Lacan: The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious; or Reason Since Freud

A contribution half-way between writing and speech. [What is this between?]

reud! literary training is the pri"e prere#uisite for training of analysts. $peech as the
instru"ent of the tal%ing cure.
I. The Meaning of the Letter
&sychoanalysis disco'ers in the unconscious ( the whole structure of language( )p.
*+,-. .hus/ the unconscious is not 0ust the seat of instincts.
The order of the symbolic:
language and its structure e1ist prior to the "o"ent at which each sub0ect at a certain
point in his "ental de'elop"ent "a%es his entry into it.
.hus the sub0ect/ too/ if he can appear to be the sla'e of language is all the "ore so of a
discourse in the uni'ersal "o"ent in which his place is already inscribed at birth/ if only
by 'irtue of his proper na"e. )p. *+,-
2inguistics as a science. $ignifier o'er signified. What about the bar itself? .he
the"atics of this science is henceforth suspended/ in effect/ at the pri"ordial position of
the signifier and signified as being distinct orders separated initially by a barrier resisting
signification. )p. *34- 5oing beyond the doctrines of the arbitrariness of the sign or the
correspondence of word and thing. 6stensi'e teaching. 7o signification can be
sustained other than by reference to another signification. ( We fail to pursue the
#uestion further as long as we cling to the illusion that the signifier answers to the
function of representing the signified/ or better/ that the signifier has to answer for its
e1istence in the na"e of any signification whate'er. )p. *38-
9nstead of assu"ing the correlation signifier:signified/ we "ust pay attention to the
reference of significations to one another.
;ntry of signifier into signified. )Role of language/signification in the structure of
material reality-! an e1a"ple! "ens and wo"ens restroo"s.
<o'e"ent of language along the chain of signifiers. We are forced ( to accept the
notion of an incessant sliding of the signified under the signifier ( )p. *3+-
.his process does not depend on presence of the whole signifier in the sub0ect.
What this structure of the signifying chain discloses is the possibility 9 ha'e/ precisely in
so far as 9 ha'e this language in co""on with other sub0ects/ that is to say/ in so far as it
e1ists as a language/ to use it in order to signify something quite other than what it says.
.his function of speech is "ore worth pointing out than that of disguising the thought
)"ore often than not indefinable- of the sub0ect= it is no less than the function of
indicating the place of the sub0ect in search of the true. )p. *33-
$liding of signifier/ in two "odes! metonymy )word-word connection- and metaphor
)one signifier ta%es the place of the other in the signifying chain-.
6f course/ as it is said/ the letter %illeth while the spirit gi'eth life. We cant help but
agree/ ha'ing had to pay ho"age elsewhere to a noble 'icti" of the error of see%ing the
spirit in the letter= but we should also li%e to %now how the spirit could li'e without the
letter. ;'en so/ the pretentions of the spirit would re"ain unassailable if the letter had
not shown us that it produces all the effects of truth in "an without in'ol'ing the spirit at
all.
9t is none other than reud who had this re'elation/ and he called his disco'ery the
unconscious. )p. *3>-
II. The Letter in the Unconscious
reud! the drea" as hieroglyphics and rebus. .he 'alue of signifier as i"age )ha'ing
nothing to do with its signification-.
<echanis"s of the drea"-wor%!
?istortion! sliding of signified under the signifier
@ondensation! superi"position of signifiers )cf. "etaphor-
?isplace"ent! 'eering off of signification )cf. "etony"y-
2iberating reuds insight fro" a li"ited conception of the unconscious.
Abi#uity of the unconscious. ;'en the bodily or so"atic can be designated a an effect of
the unconscious.
$y"boliBing the place of the sub0ect )9- in the signifying order and the "etony"ic
structure. Ai" of desire toward the 'ery lac% of signification.
Crossing of the bar as constituti'e for the e"ergence of signification.
Cogito, ergo sum. 9s the place that 9 occupy as the sub0ect of a signifier concentric or
e1centric/ in relation to the place 9 occupy as sub0ect of the signified? C that is the
#uestion(
9t is not a #uestion of %nowing whether 9 spea% of "yself in a way that confor"s to what
9 a"/ but rather of %nowing whether 9 a" the sa"e as that of which 9 spea%. )p. *D4-
9 a" what 9 a". A" 9 )only- what 9 a"? ?o 9 beco"e what 9 a"?
.his signifying ga"e between "etony"y and "etaphor/ up to and including the acti'e
edge that splits "y desire between a refusal of the signifier and a lac% of being/ and lin%s
"y fate to the #uestion of "y destiny/ this ga"e/ in all its ine1orable subtlety/ is played
until the "atch is called/ there where 9 a" not/ because 9 cannot situate "yself there. )p.
*D4-.
$y"pto"s as "etaphors. <e"ories and traces. 9t is in a "e"ory/ co"parable to what
is called by that na"e in our "odern thin%ing-"achines )which are in turn based on an
electronic realiBation of the co"position of signification-/ it is in his sort of "e"ory that
is found the chain that insists on reproducing itself in the transference/ and which is the
chain of dead desire.
9t is the truth of what this desire has been in his history that the patient cries out through
his sy"pto"/ as @hrist said that the stones the"sel'es would ha'e cried out if the
children of 9srael had not lent the" their 'oice. )p. *D8-
7eurosis! a #uestion that being poses for the sub0ect fro" where it was before the
sub0ect ca"e into the world
III. The Letter, eing and the !ther
$elfs radical e1-centricity to itself. &ossibility of reconciliation with self? )with the
other 9 that spea%s in "y place-? 6nly if this other 9 can be recogniBed as the
6ther!
9f 9 ha'e said that the unconscious is the discourse of the 6ther )with a capital 6-/ it is in
order to indicate the beyond in which the recognition of desire is bound up with the desire
for recognition. 9n other words this other is the 6ther that e'en "y lie in'o%es as a
guarantor of the truth in which it subsists.
Ey which we can also see that it is with the appearance of language the di"ension of
truth e"erges.
.he 6ther! the constituti'e do"ain of truth. .he effect of the sy"bolic.
Fistory as history of shifts in relations between signifier and signified.
Feidegger. inally/ if 9 a" to rouse you to indignation o'er the fact that/ after so "any
centuries of religious hypocrisy and philosophical bra'ado/ nothing has yet been 'alidly
articulated as to what lin%s "etaphor to the #uestion of being and "etony"y to its lac%/
there "ust be an ob0ect there to answer to that indignation both as its instigator and its
'icti"= that ob0ect is hu"anistic "an and the credit/ hopelessly affir"ed/ which he has
drawn o'er his intentions. )p. *D>-.