Editing Jacques Lacan (section)

====The Symbolic====
{{Main|The Symbolic}}
In his Seminar IV, "La relation d'objet", Lacan argues that the concepts of "Law" and "Structure" are unthinkable without language—thus [[the Symbolic]] is a linguistic dimension. This order is not equivalent to language, however, since language involves the Imaginary and the Real as well. The dimension proper to language in the Symbolic is that of the [[Sign (semiotics)|signifier]]—that is, a dimension in which elements have no positive existence, but which are constituted by virtue of their mutual differences.

The Symbolic is also the field of radical alterity—that is, the Other; the unconscious is the discourse of this Other. It is the realm of the Law that regulates desire in the [[Oedipus complex]]. The Symbolic is the domain of culture as opposed to the Imaginary order of nature. As important elements in the Symbolic, the concepts of [[death]] and [[lack (manque)|lack (''manque'')]] connive to make of the [[Pleasure principle (psychology)|pleasure principle]] the regulator of the distance from [[Das ding an sich|the Thing]] (in German, "''das Ding an sich''") and the [[death drive]] that goes "beyond the pleasure principle by means of repetition"{{mdash}}"the death drive is only a mask of the Symbolic order".<ref name="seminar_II"/>

By working in the Symbolic order, the analyst is able to produce changes in the subjective position of the person undergoing psychoanalysis. These changes will produce imaginary effects because the Imaginary is structured by the Symbolic.<ref name="dylan_evans"/>