Irene M. Sweeney – Plato’s Symposium as Backdrop to a Consideration of the Object Described as ‘Partial
 
Issue 39 (Autumn 2008)
 
The author argues that a consideration o f the subjective economy crucially calls for reflection on an object described as “partial Plato’s Symposium (or more evocatively Le Banquet) which forms a backdrop to major sections of Lacan’s Seminar VIII on Transference, leads her to the notion of agalma, which, she explains, suggests an object which lacks the full and steady presence expected o f an object, a partial that is not part o f any whole. The essential linkage between the birth o f desire and a state o f lack is also elaborated.
 
Jacques Lacan, in the early 1960’s, defines the subject as that which is represented by a signifier for another signifier. From now on the subject can no longer be regarded as substantial, but rather as an effect of language.1 This formulation crucially calls out for a re-examination also of the object……..