Concept
Metaphor
In Lacan's teaching, the substitution of one signifier for another in the signifying chain, the replaced signifier persisting as latent and repressed, so that a new signification arises from the substitution. Drawing on Jakobson's distinction between the metaphoric and metonymic poles of language, Lacan presented it as the linguistic structure of Freud's condensation, as metonymy is that of displacement, and built on it the formula of the paternal metaphor.
Read more- Introduced by
- Jacques Lacan
- Key works
- 2
- Related
derives from
- Condensation 1957 Lacan's metaphor is his linguistic reformulation of Freud's condensation. In Seminar XI he says his formula of metaphor is essential for showing where the unconscious appears, because signifying condensation is fundamental to it.
introduced by
- Jacques Lacan 1957 In “The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious” (1957, collected in Écrits), Lacan defines metaphor as one signifier taking another's place in the chain, the hidden one remaining linked to the rest, and makes it the structure of condensation and of the symptom.
opposes
- Metonymy 1957 Following Jakobson, Lacan makes metaphor and metonymy the two opposite poles of the signifier's action. Metaphor substitutes one signifier for another and crosses the bar into signification; metonymy connects signifier to signifier and keeps the bar in place. He maps the pair onto condensation and displacement, and onto the symptom and desire.