (see Lacan ,<ref>{{L}} ''[[Seminar XVII|Le Séminaire. Livre XVII. L'envers de la psychanalyse, 1969-70]]''. Ed. [[Jacques-Alain Miller]]. Paris: Seuil, 1991: 134), </ref> and takes it up again in his [[seminar ]] of 1972-3 (.<ref>{{S20, }} p. 17). </ref>
This formula is usually translated into English as "There is no such thing as a sexual relationship", which is misleading since [[Lacan]] is certainly not denying that people have sex!
The formula might be better rendered "There is no relation between the sexes", thus emphasizing that it is not primarily the [[act]] of '''sexual intercourse''' that [[Lacan]] is referring to but the question of the relation between the masculine sexual position and the feminine sexual position.
One consequence of this is that it is not possible to define perversion by reference to a supposedly natural form of the sexual relationship (as Freud did).
Heterosexuality is thus not natural but normative (.<ref>{{Ec, }} p. 223). 2. There is no reciprocity or symmetry between the male and female positions because the [[Symbolic]] order is fundamentally asymmetrical; there is no corresponding signifier which could signify [[Woman]] in the same way that the male sex is symbolised. There is only one signifier, the [[Phallus]], which governs the relations between the sexes (E, 289). There is thus no symbol for a symmetrical sexual relationship: 'the sexual relationship cannot be written' (S20, 35). 3. Relations between men and women can never be harmonious; 'The most naked rivalry between men and women is eternal' (S2, 263). Love is no more than an illusion designed to make up for the absence of harmonious relations between the sexes (whether presented in mythical terms, as in Plato's Symposium, or in psychoanalytic terms, as in Balint's concept of GENITAL œOVC). </ref>
There is therefore no such thing as a sexual relationship between two subjectsonly one [[signifier]], the [[phallus]], only which governs the relations between a subject and a (partial) objectthe sexes.<ref>{{E}} p. 289</ref>
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3. Relations between men and women can never be harmonious; "The most naked rivalry between men and women is eternal."<ref>{{S2}} p. 263</ref>
4. The [[drive|sexual drives]] are directed not towards a "whole person" but towards [[part-object]]s.
There is therefore no such thing as a [[sexual relationship]] between two [[subject]]s, only between a [[subject]] and a (partial) object.
5. [[Woman]] cannot function sexually qua [[Woman]] but only qua mother; "[[Woman]] begins to function in the sexual relationship only as mother."<ref>{{S20}} p. 36</ref>
6. As something rooted in the [[Real]], sex is opposed to meaning; and "sex, in opposing itself to sense, is also, by definition, opposed to relation, to communication."<ref>Copjec, Joan. 1994: 21</ref>
==See Also=={{See}}* [[Sexual difference]]{{Also}}== References ==
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[[Category:Sexuality]]