‘Dit-Mansion’ for ‘Dimension’ in ‘Agency/Instance/Insistence of the Letter’ : 3rd February 2025 : Julia Evans

P 147 of Alan Sheridan’s translation, Section title : The Meaning of the Letter

P148 of Alan Sheridan’s translation

From p4 of www.Freud2Lacan.com  /Lacan (80. Écrits: L’instance de la lettre, 1957, May 14-16). P139-140 of Bruce Fink’s translation

From p4 of www.Freud2Lacan.com  /Lacan (80. Écrits: L’instance de la lettre, 1957, May 14-16). P495-496 of Écrits, October 1966

Reference to the experience of the community, or to the substance of this discourse, settles nothing. For this experience assumes its essential dimension [dit-mansion] in the tradition that this discourse itself establishes. This tradition, long before the drama of history is inscribed in it, lays down the elementary structures of culture. And these very structures reveal an ordering of possible exchanges which, even if unconscious, is inconceivable outside the permutations authorized by language.

Reference to the experience of the community as the substance of this discourse resolves nothing. For this experience takes on its essential dimension [dit-mansion] in the tradition established by this discourse. This tradition, long before the drama of history is inscribed in it, grounds the elementary structures of culture. And these very structures display an ordering of exchanges which, even if unconscious, is inconceivable apart from the permutations authorized by language.

La référence à l'expérience de la communauté comme à la substance de ce discours, ne résout rien. Cat cette experience prend sa dimension [dit-mansion] essentielle dans la tradition qu'instaure ce

discours. Cette tradition, bien avant que le drame historique ne s'y inscrive, fonde les structures élémentaires de la culture. Et ces structures mêmes révèlent une ordination des changes qui, fût-elle inconsciente, est inconcevable hors des permutations qu'autorise le langage.

P150-151 of Alan Sheridan’s translation

From p7 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P143-144 of Bruce Fink’s translation

From p7 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P499-500 of French publication of Écrits, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, (October 1966)

To return to our formula S/s: if we could infer nothing from it but the notion of the parallelism of its upper and lower terms, each one taken in its globality, it would remain the enigmatic sign of a total mystery. Which of course is not the case.

The fact remains that if we were able to subtract solely the notion of the parallelism of its upper and lower terms from the algorithm S/s, each term only being taken globally, it would remain the enigmatic sign of a total mystery. Which, of course, is not the case.

Reste que l'algorithme S/s, si nous n'en pouvions retirer que la notion du parallélisme de ses termes supérieur et inférieur, chacun pris seulement dans sa globalité, demeurait le signe énigmatique d'un mystère total. Ce qui bien entendu n'est pas le cas.

In order to grasp its function I shall begin by reproducing the classic yet faulty illustration (see top of facing page – this has not been reproduced) by which its usage is normally introduced, and one can see how it opens the way to the kind of error referred to above.

In order to grasp its function, I will begin by reproducing the faulty illustration by which its usage is classically introduced:

DIAGRAM OMITTED

We can see here how it lends itself to the kind of direction indicated above as erroneous.

Pour saisir sa fonction je commencerai par produire l'illustration fautive par quoi l'on introduit classiquement son usage. Là voici :

DIAGRAM OMITTED

où l'on voit quelle faveur elle ouvre à la direction précédemment indiquée pour erronée.

In my lecture, I replaced this illustration with another, which has no greater claim to correctness than that it has been transplanted into that

DIAGRAM OMITTED

incongruous dimension [dit-mansion] that the psychoanalyst has not yet altogether renounced because of his quite justified feeling that his conformism takes its value entirely from it. Here is the other diagram:

DIAGRAM OMITTED

where we see that, without greatly extending the scope of the signifier concerned in the experiment, that is, by doubling a noun through the mere juxtaposition of two terms whose complementary meanings ought apparently to reinforce each other, a surprise is produced by an unexpected precipitation of an unexpected meaning: the image of twin doors symbolizing, through the solitary confinement offered Western Man for the satisfaction of his natural needs away from home, the imperative that he seems to share with the great majority of primitive communities by which his public life is subjected to the laws of urinary segregation.

In my lecture, I replaced this illustration with another, which can be considered more correct only because it exaggerates in the incongruous dimension [dit-mansion] psychoanalysts have not yet altogether given up, because of their justified sense that their conformism derives its value from it alone. Here is

the other illustration:

DIAGRAM OMITTED

Here we see that, without greatly extending the scope of the signifier involved in the experiment—that is, by simply doubling the nominal type through the mere juxtaposition of two terms whose complementary meanings would seem to have to reinforce each other-surprise is produced by the precipitation of an unexpected meaning: the image of two twin doors that symbolize, with the private stall offered Western man for the satisfaction of his natural needs when away from home, the imperative he seems to share with the vast majority of primitive communities that subjects his public life to the laws of urinary segregation.

Je lui en substituai pour mes auditeurs une autre, qui ne pouvait être tenue pour plus correcte que d'attiger dans la dimension [dit-mansion] incongrue à quoi le psychanalyste n'a pas encore tout à fait renoncé, dans le sentiment justifié que son conformisme n'a de prix qu'à

partir d'elle. Voici cette autre : DIAGRAM OMITTED

où l'on voit que, sans beaucoup étendre la portée du significant intéressé dans l'expérience, soit en redoublant seulement l'espèce nominale par la seule juxtaposition de deux termes dont le sens

complémentaire parait devoir s'en consolider, la surprise se produit d'une précipitation du sens inattendue : dans l'image de deux portes jumelles qui symbolisent avec l'isoloir offert à l'homme occidental

pour satisfaire à ses besoins naturels hors de sa maison, l'impératif qu'il semble partager avec la grande majorité des communautés

primitives et qui soumet sa vie publique aux lois de la segregation urinaire.

P153 of Alan Sheridan’s translation : Through this, one sees that an essential element of the spoken word itself was predestined to flow into the mobile characters which, in a jumble of lower-case Didots or Garamunds, [14] render validly present what we call the ‘letter’, namely the essentially localized structure of the signifier.

With the second property of the signifier, that of combining according to the laws of a closed order, is affirmed the necessity of the topological substratum of which the term I ordinarily use, namely, the signifying chain, gives an approximate idea : rings of a necklace that is a ring in another necklace made of rings.

Such are the structural conditions that define grammar as the order of constitutive encroachments of the signifier up to the level of the unit immediately superior to the sentence, and lexicology as the order of constitutive inclusions of the signifier to the level of the verbal locution.

[14] Names of different type-faces [Tr.].

From p10 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P145 of Bruce Fink’s translation

From p10 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P502 of Écrits, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, (October 1966)

For the signifier, by its very nature, always anticipates meaning by unfolding its dimension [dit-mansion] before it. As is seen at the level of the sentence

when it is interrupted before the significant term: 'I shall never . . .', 'All the same it is. . .', 'And yet there may be. . .'. Such sentences are not without meaning, a meaning all the more oppressive in that it is content to make us wait for it.[15]

[15] To which verbal hallucination, when it takes this form, opens a communicating door with the Freudian structure of psychosis - a door until now

unnoticed (cf. 'On a Question Preliminary to any Possible Treatment of Psychosis', pp. 179-225).

For the signifier, by its very nature, always anticipates meaning by deploying its dimension [dit-mansion] in some sense before it. As is seen at the level of the sentence when the latter is interrupted before the significant term: sentence when the latter is interrupted before the significant term: "I'll never..," "The fact remains..," "Still perhaps..." Such sentences nevertheless make sense, and that sense is all the more oppressive in that it is content to make us wait for it. [10]

[10.] It is in this respect that verbal hallucination, when it takes this form, sometimes opens a door that communicates with the Freudian structure of psychosis-a door which was hitherto missed since it went unnoticed (see my Seminar from 1955-1956).

Car le signifiant de sa nature anticipe toujours sur le sens en déployant en quelque sorte au devant de lui sa dimension [dit-mansion]. Comme il se voit au niveau de la phrase quand elle s' interrompt avant le terme significatif: Jamais je ne..., Toujours est-ll.., Peut-être encore... Elle n'en fait pas moins sens, et d'autant plus oppressant qu'il se suffit à se faire attendre [1.]

[1.] Ce en quol l'hallucination verbale, à revêtir cette forme, parfois nous ouvre une porte de communication, jusqu'ici manquée d'atre inaperque, avec la structure freudienne de la psychose (Séminaire de l'année 1955-56).

P158 of Alan Sheridan’s translation :

From p16 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P150 of Bruce Fink’s translation

From p16 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P508 of Écrits, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, (October 1966)

So, it is between the signifier in the form of the proper name of a man and the signifier that metaphorically abolishes him that the poetic spark is produced, and it is in this case all the more effective in realizing the signification of paternity in that it reproduces the mythical event in terms of which Freud reconstructed the progress, in the unconscious of all men, of the paternal mystery

Thus it is between a man's proper name qua signifier and the signifier that metaphorically abolishes it that the poetic spark is produced, and it is all

the more effective here in bringing about the signification of paternity in that it reproduces the mythical event through which Freud reconstructed the path along which the mystery of paternity advances in the unconscious of every man.

C'est donc entre le signifiant du nom propre d'un homme et celui qui l'abolit métaphoriquement, que se produit l'étincelle poétique, ici d’autant plus efficace à réaliser la signification de la paternité qu’elle reproduit l’événement mythique où Freud a reconstruit le cheminement, dans l'inconscient de tout homme,

du mystère paternel.

Modern metaphor has the same structure. So the line Love is a pebble laughing in the sunlight, recreates love in a dimension [dit-mansion] that seems to me most tenable in the face of its imminent lapse into the mirage of narcissistic altruism.

The structure of modern metaphor is no different. Hence the jaculation,

"Love is a pebble laughing in the sun,"

recreates love in a dimension [dit-mansion] that I have said strikes me as tenable, as opposed to its ever imminent slippage into the mirage of some narcissistic altruism.

La métaphore moderne n'a pas une autre structure. Par quoi cette jaculation :

L'amour est un caillou riant dans le soleil,

recrée l'amour dans une dimension [dit-mansion] que j'ai pu dire me paraître

tenable, contre son glissement toujours imminent dans le mirage d'un altruisme narcissique.

We see, then that, metaphor occurs at the precise point at which sense emerges from non-sense, that is, at that frontier which, as Freud discovered, when crossed the other way produces the word that in French is the word par excellence, the word that is simply the signifier 'esprit';[22] it is at this frontier that we realize that man defies his very destiny when he derides the signifier.

[22].'Mot', in the broad sense, means 'word'. In the narrower sense, however,

it means 'a witticism'. The French 'esprit' is translated, in this context, as 'wit', the equivalent of Freud's Witz [Tr.].

'Esprit' is certainly the equivalent of the German Witz with which Freud marked the approach of his third fundamental work on the unconscious. The

much greater difficulty of finding this equivalent in English is instructive: 'wit', burdened with all the discussion of which it was the object from Davenant

and Hobbes to Pope and Addison, abandoned its essential virtues to 'humour', which is something else.

There only remains the 'pun', but this word is too narrow in its connotation.

We see that metaphor is situated at the precise point at which meaning is produced in nonmeaning-that is, at the passage which, as Freud discovered, when crossed in the opposite direction, gives rise to the word that is "the word" ["le mot"] par excellence in French, the word that has no other patronage there than the signifier esprit[14]— and at which it becomes palpable that, in deriding the signifier, man defies his very destiny.

[14.] Esprit is clearly the equivalent of the German Witz with which Freud marked the aim of his third fundamental book on the unconscious. The far greater difficulty of finding an equivalent in English is instructive: "wit," weighed down by a discussion running from Davenant and Hobbes to Pope and Addison, left its essential virtues to "humor," which is something else. The only other choice is "pun," but its meaning is too narrow.

On voit que la métaphore se place au point précis où le sens se produit dans le non-sens, c'est-à-dire à ce passage dont Freud a découvert que, franchi à rebours, il donne lieu à ce mot qui en français est « le mot » par excellence, le mot qui n'y a pas d'autre patronage que le signifiant de l'esprit[1], et où se touche que c'est sa destinée même que l'homme met au défi par la dérision du signifiant.

[1] C'est bien l'équivalent du terme allemand du Witz dont Freud a marqué la visée de son 3° ouvrage fondamental sur l'inconscient. La difficulté bien plus grande de trouver cet équivalent en anglais, est instructive: le wit, alourdi de la discussion qui va de Davenant et de Hobbes à Pope et à Addison, y laissant ses vertus essentielles à l'humour qui est autre chose. Reste le pun, trop etroit pourtant.

P160 of Alan Sheridan’s translation :

From p19 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P151-152 of Bruce Fink’s translation

From p19 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P510-511 of Écrits, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, (October 1966)

But it does not require the current confusion on this last term for there to prevail in the minds of psychoanalysts lacking linguistic training the prejudice in favour of a symbolism deriving from natural analogy, or even of the image as appropriate to the instinct. And to such an extent that, outside the French school, which has been alerted, a distinction

must be drawn between reading coffee grounds and reading hieroglyphics, by recalling to its own principles a technique that could not be justified were it not directed towards the unconscious.

But psychoanalysts who have no training in linguistics don't need the

current confusion regarding the term "ideogram" to believe in a symbolism deriving from natural analogy, or even from instinct's coaptational image. This is so true that, apart from the French school, which attends to this, it is with a statement like "reading coffee grounds is not the same as reading hieroglyphics" that I must recall to its own principles a technique whose pathways cannot be justified unless they aim at the unconscious.

Mais il n'est pas besoin de la confusion courante sur ce terme pour que dans l'esprit du psychanalyste qui n'a aucune formation linguistique, le préjugé prévale d'un symbolisme qui se derive de l'analogie naturelle, voire de l'image coaptative de l'instinct. Tellement que, hors de l'école française qui y pare, c'est sur la ligne: voir dans le marc de café n'est pas lire dans les hiéroglyphes, qu'il me faut rappeler à ses principes une technique dont rien ne saurait justifier les voies hors la visée de l'inconscient.

It must be said that this is admitted only with difficulty and that the mental vice denounced above enjoys such favour that today's psychoanalyst can be expected to say that he decodes before he will come around to taking the necessary tour with Freud (turn at the statute of

Champollion,[25] says the guide) that will make him understand that what

he does is decipher; the distinction is that a cryptogram takes on its full dimension [dit-mansion] only when it is in a lost language.

[25.] Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832), the first scholar to decipher the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics [Tr.].

It must be said that this is admitted only reluctantly, and that the mental vice denounced above enjoys such favor that the contemporary psychoanalyst can be expected to say that he decodes before resolving to take the journey with Freud (turn at the statue of Champollion, says the guide) that is necessary for him to understand that he deciphers-the latter differing in that a cryptogram only takes on its full dimensions [dit-mansions] when it is in a lost language [langue].

Il faut dire que ceci n'est reçu qu'avec peine et que le vice mental dénoncé plus haut jouit d'une telle faveur qu'on peut s'attendre à ce que le psychanalyste d'aujourd'hui admette qu'il

décode, avant que de se résoudre à faire avec Freud les stations nécessaires (tournez à la statue de Champollion, dit le guide) pour comprendre qu'il déchiffre : ce qui s'en distingue par le fait qu'un cryptogramme n'a toutes ses dimensions [dit-mansions] que lorsque c'est

celui d'une langue perdue.

Taking the tour is simply continuing in the Traumdeutung. [JE notes, The Interpretation of Dreams : 6th November 1899 (published as 1900) : Sigmund Freud SE IV & V, See this site   /3 Sigmund Freud  (November 1899)]

Taking this journey simply amounts to going further in the Traumdeutung.

Faire ces stations, ce n'est pourtant que continuer dans la Traumdentung.

P166 of Alan Sheridan’s translation :

From p26 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P157-158 of Bruce Fink’s translation

From p26 of www.Freud2Lacan.com 

P517-518 of Écrits, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, (October 1966)

That is to say, what is needed is more than these words with which, for a brief moment I disconcerted my audience: I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think^^. Words that render sensible to an ear properly attuned with what elusive ambiguity[31] the ring of meaning flees from our grasp along the verbal thread.

[31.] 'Ambiguité de furet’  - literally, 'ferret-like ambiguity'. This is one of a

number of references in Lacan to the game 'hunt-the-slipper' (jeu du furet) [Tr.]

^^JE notes, A reference to Freud’s "Wo Es war, soll Ich werden" Where it was I must come to be, Lecture XXXI - Dissection of the Personality : 1932 : Sigmund Freud, this site  /1 A Lacanian Clinic - Wo Es war; soll Ich warden (3 Sigmund Freud /13000000)

That is, it wasn't going very far to say the words with which I momentarily dumbfounded my audience: I am thinking where I am not, therefore I am where I am not thinking. These words render palpable to an attentive ear with what elusive ambiguity the ring of meaning flees from our grasp along the verbal string.

C'est-à-dire que c'est peu de ces mots dont j'ai pu interloquer un instant mes auditeurs : je pense où je ne suis pas, donc je suis où je ne pense pas. Mots qui à toute orcille suspendue rendent sensible dans quelle ambiguïté de furet fuit sous nos prises l'anneau du sens sur la ficelle verbale.

What one ought to say is: I am not wherever I am the plaything of my thought; I think of what I am where I do not think to think.

What we must say is: I am not, where I am the plaything of my thought; I think about what I am where I do not think I am thinking.

Ce qu'il faut dire, c'est : je ne suis pas, là où je suis le jouet de ma pensée; je pense à ce que je suis, là où je ne pense pas penser.

This two-sided mystery is linked to the fact that the truth can be evoked only in that dimension [dit-mansion] of alibi in which all 'realism' in creative works takes its virtue from metonymy; it is likewise linked to this other

fact that we accede to meaning only through the double twist of metaphor when we have the one and only key: the S and the s of the Saussurian algorithm are not on the same level, and man only deludes himself when he believes his true place is at their axis, which is nowhere.

This two-sided mystery can be seen to intersect the fact that truth is evoked only in that dimension [dit-mansion]  of ruse whereby all "realism" in creation derives its virtue from metonymy, as well as this other fact that access to meaning is granted only to the double elbow of metaphor, when we hold in our hand their one and only key: namely, the fact that the S and s of the Saussurian algorithm are not in the same plane, and man was deluding himself in believing he was situated in their common axis, which is nowhere.

Ce mystère à deux faces rejoint ce fait que la vérité ne s'évoque que dans cette dimension [dit-mansion]  d'alibi par où tout « réalisme » dans la création prend sa vertu de la métonymie, comme cet autre que le sens ne livre son accès qu'au double coude de la métaphore, quand on a leur clef unique: le S et le s de l'algorithme saussurien ne sont pas dans le même plan, et l'homme se leurrait à se croire placé dans leur commun axe qui n'est nulle part.

Was nowhere, that is, until Freud discovered it; for if what Freud discovered isn't that, it isn't anything.

At least until Freud made this discovery. For if what Freud discovered isn't precisely that, it is nothing,

Ceci du moins jusqu'à ce que Freud en ait fait la découverte. Car si ce que Freud a découvert n'est pas cela même, ce n'est rien.

The contents of the unconscious with all their disappointing ambiguities give us no reality in the subject more consistent than the immediate; their virtue derives from the truth and in the dimension [dit-mansion] of being: Kern unseres Wesen[32] are Freud’s own terms.

[32] 'The nucleus of our being' [Tr.] The core of our being, (E) The Primary and Secondary Processes-Repression, Chapter VII The Psychology of the Dream-Processes, Interpretation of Dreams 6th November 1899, op. cit., SE V p603

The contents of the unconscious, in their deceptive ambiguity, supply us no reality in the subject more consistent than the immediate; it is from truth that they derive their virtue in the dimension [dit-mansion] of being: Kern unseres Wesen is Freud’s own expression.

Les contenus de l'inconscient ne nous livrent en leur décevante ambiguité nulle réalité plus consistante dans le sujet que l'immédiat; c'est de la vérité qu'ils prennent leur vertu, et dans la dimension [dit-mansion] de l'être : Kern unseres Wesen, les termes sont dans Freud.

The double-triggered mechanism of metaphor is the very mechanism by which the symptom, in the analytic sense, is determined. Between the enigmatic signifier of the sexual trauma and the term that is substituted for it in an actual signifying chain there passes the spark that fixes in a symptom the signification inaccessible to the conscious subject in which that symptom may be resolved - a symptom being a metaphor in which flesh or function is taken as a signifying element.

Metaphor's two-stage mechanism is the very mechanism by which symptoms, in the analytic sense, are determined. Between the enigmatic signifier of sexual trauma and the term it comes to replace in a current signifying chain, a spark flies that fixes in a symptom—a metaphor in which flesh or function is taken as a signifying element—the signification, that is inaccessible to the conscious subject, by which the symptom may be dissolved.

Le mécanisme à double détente de la métaphore est celui-là même où se détermine le symptôme au sens analytique. Entre

le signifiant énigmatique du trauma sexuel et le terme à quoi il vient se substituer dans une chaine signifiante actuelle, passe l'étincelle, qui fixe dans un symptôme, - métaphore où la chair ou bien la fonction sont prises comme élément signifiant, — la signification inaccessible au sujet conscient où il peut se résoudre.