The Importance of Space in Relationships

Anxiety is when your lack has been taken by somebody else or as Lacan playfully puts it when lack itself is lacking. What's being taken from us in moments of anxiety is space between ourselves and another person. In a good relationship, for instance, you can tell your partner that you need a little space. And sometimes at the end of a phone conversation, things might get intense. Like, you know what? I just, I gotta go. We say shit like that. Those are all ways of staving off anxiety by imposing space on other people.