Gap

From No Subject - Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis
Jump to: navigation, search
French: béance

Definition

The French term béance is an antiquated literary term which means a "large hole or opening."

It is also a scientific term used in medicine to denote the opening of the larynx.

Jacques Lacan

The term is used in several ways in Lacan's work.

In 1946, he speaks of an "interrogative gap" which opens up in madness, when the subject is perplexed by the phenomenona which he experiences (hallucinations, etc).[1]

Man and Nature

In the early 1950s, the term comes to refer to the fundamental rupture between man and nature, which is due to the fact that "in man, the imaginary relation has deviated, in so far as that is where the gap is produced whereby death makes itself felt."[2]

This gap between man and nature is evident in the mirror stage:

"One has to assume a certain biological gap in him [man], which I try to define when I talk to you about the mirror stage.... The human being has a special relation with his own image - a relation of gap, of alienating tension.[3]

Imaginary

The function of the imaginary is precisely to fill this gap, thus covering over the subject's division and presenting an imaginary sense of unity and wholeness.

Sexual Relationship

In 1957 the term is used in the context of the relationship between the sexes; "in the relation between man and woman... a gap always remains open.[4]

This anticipates Lacan's later remarkes on the non-existence of the sexual relationship.

Split Subject

In 1964, Lacan argues that "the relation of the subject to the Other is entirely produced in a process of gap,"[5] and states that the subject is constituted by a gap, since the subject is essentially divided.

He also argues that the concept of causality is essentially problematic because there is always a mysterious, inexplicable gap betwen cause and effect.[6]

"Dehiscence"

Lacan also uses the term "dehiscence" in a way that makes it practically synonymous, in his discourse, with the term "gap".

Dehiscence is a botanical term which designates the bursting open of mature seed-pots; Lacan uses the term to refer to the split which is constitutive of the subject: there is "a vital dehiscence that is constitutive of man."[7]

This split is also the division between culture and nature which means that man's relation to the latter "is altered by a certain dehiscence at the heart of the organism, a primordial Discord."[8]

See Also

References

  1. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. pp. 165-6
  2. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-55. Trans. Sylvana Tomaselli. New York: Nortion; Cambridge: Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1988. p. 210
  3. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-55. Trans. Sylvana Tomaselli. New York: Nortion; Cambridge: Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1988. p. 323
  4. Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre IV. La relation d'objet, 19566-57. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.374; Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre IV. La relation d'objet, 19566-57. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.408
  5. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p. 206
  6. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p.21-2
  7. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 21
  8. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 4