Torus

torus (tore) The torus is one of the figures that Lacan analyses in his study

of TOPOLOGY. In itS Simplest form, it is a ring, a three-dimensional object

formed by taking a cylinder and joining the two ends together (Figure19).

   Lacan's first reference to the torus dates from 1953 (see E, 105), but it is not

until his work on topology in the 1970s that it begins to figure prominently in

his work. The topology of the torus illustrates certain features of the structure

of the subject:

   One important feature of the torus is that its centre of gravity falls outside its

volume, just as the centre of the subject is outside himself; he is decentred, ex-

centric.

   Another property of the torus is that 'its peripheral exteriority and its central

exteriority constitute only one single region' (E, 105). This illustrates the way

that psychoanalysis problematises the distinction between 'inside' and 'out-

side' (see EXTIMIT…).