namely, that it is a way of represent<strong>in</strong>g it as plait that is <strong>in</strong> question. If I did notsucceed effectively from the start, it is because it must not be believed that it iseasy to make a four-fold plait; one must start from a po<strong>in</strong>t which sections the<strong>in</strong>tercross<strong>in</strong>gs, as I might say, <strong>in</strong> an appropriate fashion and it may be that th<strong>in</strong>gsare such that start<strong>in</strong>g from one of these po<strong>in</strong>ts, one does not f<strong>in</strong>d a means ofmak<strong>in</strong>g the plait.It is at this that I delayed so long, delayed so long that there has resulted morethan a little damage to what I had to say to you today. If therefore someonewants to answer me, namely, question me about what i wanted to say today Iwould be very grateful.- X: I would like to ask you a question...I wanted to ask you, because you said ‘thepresupposed space’, and I never too clearly understood - and I humbly admit itbefore this noble assembly – whether you were say<strong>in</strong>g ‘ek-siste’ or ‘existe’. I havea right to my little weaknesses. But why could you not say: the ‘père espace’?- <strong>Lacan</strong>: Yes- X: I am ask<strong>in</strong>g myself, and then you said the ‘presupposed tetrahedron which isthreefold <strong>in</strong> space forms a plait’. I am not at a circus, but I remember s<strong>in</strong>ce we aretalk<strong>in</strong>g about a sphere, with these balls that you threw out which are so different,one could plait it.- <strong>Lacan</strong>: One could?- X: One could plait on the Borromean isle. One could make the plait <strong>in</strong> space likea jungler.- <strong>Lacan</strong>: Yeah...- X: It is because you said that it is difficult when it’s flattened out, you admitted ityourself. Nobody told you that?- <strong>Lacan</strong>: Yes, yes that’s true. Well then has anyone else a question to ask?- Y: Does the open<strong>in</strong>g of the Real and of the Imag<strong>in</strong>ary with the Symbolic foldedback on itself presuppose that you are pass<strong>in</strong>g from the doma<strong>in</strong> of man to thedoma<strong>in</strong> of life and of liv<strong>in</strong>g be<strong>in</strong>gs?- <strong>Lacan</strong>: He is certa<strong>in</strong>ly not the only one alive.56
- X: You can’t hear me because precisely I don’t have a microphone. Th<strong>in</strong>gs aredesigned technically so that there should be microphones. Why don’t you useone? Is it to give a greater value to what you’re say<strong>in</strong>g?- <strong>Lacan</strong>: Certa<strong>in</strong>ly not. I apologise for hav<strong>in</strong>g had to go to the board more thanonce.- X: So then, if the speak<strong>in</strong>g function isolates man, what about a preverbalmanifestation, namely, of the possible open<strong>in</strong>g up of the Real – I am re-read<strong>in</strong>g:the Real <strong>in</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>uity with the Imag<strong>in</strong>ary – how do you see for example preverbalmanifestations like all those of art for example:- <strong>Lacan</strong>: Those of...- X: Art, music, <strong>in</strong>deed all the arts which are, which do not go by way of thetalk<strong>in</strong>g cure that do not pass through speak<strong>in</strong>g? So then if you put the Real <strong>in</strong>cont<strong>in</strong>uity with the Imag<strong>in</strong>ary by an open<strong>in</strong>g here, I believe, from the experiencewhich I have of pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g that the cont<strong>in</strong>uity here drawn by you on the board by anopen<strong>in</strong>g is <strong>in</strong> act – I am say<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>deed <strong>in</strong> act – this time by the body, which is asyou have def<strong>in</strong>ed it and as Freud def<strong>in</strong>ed it by the germen, like the body be<strong>in</strong>ghere an appendix, I th<strong>in</strong>k that at the level of pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g someth<strong>in</strong>g happens which isa preverbal appendix operation, namely, and there, I would ask you to l<strong>in</strong>k upprecisely not that I do not know what follows but I am wait<strong>in</strong>g for your riposte.- <strong>Lacan</strong>: Yes- X: I see <strong>in</strong> this graph, which is the representation of a cut, but where there is apossibility of an open<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>in</strong> the act which is the act of pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g, which is preciselythere the fact of an open<strong>in</strong>g, but by a cont<strong>in</strong>uity which would be, excuse me, likewhen you take a piece of toffee, it makes threads; so then this time there is no cutbetween the subject and the locus of the Other, there is not this alienation thatwas described for us <strong>in</strong> music, the last time, where the small o vanishes, let us saybetween the subject and the locus of the Other that makes threads. It is likewhen one is mak<strong>in</strong>g toffee. Start<strong>in</strong>g from the compulsionality of the Subject tothe locus of the Other, me, for my part i see a curious possibility from thelanguage of pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g, which is m<strong>in</strong>e, and which is a language where at the level ofwhat is denoted, namely, at the level of what is <strong>in</strong> the dictionary and of what isplunged <strong>in</strong>to an abyss and which is <strong>in</strong> function of time <strong>in</strong> your study on languagestart<strong>in</strong>g from the treatment. Here <strong>in</strong> the pictorial fact there is a sort of <strong>in</strong>sistenceand s<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>Lacan</strong> says that sense does not consist <strong>in</strong> what it signifies at that very57
- Page 1:
Seminar 1: Wednesday 16 November 19
- Page 5 and 6: after all noticed that to consist m
- Page 7 and 8: It would be enough for you to take
- Page 9 and 10: There had therefore been a turning
- Page 11: Supposing that we have a torus in a
- Page 15 and 16: topology encourages us to do so. Th
- Page 17 and 18: and me, and I who, in short, by din
- Page 19 and 20: we cut it in two, the front and the
- Page 21 and 22: is itself a hole and in a certain w
- Page 23 and 24: Everyone knows that this is how thi
- Page 25 and 26: Seminar 3: Wednesday 21 December 19
- Page 27 and 28: proceed to this double cut, a doubl
- Page 29 and 30: The inside and the outside in this
- Page 31 and 32: egards the structure of the body, o
- Page 33 and 34: inspired by it and its inspiration,
- Page 35 and 36: music on you, is that it has this p
- Page 37 and 38: from the beloved to the lover. What
- Page 39 and 40: that the little o-object is not uni
- Page 41 and 42: Seminar 4: Wednesday 11 January 197
- Page 43 and 44: short I called the discourses; the
- Page 45 and 46: It is flattened out, and in a way t
- Page 47 and 48: astonishes me still more, is not th
- Page 49 and 50: Seminar 5: Wednesday 18 January 197
- Page 51 and 52: see it here, namely, something that
- Page 53 and 54: namely, that everything that concer
- Page 55: Let’s see. Let us try to see here
- Page 59 and 60: Seminar 6: Wednesday 8 February 197
- Page 61 and 62: its relationship to the body that w
- Page 63 and 64: that in the position B1, would be t
- Page 65 and 66: is in the position of maintaining t
- Page 67 and 68: Effectively the problem of primary
- Page 69 and 70: which I will return later, what is
- Page 71 and 72: the object of desire is not unknown
- Page 73 and 74: that he tells the truth. You see th
- Page 75 and 76: look of the Real, there is not, for
- Page 77 and 78: accentuated by him is the search fo
- Page 79 and 80: What is happening, is it not, the d
- Page 81: grounded and articulatable way, and
- Page 84 and 85: eason is said to be purloined, whil
- Page 86 and 87: Borromean knot with that of the Ima
- Page 88 and 89: Alain Didier Weill, for his part, i
- Page 90 and 91: Seminar 8: Wednesday 8 March 1977Wh
- Page 92 and 93: shouldn’t tell you, at 7.15 at Ju
- Page 94 and 95: means that the tongue fails, that,
- Page 96 and 97: of his time as a formidable cleric
- Page 98 and 99: It is very difficult not to waver o
- Page 100 and 101: I remind you that the place of semb
- Page 102 and 103: this term in the feminine, since th
- Page 104 and 105: which coincides with my experience,
- Page 106 and 107:
and to put that for you in black an
- Page 108 and 109:
see, does not see too great an inco
- Page 110 and 111:
that exists, he says what he believ
- Page 112 and 113:
In short, one must all the same rai
- Page 114 and 115:
particular besides, neurotic, a sex
- Page 116 and 117:
functioning as something else. And
- Page 118 and 119:
mean to deny? What can one deny? Th
- Page 120 and 121:
slipping from word to word, and thi
- Page 122 and 123:
Seminar 12: 17 May 1977People in th
- Page 124 and 125:
y writing. And writing only produce
- Page 126 and 127:
not pinpointed it? He calls this a