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[[Lacan]] first proposes his famous [[formula]]: ''il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel'' in 1970,<ref>{{L}} ''[[Seminar XVII|Le Séminaire. Livre XVII. L'envers de la psychanalyse, 1969-70]]''. Ed. [[Jacques-Alain Miller]]. [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1991: 134</ref> and takes it up again in his [[seminar]] of 1972-3.<ref>{{S20}} p. 17</ref>

This formula is usually translated into [[English ]] as "There is no such [[thing ]] as a [[sexual ]] [[relationship]]", which is misleading since [[Lacan]] is certainly not denying that [[people ]] have sex!

The formula might be better rendered "There is no relation between the [[sexes]]", thus emphasizing that it is not primarily the [[act]] of '''sexual intercourse''' that [[Lacan]] is referring to but the question of the relation between the [[sexual difference|masculine sexual position]] and the [[sexual difference|feminine sexual position]].

The formula thus condenses a [[number ]] of points in [[Lacan]]'s approach to the question of [[sexual difference]]:

1. There is no direct, unmediated relation between the [[sexual difference|male]] and [[sexual difference|female sexual position]], because the [[Other]] of [[language]] stands between [[them ]] as a [[third ]] party.<ref>{{S20}} p. 64</ref>

<blockquote>"Between [[male ]] and [[female ]] [[human ]] beings there is no such thing as an instinctive relationship' because all [[sexuality ]] is marked by the signifier."<ref>{{L}} (l975b) "[[Conférence à Genève sur le symptôme]]." ''Les Block-[[Notes ]] de la [[psychanalyse]]''. Brussels.</ref></blockquote>

[[Heterosexuality ]] is thus not [[natural ]] but [[normative]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 223</ref>

2. There is no reciprocity or symmetry between the [[sexual difference|male]] and [[sexual difference|female sexual positions]] because the [[symbolic order]] is fundamentally asymmetrical; there is no corresponding [[signifier]] which could [[signify ]] [[Woman]] in the same way that the [[sexual difference|male]] [[sex]] is [[symbolize]]d.

3. Relations between men and [[women ]] can never be [[harmonious]]; "The most naked [[rivalry ]] between men and women is eternal."<ref>{{S2}} p. 263</ref>

[[Love]] is no more than an [[illusion]] designed to make up for the [[absence]] of harmonious relations between the [[sex]]es (whether presented in [[mythical ]] [[terms]], as in [[Plato]]'s [[Symposium]], or in [[psychoanalytic ]] terms, as in [[Balint]]'s [[concept ]] of [[love|genital love]]).

4. The [[drive|sexual drives]] are directed not towards a "[[whole ]] person" but towards [[part-object]]s.

There is therefore no such thing as a [[sexual relationship]] between two [[subject]]s, only between a [[subject]] and a ([[partial]]) object.

For the man, the [[objet (petit) a|object a]] occupies the [[place ]] of the [[missing ]] partner, which produces the [[matheme]] of [[fantasy]] (SOa); in other [[words]], the [[Woman]] does not [[exist]] for the man as a [[real]] [[subject]], but only as a [[fantasy]] [[object]], the [[cause]] of his [[desire]].<ref>{{S20}} p. 58</ref>

6. As something rooted in the [[real]], [[sex]] is opposed to [[meaning]]; and "sex, in opposing itself to [[sense]], is also, by definition, opposed to relation, to [[communication]]."<ref>Copjec, Joan. 1994: 21</ref>