=====Background=====
=====The [[matheme]] is a concept introduced in the [[{{LB}}|work]] of [[Jacques Lacan]]. The term "[[matheme]]" is a neologism coined by [[Jacques Lacan]] in the early 1970s. Formed by derivation from "[[mathematics]]" and by analogy with [[phoneme]] and [[Lévi-Strauss]]'s [[mytheme]],<ref>''Mytheme'' is a term coined by [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] to denote the basic constituents of mythological systems.</ref> the term is an equivalent to "[[algebra|mathematical sign]]". It is not used in conventional [[mathematics]], but is part of [[Lacan]]'s [[algebra]]. They are formulae designed as symbolic representations of his ideas and analyses. They were intended to introduce some degree of scientific rigour in [[philosophy|philosophical]] and [[psychology|psychological]] [[{{LB}}|writing]], replacing the often hard to understand verbal descriptions with formulae resembling those used in the [[science|hard sciences]], and as an easy way to hold, [[memory|remember]] and rehearse some of the core ideas of both [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]]. For example: $ <> a is the [[matheme]] for [[fantasy]] for [[Lacan]]. "Matheme", for Lacan, was not simply the imitation of science by philosophy, but the ideal of a perfect means for the integral transmission of knowledge. Natural language, with its constant "metonymic slide", fails here, where mathematics succeeds. Though sometimes disparaged as a case of "physics envy" or accused of introducing false rigor into a discpline that is more literary theory than hard science, there is also something of a sense of humor in Lacan's mathemes.
[[Lacan]] begins to use a variety of graphs and 'schemata' at an early stage in his work.
