Anxiety Is a Signal of the Other's Desiresness

Lacan introduces a single letter to capture this gap or cut or barrier that allows the child to have some breathing room between them and the maternal's desire, which is voracious. This is the mantis. The maternal figure is the praying mantis. And in that gap, around that gap, the child develops desire. But anxiety is what happens whenever that gap is incidentally filled or made to be full. If something pops up in this gap after the paternal function has done its thing, the result is not desire, but it's anti-code.