Lectures on Lacan Podcast Les non-dupes errent (Seminar XXI), Episode 8
Nov 3, 2025
This discussion dives deep into Lacan's distinction between the true and the real. Listeners explore how Lacan interprets Aristotle's ideas, transforming language into mathematical symbols. The concept of mathemes showcases the absurdity of written expressions and their relationship to psychoanalytic truths. The analysis of narcissistic love reveals its ties to unconscious desires and destiny. Finally, the podcast addresses how real knowledge permeates the unconscious, inviting listeners to reconsider the nature of truth in psychoanalysis.
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Logic As The Gap Between True And Real
- Lacan names 'logic' as the difference between the true and the real, tracing a move from signifieds to meaningless written symbols.
- Writing reduces signifiers to letters and symbols, producing a science of the real distinct from spoken truth.
Formulas Replace Meaning To Reach The Real
- Lacan converts meaningful sentences into mathematical formulas made of non-alphabetic symbols to access the real.
- These symbols mean nothing by themselves but map the edges of the real through writing.
True Saying Fills What Writing Cannot
- Psychoanalytic 'true saying' occurs in speech and fills what writing cannot: the sexual relationship's impossibility.
- The unconscious (S2) flows as 'true saying' producing symptoms (S1) as stupid but revealing utterances.
