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In <i>[[La relation d'objet]]</i> [[Lacan]] provided a way of [[understanding ]] the paradoxical function of [[transference]] in the [[analytic]]al [[cure]]. In its [[symbolic]] aspect ([[repetition]]) it helps the [[cure]] [[progress ]] by revealing the [[signifier]]s of the [[subject]]'s [[history]]. He argues that in its [[imaginary]] aspect ([[love]] and [[hate]]) it [[acts ]] as a [[resistance]]. He uses [[Plato]]'s <i>[[The Symposium]]</i> to illustrate the rapport between analysand and analyst: [[Alcibiades ]] compares [[Socrates ]] to a box enclosing a precious [[object]], <i>[[agalma]]</i>. Just as Alcibiades attributes a hidden treasure to Socrates, so too the [[patient]] sees his [[object]] of [[desire]] in the [[analyst]]. [[Lacan]] articulates the <i>[[objet a]]</i> with <i>[[agalma]]</i>, the [[object of desire]] we seek in the [[other]].

Before, the emphasis was placed on repetition, now it is placed on [[transference]] [[love]], <i>[[amour ]] de [[transfert]]</i>: both are inseparable, but the perspective changes. To insist on [[repetition]] means to refuse to see in the analytic [[situation ]] an [[intersubjective]] rapport to be dealt with here and now. What [[speech]] constructed in the [[past ]] can be deconstructed in the [[cure]] by [[speech]]: the [[cure]] is "pure [[symbolic]] [[experience]]." On the [[individual ]] level, it allows for "the reshaping of the [[imaginary]]," on the theorethical level for an intersubjective [[logic ]] to be constructed. Thus, [[analysis]] is described as a [[particular ]] experience of [[desire]], on the side of [[sexuality]]. [[Speech]] has an effect only after [[transference]]. For [[Lacan]] "it is from the [[position ]] that [[transference]] bestows the [[analyst]] with that he intervenes in [[transference]] itself," and "[[transference]] is [[interpreted ]] on the basis of and with the aid of [[transference]] itself." In "The direction of the [[treatment ]] and the principles of its [[power]]" (<i>[[Écrits: A Selection]]</i>) [[Lacan]] presented [[countertransference]] as a [[resistance]] of the [[analyst]] and raised the problem of the [[analyst]]'s [[desire]]. Here, [[subjective ]] disparity becomes the rule establishing dissymmetry between the two protagonists vis-à-vis [[desire]]: what the [[patient]] will discover through the disappointment of [[transference]] [[love]]. Because in the [[cure]] one learns to talk instead of making [[love]], in the end [[desire]], which has been purified, is but the empty [[place ]] where the [[barred ]] [[subject]] accesses [[desire]]. We should note that [[training analysis]] does not put the [[analyst]] beyond [[passion]]; to believe that it does would mean that all passions stem from the [[unconscious]], a [[notion ]] that [[Lacan]] rejects. The better analysed the [[analyst]] is, the more likely he is to be in [[love]] with, or be quite repulsed by, the [[analysand]]. In [[training]]-analysis there will be a mutation in the [[economy ]] of [[desire]] in the analyst-to-be: desire will be restructured, so that it will be stronger than passions. [[Lacan]] calls it the [[desire]] proper to the [[analyst]].

In <i>The [[Symposium]]</i> the [[analyst]]'s position is [[identified ]] with Socrates', while Alcibiades occupies the position of the [[analysand]], who after Socrates will discover himself [[desiring]]. "To isolate oneself with [[another ]] so as to teach him what he is [[lacking ]] and, by the [[nature ]] of [[transference]], he will learn what he is lacking insofar as he [[loves]]: I am not here for his [[Good]], but for him to love me, and for me to disappoint him."

Alcibiades desires because he presumes Socrates is in possession of the <i>[[agalma]]</i> - the [[phallus]] as desirable. But Socrates refuses the position of [[love]]d [[object]] to assert himself as desiring. For [[Lacan]] [[desire]] never occurs between two [[subject]]s but between a [[subject]] and an overvalorized [[being ]] who has fallen to the [[state ]] of an [[object]]. The only way to discover the other as subject is "to recognize that he speaks an articulated [[language]] and responds to ours with his own combinations; the other cannot fit into our calculations as someone who coheres like us." Socrates, by shying away from Alcibiades' declaration, by refusing to mask his [[lack]] with a [[fetish]], and by showing him [[Agathon ]] as the [[true ]] object of his [[love]], shows the [[analyst]] how to behave: such is the other aspect of "subjective disparity" taking place in [[analysis]]. There is no rapport between what the one possesses and what the other [[lack]]s. The [[phallus]], from being <i>[[objet a]]</i>, the [[imaginary]] [[object]], emerges as the [[signifier]] of [[signifier]]s, as "the only [[signifier]] that deserves the [[role ]] of [[symbol]]. It designates the [[real]] [[presence]] that permits [[identification]], the origin of the [[Ideal]]-of-the-[[Ego]] on the side of the [[Other]]." There is a [[woman]] in <i>The Symposium</i>, Diotima, who speaks in the [[form ]] of [[myth]]. In the fable where [[female ]] lack is confronted with [[male ]] resources, the [[feminine]] first has an [[active ]] role before the desirable [[masculine]]. The [[reversal ]] occurs because in love one only gives what one does not have: the [[masculine]], by shying away from the [[demand]], is revealed as a [[subject]] of [[desire]]. Later, [[Lacan]] would make Socrates the [[model ]] of [[hysteric]]al [[discourse]], but also of [[analytic discourse]] because he attains the [[knowledge]], the episteme, of [[love]].

Having managed to provoke "a mutation in the economy of his [[desire]]," the [[analyst]] has access both to the [[unconscious]] and to the experience of the [[unconscious]] because, like Socrates, he has confronted the [[desire]] for [[death]] and achieved the "between-two-deaths" - <i>entre-deux-morts</i>. Having placed the [[signifier]] in the position of the absolute, he has abolished "[[fear ]] and trembling." "One puts one's [[desire]] aside so as to preserve what is the most precious, the [[phallus]], the [[symbol]] of [[desire]]." [[Desire]] is only its empty place.

[[French]]: (texte établi par Jacques-[[Alain ]] [[Miller]]), [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1991.<br>[[English]]: unpublished

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