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# the [[signified]], a [[conceptual ]] element (or [[concept]]), and # the [[signifier]], a phonological element (or sound-[[image]]).

The two elements are linked by an [[arbitrary ]] but unbreakable bond.

[[Lacan]] takes up the [[Saussure]]an concept of the [[sign]] in his "[[linguistic ]] turn" in [[psychoanalysis]] during the 1950s, but [[subjects ]] it to several modifications. During the 1950s [[Lacan]] began to make us of [[Saussure]]'s [[concepts ]] but adapted [[them ]] in important ways.

Secondly, [[Lacan]] asserts the [[existence]] of an order of "pure [[signifiers]]," where [[signifier]]s [[exist ]] prior to [[signified]]s; this [[order]] of purely [[logical ]] [[structure]] is the [[unconscious]]. This amounts to a [[destruction ]] of [[Saussure]]'s concept of the [[sign]]; for [[Lacan]], a [[language]] is not composed of [[sign]]s but of [[signifier]]s.

[[Image:SAUSSUREANALGORITHM.gif|right|thumb|Saussurean algorithm|The Saussurean algorithm]] To illustrate the contrast between his own views and those of [[Saussure]], [[Lacan]] replaces [[Saussure]]'s diagram of the [[sign]] with an [[Saussurean algorithm|algorithm]] which, [[Lacan]] argues, should be attributed to [[Saussure]] -- and is thus now sometimes referred to as the "[[Saussure]]an algorithm."<ref>{{E}} p.149</ref> The '''S''' stands for the [[signifier]], and the '''s''' for the [[signified]]; the [[position ]] of the [[signified]] and the [[signifier]] is thus inverted, showing the primacy of the [[signifier]] (which is capitalized, whereas the [[signifier]] is reduced to mere lower-[[case ]] italic). The arrows and the circle are abolished, representing the [[absence]] of a [[stable ]] or fixed relation between [[signifier]] and [[signified]]. The [[bar]] between the [[signifier]] and the [[signified]] no longer represents union but the [[resistance]] inherent in [[signification]]. For [[Lacan]], this [[algorithm]] defines "the [[topography]] of the [[unconscious]]."<ref>{{E}} p. 163</ref>