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

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]]'''. However, the kind of [[temporality]] involved is not 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]]'''.

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:

[[Lacan]]'s [[notion ]] of [[logical time]] is 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 [[International 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]], such as the way in which [[Lacan]]'s concept of "[[time|the time for understanding]]" can throw light on the [[Freud]]ian concept of [[working-through]].

[[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>

[[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>

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>

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