Seminar XXIV Final Sessions 1 - Lacan in Ireland

here in this first drawing [Fig. V-1], these three circles form a Borromean knot.They form a Borromean knot, not that the first three form a Borromean knotsince, as is implicated in the fact that the freed fourth, as I might say, the fourthelement freed should leave each of the three free. The quatresse bindsnevertheless, starting from the one which is the highest (black), on condition ofpassing above the one that is highest, it will find itself by passing over the onewhich in the flattening out is intermediary (green), by passing beneath, it will finditself binding the three. This indeed in effect is what we see happening [Fig. V-7],namely, that, on condition that you see that as equivalent to the following, I thinkthat you see here that it is a matter of a representation of the Real insofar as it ishere that we have the apprehension of the Imaginary, of the Symptom and of theSymbolic, the Symbolic on this particular occasion being very precisely what wemust think about as being the signifier. What does that mean? The fact is thatthe signifier on this particular occasion is a symptom, a body, namely, theImaginary being distinct from the signified. This way of making the chainquestions us about the following: the fact is that the Real, namely, what on thisparticular occasion is marked here, the fact is that the Real would be veryspecially suspended on the body.54