Pluth, Ed. Signifiers and Acts: Freedom in Lacan’s theory of the subject New York: SUNY Press, 2007.
Does the real always mean the presymbolic?
2 versions of the real in Lacan’s work:
- real1, prior to the acquisition of language, which is “progressively symbolized” in the course of the child’s life
- second order real (real2) which is an effect of the symbolic order itself
Real2 is not outside the symbolic, as real1 seems to be. This second-order real is characterized by impasses and impossibilities that occur in the symbolic order itself.
The real can only be inscribed on the basis of an impasse of formalization (Seminar XX)
Instead of being a field of referents that language aims at, this version of the real is a stumbling block in the field of signification itself (17).