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=====Jacques Lacan=====

Broadly [[speaking]], [[Lacan]]'s approach is characterized by two important innovations: the [[concept ]] of [[logical time]], and the stress on [[retroaction]] and [[anticipation]].

=====Logical Time=====In his paper entitled "'''[[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography:|Logical Time]]'''" (1945), [[Lacan]] undermines the pretensions of [[logic]] to [[timelessness]] and [[eternity]] by showing how certain logical calculations include an inescapable reference to a '''[[temporality]]'''. =====Temporality===== However, the kind of [[temporality]] involved is not specificiable specificable by reference to the clock, but is itself the product of certain logical articulations.   This [[distinction ]] between [[logical time]] and [[chronological time]] underpins [[Lacan]]'s [[whole ]] [[theory ]] of '''[[temporality]]'''. =====Tripartite Structure=====The fact that [[logical time]] is not [[objective]] does not mean that it is simply a question of [[subjective]] [[feeling]]; on the contrary, as the adjective "[[logical]]" indicates, it is a precise [[dialectical]] [[structure]] which may be formulated rigorously in [[mathematical]] [[terms]].  In the 1945 paper, [[Lacan]] argues that [[logical time]] has a [[tripartite]] [[structure]], the three moments of which are:

By means of a sophism (the problem of the [[three prisoners]]) [[Lacan]] shows how these three moments are constructed not in terms of objective chronometric units but in terms of an [[intersubjective]] [[logic]] based on a tension between waiting and haste, between hesitation and urgency. [[Logical time]] is thus "the [[intersubjective]] [[time]] that [[structure]]s [[human]] [[action]]."<ref>{{E}} p.75</ref>

===Treatment===[[Logical Lacan]]'s [[notion]] of [[logical time]] is thus "not just an exercise in logic; it also has [[practical]] consequences for [[psychoanalytic treatment]]. The most famous of these consequences, historically speaking, has been [[Lacan]]'s use of [[sessions of variable duration]] ([[French]]: [[séances scandées]]), which was regarded by the [[intersubjectiveInternational Psycho-Analytical Association]] ([[IPA]]) as sufficient grounds for excluding him from membership. However, to focus exclusively on this [[particular]] [[practice]] is to miss various [[other]] interesting [[clinical]] dimensions of the theory of [[logical time]] that , such as the way in which [[structureLacan]]'s concept of "[[time|the time for understanding]]" can throw light on the [[humanFreud]] ian concept of [[actionworking-through]]."<ref>{{E}} p.75</ref>

=====Psychoanalytic Treatment==Saussurean Linguistics===[[Lacan]]'s notion concept of [[logical time]] anticipates his incursions into [[Saussure]]an [[linguistics]], which is not just an exercise based on the distinction between the [[diachronic]] (or temporal) and the [[synchronic]] ([[time|atemporal]]) aspects of [[language]]. Hence [[Lacan]]'s increasing stress, beginning in logic; the 1950s, on [[synchronic]] or [[timeless]] [[structure]]s rather than on [[developmental]] "[[stages]]". Thus when [[Lacan]] uses the term "[[time]]", it also has practical consequences for is usually to be [[understood]] not as a fleeting [[diachronic]] moment but as a [[structure]], a relatively [[stable]] [[synchronic]] [[psychoanalytic treatmentstate]].

The most famous Similarly, when he speaks of "the three [[times]] of these consequencesthe [[Oedipus complex]], historically speaking" the ordering is one of [[logical]] priority rather than of a [[chronological]] sequence. [[Change]] is not seen as a gradual or smooth move along a continuum, has been but as an abrupt shift from one discrete [[structure]] to [[another]]. [[Lacan]]'s use emphasis on [[synchronic]] or [[timeless]] [[structure]]s can be seen as an attempt to explore [[Freud]]'s [[statement]] [[about]] the non-[[existence]] of [[sessions of variable durationtime]] in the [[unconscious]] (. However, [[FrenchLacan]]: séances scandées)modifies this with his proposal, in 1964, which was regarded by that the [[International Psycho-Analytical Associationunconscious]] (be characterized in terms of a [[IPAtemporal]]) as sufficient grounds for excluding him from membershipmovement of opening and closing.<ref>{{S11}} p. 143, 204</ref>

However===Retroaction and Anticipation===Other forms of [[psychoanalysis]], to focus exclusively on this particular such as [[practiceego-psychology]] is to miss various other interesting clinical dimensions of the theory are based on a linear concept of [[logical time]](as can be seen, for example, such as the way in their stress on a linear sequence of [[development]]al [[stage]]s through which the [[child]] [[naturally]] passes; see [[development]]). [[Lacan]]'s concept , however, completely abandons such a linear notion of "[[time|]], since in the [[psyche]] [[time for understanding]]" can throw light on the equally well act in reverse, by [[Freudretroaction]]ian concept of and [[working-throughanticipation]].

=====Saussurean Linguistics=====[[Lacan]]'s concept of [[logical time]] anticipates his incursions into [[Saussure]]an [[linguistics]], which is based on the distinction between the [[diachronic]] (or temporal) and the [[synchronic]] ([[time|atemporal]]) aspects of [[language]].  Hence [[Lacan]]'s increasing stress, beginning in the 1950s, on [[synchronic]] or [[timeless]] [[structure]]s rather than on [[developmental]] "[[stages]]".  Thus when [[Lacan]] uses the term "[[time]]", it is usually to be understood not as a fleeting [[diachronic]] moment but as a [[structure]], a relatively [[stable]] [[synchronic]] [[state]].  Similarly, when he speaks of "the three [[times]] of the [[Oedipus complex]]," the ordering is one of [[logical]] priority rather than of a [[chronological]] sequence.  [[Change]] is not seen as a gradual or smooth move along a continuum, but as an abrupt shift from one discrete [[structure]] to another. [[Lacan]]'s emphasis on [[synchronic]] or [[timeless]] [[structure]]s can be seen as an attempt to explore [[Freud]]'s statement about the non-[[existence]] of [[time]] in the [[unconscious]].  However, [[Lacan]] modifies this with his proposal, in 1964, that the [[unconscious]] be characterized in terms of a [[temporal]] movement of opening and closing.<ref>{{S11}} p. 143, 204</ref> =====Retroaction and Anticipation=====Other forms of [[psychoanalysis]], such as [[ego-psychology]] are based on a linear concept of [[time]] (as can be seen, for example, in their stress on a linear sequence of [[development]]al [[stage]]s through which the [[child]] [[naturally]] passes; see [[development]]). [[Lacan]], however, completely abandons such a linear notion of [[time]], since in the [[psyche]] [[time]] can equally well act in reverse, by [[retroaction]] and [[anticipation]]. =====Retroaction=====[[Lacan]]'s term ''[[time|après coup]]'' is the term used by [[French]] [[analysts]] to translate [[Freud]]'s ''[[Nachträglichkeit]]'' ("[[time|deferred action]]") . These terms refer to the way that, in the [[psyche]], [[present]] [[event]]s [[affect ]] [[past]] events a posteriori, since the [[past]] [[exist]]s in the [[psyche]] only as a set of [[memories]] which are constantly [[being ]] re[[work]]ed and [[reinterpreted]] in the light of [[present]] [[experience]].   What concerns [[psychoanalysis]] is not the [[real ]] [[past]] sequence of events in themselves, but the way that these events [[exist]] now in [[memory]] and the way that the [[patient]] reports [[them]].   Thus when [[Lacan]] argues that the [[aim]] of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is 'the [[complete ]] reconstitution of the [[subject]]'s [[history]],"<ref>{{S1}} p.12</ref>, he makes it clear that what he means by the term "[[history]]" is not simply a real sequence of [[past]] events, but "the present [[synthesis ]] of the past."<ref>{{S1}} p. 36</ref>

Hence the [[pregenital]] [[stage]]s are not to be seen as real events chronologically prior to the [[genital]] [[stage]], but as forms of [[demand]] which are [[project]]ed [[retroactively]] onto the [[past]].<ref>{{E}} p. 197</ref>   [[Lacan]] also shows how [[discourse]] is [[structure]]d by [[retroaction]]; only when the last [[word]] of the [[sentence]] is uttered do the initial [[word]]s acquire their [[full]] [[meaning]] (see [[punctuation]]).<ref>{{E}} p. 303</ref>

If [[retroaction]] refers to the way the [[present]] affects the [[past]], [[anticipation]] refers to the way the [[future]] affects the [[present]].   Like [[retroaction]], [[anticipation]] marks the [[structure]] of [[speech]]; the first [[word]]s of a [[sentence]] are ordered in [[anticipation]] of the [[word]]s to come.<ref>{{E}} p. 303</ref>   In the [[mirror stage]], the [[ego]] is [[construct]]ed on the basis of the [[anticipation]] of an imagined [[future]] [[wholeness]] which never, in fact, arrives.  The [[structure]] of [[anticipation]] is best illustrated [[linguistically]] by the future-perfect tense.<ref>{{E}} p. 306</ref>   [[Anticipation]] also plays an important [[role ]] in the [[tripartite]] [[structure]] of [[logical time]]; the moment of concluding "is arrived at in haste, in [[anticipation]] of [[future]] [[certainty]]."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 209</ref>

=====See Also=====

||* [[Mirror stageInternational Psycho-Analytical Association]]* [[Intersubjectivity]]* [[Language]]||* [[Linguistics]]* [[Progress]]

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