Jacques Laberge – Of the Real, Paradoxes and Contradictions
 
THE LETTER 16 (Summer 1999) pages 49-56
 
In Lacan’s  teaching  with regard  to the real and  its articulation to the imaginary and  the symbolic,  I would  like to point out some  paradoxes and contradictions with  respect  to four aspects:  (1) Starting from  the symbolic; (2) impossible to penetrate; (3) the non-existence of sexual  rapport; (4)  the impossible in relation to the original  repression.
 
Starting from the Symbolic
 
Starting from  the notion of the symbolic, Lacan comments: Many   things   get  a  direction   and   become  clear,  but  many paradoxes  and   contradictions  appear (…) that are not because of this, opacities  or obscurities
 
To avoid  mere  confusion with  respect to the real, the first step  is imposed: start  from  the symbolic  order,  because, according to Lacan, ‘it’s from  there that   the   other   orders,  imaginary  and   real,  find   their   place   and   get ordered’-” This affirmation in Seminar I is repeated in a similar  way in this same  Seminar and  throughout Lacan’s  teaching. For him, it’s not  just a question of starting from the notion  of the symbolic in order to clarify our work  but to recognise the anteriority of the symbolic, a logical  anteriority of the necessary psychic determination. If there’s  no symbolic, one cannot…