The Symbolic

The Symbolic (or the symbolic order, the order of the symbolic ) is a term used by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and referred to one of the three structural provisions of the psyche. Unlike the pictorial imagination and the dumb Reale, the Symbolic is the order of language and discourse.

Language

The symbolic consists of signifiers that are related to signifieds in a well-ordered relationship (see also: Ferdinand de Saussure's theory of language ). The symbolic is the order of language and discourse, but also the order of the power and the "Law of the Father" ( Name of the Father - ), which is itself a linguistic order. The Symbolic depends so far along with the concept of the big Other.

The big Other

→ Main article: The big Other

The first incarnation of the symbolic is the mother; it is a "great another will " who speaks and introduces the child into the order of language and the social. This applies even more for the father of the Oedipus conflict, the role of the law forbidding occupies ( incest taboo, the threat of castration ), the child pushes out from the Oedipal desire and oriented toward the social world outside the family out.

In society, the law of the symbolic is true, that is the law of language, social norms and economic exchange (see also: reciprocity). The symbolic in this sense is equivalent to the order of language, of discourse, the state government and the economy as well as the " law of the father " ("Name - of -the-Father "). Alike will form a symbolic system of rule which subjects the subject ( sub - jectum = subjugated ) and structured. " What each subject first encountered in his life, are signifiers. " (Peter Widmer )

The lack in the big Other

Like everything in the universe Lacan, and the Symbolic has a defect, is incomplete: "The meaning brought together the impression that belonged signifier and signified. However, there remains a residue which eludes the mind. This lack of complete mapping allows the sliding of the signified under the signifier, which leads to the conclusion that the meaning never exhausted, is never perfect. That is why a speech, never completed a writing forever. This demonstrates a fundamental lack. "(Peter Widmer )

The symbolic order can not symbolize the real as such, even though the real is the place to refer to the signifiers. The symbolic order, the big Other, therefore, is always incomplete, full of holes, and therefore gebarrt / strikeout. Lacan Mathem for this incompleteness is S ( A).

The dominance of the symbolic

Even the unconscious subject of the structure of the symbolic ". The unconscious is structured like a language " ( Lacan ) The symbolic is therefore the dominant of the three structure determinations of the psyche (even the imaginary is always already symbolically formed ), and also the area that in psychoanalytic treatment plays the central role that is essentially a form of healing through language is yes (see Lacan ).