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Symbolic

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{{Top}}| align="[[right]]" style="line-height:2.0em;text-align:right;margin-left: 10px;background-color:#fcfcfc;border:1px solid #aaa" | [[French]]: ''[[symbolique{{Bottom}]]''|}
The term 'symbolic' appears in adjectival form in Lacan's earliest psychoanalytic writings.<ref> (e.g. In [[Lacan]]ian [[psychoanalysis]], 1936)</ref> In these early works the term implies references to "[[symbolic logic and to ]]" is one of [[three]] [[order]]s that [[structure]] [[human]] [[existence]], the equations used in mathematical physics.<ref> (Ec, 79)<.ref> In 1948 symptoms are said to have a 'symbolic meaning'.<ref>(E, 10)</ref> By 1950, [[others]] [[being]] the term has acquired anthropological overtones, as when Lacan praises Marcel Mauss for having shown that '[[imaginary]] and the structures of society are symbolic'[[real]].<ref>(Ec, 132)</ref>
These different nuances are combined into ==History==The term "[[symbolic]]" appears in adjectival [[form]] in Lacan's earliest [[psychoanalytic]] writings. The adjectival "[[symbolic]]" is often used by [[Lacan]] in a single category fairly conventional [[sense]], but in 1953 when Lacan the 1950s he begins to use the term [[word]] as a substantive, and it rapidly becomes the cornerstone of his [[theory]]: the [[subject]]'s [[relationship]] with the [[symbolic' as a noun]] is the heart of [[psychoanalysis]]. It now becomes one of the three [[orders]] that remain central throughout the rest of Lacan's [[work]]. Of these three orders, the symbolic is the most crucial one for psychoanalysis; [[psychoanalysts ]] are essentially 'practitioners of the symbolic function'.<ref> ({{E, }} p. 72)</ref> In speaking of 'the symbolic function', Lacan makes it clear that his concept of the symbolic order owes much to the anthropological work of Claude LÈvi-Strauss (from whom the phrase 'symbolic function' is taken).<ref> see LÈvi-Strauss, 1949a: 203</ref> In particular, Lacan takes from LÈvi-Strauss the idea that the social world is structured by certain laws which regulate kinship relations and the exchange of gifts.<ref>(see also Mauss, 1923)</ref> The concept of the gift, and that of a circuit of exchange, are thus fundamental to Lacan's concept of the symbolic. <ref>(S4, 153-4, 182)</ref>
Since ==Structuralism==Lacan incorporates into [[psychoanalysis]] the most basic form [[linguistics]] of exchange is communication itself ([[Saussure]] and the exchange [[anthropology]] of [[Lévi-Strauss]]. [[Lacan]]'s [[concept]] of words, the gift [[symbolic|symbolic order]] owes much to the anthropological work of speech);[[Claude Lévi-Strauss]].<ref> S4[[Claude Lévi-Strauss|Lévi-Strauss, 189Claude]]. 1949a: 203</ref> In [[particular]], [[Lacan]] takes from [[Claude Lévi-Strauss|Lévi-Strauss]] the [[idea]] that the [[social]] [[world]] is [[structured]] by certain [[law]]s which regulate kinship relations and since the concepts [[exchange]] of gifts. In his work on kinship [[lawLévi-Strauss]] and argues that any culture can be seen as a set of [[symbolic]] [[structure]] are unthinkable without s such as the rules governing kinship and alliance, [[language]], and [[art]]. He also demonstrates that in [[primitive]] societies the [[ritual]] exchange of gifts has an important [[role]] in the creation and perpetuation of social [[stability]]. The application of [[Saussure]]'s theory of the [[sign]] allows these structures and exchanges to be [[analyzed]] as exchanges of [[signifier]]s. The emergence of [[symbolic ]] [[structure]]s is essentially a linguistic dimension. Any aspect an essential feature of the psychoanalytic experience which has a linguistic structure thus pertains human transition from [[nature]] to the symbolic order[[culture]].
However==Culture==Adapting [[Lévi-Strauss]]'s study of how kinship rules and exogamy govern exchanges between human groups to the field of [[psychoanalysis]], [[Lacan does not simply equate ]] now describes the [[Oedipus complex]] as a [[process]] which imposes [[symbolic order ]] [[structure]]s on [[sexuality]] and allows the [[subject]] to emerge. [[Pre-oedipal|Pre-oedipal sexuality]] is likened to a [[state]] of [[nature]] and unbridled sexuality; the role of the [[Name-of-the-Father]] is to disrupt the [[dual relation]]ship in which the [[child]] tries to fuse with language.On the contrary[[mother]] in an incestuous union, language involves imaginary and real dimensions in addition to its establish a legitimate line of descent ("son of...", "daughter of..."). [[Culture]] and the [[symbolic dimension]] are thuse imposed upon [[nature]]. The [[subject]] gains access to the [[symbolic dimension ]], to a [[name]] and a lineage, but does so at the cost of language a [[symbolic|symbolic castration]]. Although the exchange of [[signifier]]s in [[speech]] is that an obvious example of [[symbolic|symbolic exchange]], [[Lacan]]'s [[symbolic]] is not simply synonymous with [[language]], and should be [[understood]] as comprising the entire [[signifierdomain]]; a dimension in which elements have no positive existence but which are constituted purely by virtue of their mutual differences[[culture]].
The symbolic ==Language==Since the most basic form of exchange is also [[communication]] itself (the realm exchange of radical alterity which Lacan refers to as [[words]], the [[Othergift]]of [[speech]]);<ref>{{S4}} p. The 189</ref> and since the [[concepts]] of [[unconsciouslaw]] is the discourse and of this Other[[structure]] are unthinkable without [[language]], and thus belongs wholly to the [[symbolic order]] is essentially a [[linguistic]] [[dimension]]. The symbolic is the realm Any aspect of the Law psychoanalytic [[experience]] which regulates desire in the Oedipus complex. It is the realm of culture as opposed has a [[linguistic]] [[structure]] thus pertains to the imaginary [[symbolic order of nature]]. Whereas the imaginary is characterised by dual relations, the The [[symbolic ]] dimension of [[language]] is characterised by triadic structures, because that of the intersubjective relationship is always 'mediated' [[signifier]]; a dimension in which elements have no positive [[existence]] but which are constituted purely by a third term, the big Othervirtue of their mutual differences.
==Alterity==The [[symbolic order ]] is also the realm of radical [[alterity]] which [[Lacan]] refers to as the [[Other]]. The [[deathunconscious]] is the [[discourse]], of this [[absenceOther]] , and of thus belongs wholly to the [[lacksymbolic order]]. The [[symbolic ]] is both the realm of the [[pleasure principleLaw]] which regulates [[desire]] in the distance from [[Oedipus complex]]. It is theThing, and realm of [[culture]] as opposed to the [[death driveimaginary]] [[order]] which goes 'beyond of [[nature]]. Whereas the pleasure principle' [[imaginary]] is characterised by means of repetition;<ref>S2[[dual relation]]s, 210</ref> in factthe [[symbolic]] is characterised by [[triad]]ic [[structures]], 'because the death drive [[intersubjective]] relationship is only always "mediated" by a [[third]] term, the mask of the symbolic order'[[big Other]].<ref> S2, 326</ref>
==Death==The [[symbolic order ]] is completely autonomous: it is not a superstructure determined by biology or geneticsalso the realm of [[death]], of [[absence]] and of [[lack]]. It The [[symbolic]] is completely contingent with respect to both the [[pleasure principle]] which regulates the distance from the real: 'There is no biological reason[[Thing]], and in particular no genetic one, to account for exogamy. In the human order we are dealing with [[death drive]] which goes "[[pleasure principle|beyond the complete emergence pleasure principle]]" by means of a new function, encompassing the whole order in its entirety'.[[repetition]];<ref> ({{S2, 29}} p. 210</ref> Thus while in fact, "the symbolic may seem to 'spring from [[death drive]] is only the real' as pre-given, this is an illusion, and 'one shouldn't think that symbols actually have come from mask of the real'[[symbolic order]]."<ref> ({{S2, 238}} p. 326</ref>
==Autonomy==The [[symbolic order]] is completely [[autonomous]]: it is not a superstructure determined by [[biology]] or [[biology|genetics]]. It is completely [[contingent]] with respect to the [[real]]: "There is no [[biological]] [[reason]], and in particular no genetic one, to account for exogamy. In the human order we are dealing with the [[complete]] emergence of a new function, encompassing the [[whole]] order in its entirety."<ref>{{S2}} p. 29</ref> Thus while the [[symbolic]] may seem to "spring from the real" as pre-given, this is an [[illusion]], and "one shouldn't [[think]] that [[symbols]] actually have come from the real."<ref>{{S2}} p. 238</ref> The totalising, all-encompassing effect of the [[symbolic order ]] leads [[Lacan ]] to [[speak ]] of the [[symbolic ]] as a [[universe]]: '"In the symbolic order the [[totality ]] is called a universe. The symbolic order from the first takes on its [[universal ]] [[character]]. It isn't constituted bit by bit. As soon as the [[symbol ]] arrives, there is a universe of symbols.'"<ref> ({{S2, }} p. 29)</ref> There is therefore no question of a gradual continuous transition from the [[imaginary ]]to the [[symbolic]]; they are completely heterogeneous domains. Once the [[symbolic order ]] has arisen, it creates the sense that it has always been there, since '"we find it absolutely [[impossible ]] to speculate on what preceded it other than by symbols'."<ref> ({{S2, }} p. 5)</ref> For this reason it is strictly [[speaking ]] impossible to conceive the origin of [[language]], let alone what came before, which is why questions of [[development ]] lie [[outside ]] the field of [[psychoanalysis]].
==Psychoanalysis==[[Lacan ]] criticises the [[psychoanalysis ]] of his day for [[forgetting ]] the [[symbolic order ]] and reducing everything to the [[imaginary]]. This is, for [[Lacan]], [[nothing ]] less than a [[betrayal ]] of [[Freud]]'s most basic insights; '"Freud's discovery is that of the field of the effects, in the nature of man, produced by his relation to the symbolic order. To ignore this symbolic order is to condemn the discovery to oblivion.'"<ref> ({{E, }} p. 64)</ref>[[Lacan]] argues that it is only by [[working]] in the [[symbolic order]] that the [[analyst]] can produce changes in the [[subjective]] [[position]] of the [[analysand]]; these changes will also produce [[imaginary]] effects, since the [[imaginary]] is [[structure]]d by the [[symbolic]].
Lacan argues that it is only by working in the symbolic order that the analyst can produce changes in the subjective position of the analysand; these changes will also produce imaginary effects, since the imaginary is structured by the [[symbolic]].
==See Also==
* [[Psychosis]]{{See}}* [[Castration of the subject]]* [[Child analysisCommunication]]* [[Death instinct]]* [[Demand]] [[Ethics]]* [[Formula of Fantasy]] * [[Female sexuality]]* [[Feminism and psychoanalysis]] * [[Foreclosure]]* [[Fort-Da]]* [[Ego ideal]]* [[Ideal ego]]* [[Imaginary identification]]* [[Symbolic identificationdrive]]
* [[Imaginary]]
* [[Imago]] ||* [[KnotLanguage]]* [[L and R schemasLaw]]* [[MathemeLinguistics]]* [[Mirror stage]]||
* [[Name-of-the-Father]]
* [[NeurosisOedipus complex]]* [[ObjectOther]]* [[Object a]]||* [[Optical schemaOrder]]* [[Phallus]]* [[Privation]]* [[Psychoses, chronic and delusional Real]]* [[Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic father]] * [[Formulas of Sexuation]]* [[Signifier]] * [[Structuralism and psychoanalysis]]* [[Subject]] * [[Subject's desire]]||* [[SymbolStructure]] * [[SymbolizationUnconscious]]* [[Symptom]]* [[sinthome]] * [[Thalassa: A Theory of Genitality]]* [[Topology]]* [[Unary trait]]* [[Want of being/lack of being]]{{Also}}
==References==
# [[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. (1920g). Beyond the pleasure principle. SE, 18<div style="font-size: 111px" class="references-64.small"><references/># [[Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]]. (2002). The function and field of speech and language in psychoanalysis. In his ''Écrits: A selection'' ([[Bruce Fink]], Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton (Original work published 1953)</div>
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[[Category:Symbolic]]
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