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Symbolic
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The term 'symbolic' appears in adjectival form in Lacan's earliest psychoanalytic writings.<ref> (e.g. Lacan, 1936)</ref> In these early works the term implies references to symbolic logic and to 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, the term has acquired anthropological overtones, as when Lacan praises Marcel Mauss for having shown that 'the structures of society are symbolic'.<ref>(Ec, 132)</ref>