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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]].

[[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 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]].

{{See}}

* [[Communication]]

{{Also}}

{{OK}}

[[Category:Symbolic]]

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