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[[Lacan]]'s discussion of "[[Thing|the Thing]]" constitutes one of the central themes in the [[seminar ]] of 1959-60 (‘’L''[[Seminars|L'éthique de la psychanalyse’’ psychanalyse]]'' – “"[[The Ethics of Psychoanalysis]]”"), where he uses the [[French ]] term ‘’la Chose’’ ''[[Thing|la Chose]]’’ interchangeably with the [[German ]] term ‘’das Ding’’''[[Thing|das Ding]]''.
There are two main contexts in which this term operates.
This seemed to some of [[Lacan]]'s contemporaries to offer an objection to [[Lacan]]'s theories about the [[linguistic|linguistic nature]] of the [[unconscious]].
It is the latter term which [[Freud]] usually employs to refer to the [[thing-presentations]] in the [[unconscious]], and [[Lacan]] argues that although on one level ''[[Thing|Sachvorstellungen]]'' and ''[[Thing|Wortvorstellungen]]'' are opposed, in the [[symbolic|symbolic level]] "they go together".
The [[thing------presentation]]s found in the unconscious are thus still [[linguistics|linguistic phenomena]], as opposed to ''[[Thing|das Ding]]'' which is entirely outside [[language]], and outside the [[unconscious]].
The [[pleasure principle]] is the [[law]] which maintains the [[subject]] at a certain distance from the [[Thing]],<ref>{{S7}} p.58, 63</ref> making the [[subject]] circle round it without ever attaining it.<ref>{{S7}} p.95</ref>
The [[Thing ]] is thus presented to the beyond of [[subject]] as his Sovereign Good, but if the signified – [[subject]] transgresses the [[pleasure principle]] and attains this Good, it is experienced as suffering/evil,<ref>[[Lacan]] plays on the [[French]] term ''mal'', which can mean both suffering and evil; {{S7}} p.179</ref> because the [[subject]] "cannot stand the extreme good that which is unknowable in itself''[[Thing|das Ding]]'' may bring to him."<ref>{{S7}} p.73</ref>
It is something beyond symbolizationfortunate, and therefore associated with then, that the real, or as Lacan puts it, “the thing in its dumb reality[[Thing]] is usually inaccessible.”<ref>1992: 55{{S7}} p.59</ref>The Thing is a lost object that must be continually refound.
==See Also, the fact that the Thing is not the imaginary object but firmly in the register of the real, <ref>=={{S2See}} p.112</ref> and yet is “that which in the real suffers from the signifier,”<ref>{{S7Also}} p.125</ref> anticipates the transition in Lacan's thought towards locating objet petit a mcreasingly in the register of the real from 1963 on.
==References==