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…
Of the Real, Paradoxes and Contradictions
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