He Borromeo knot Is used in the psychoanalytic theory proposed by Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) to refer to a structure composed of three rings.
This structure to which the Borromean knot refers corresponds to the link of the three registers existing in every speaking subject. These are the record of the real, the record of the imaginary, and the record of the symbolic.
The tying of these registers is indispensable so that the subject can have a consistent reality. And in it, maintain a discourse and social bond with the others that surround it.
By means of the structure of the Borromean knot, each one of the registers is knotted with the others so that if one is released, the others also do, being this the essential quality of this structure.
This Lacanian theory can be divided into two moments. In the first of these, the Father's Name acts as the fundamental law. It is understood as a primordial signifier, being the one that holds together the three registers proposed by Lacan.
In the second moment of his theory, he reduces the borromeo knot to only three rings that are linked in such a way that they are responsible for the consistency of the structure.
Towards the end of his teaching, Lacan adds a fourth knot, which he calls sinthome.
How should the Borromean knot be understood?
In his psychoanalytic theory, Lacan attempts to explain the psychic structure of the subject, based on that of the Borromean knot.
It introduces this concept to think the structure of the language and the effects of it on the subject. In this way he could think of the symbolic register and its relations with the register of the real and the imaginary.
This Borromean structure is then composed of three rings, each of which represents the three registers proposed by Lacan. These are the record of the imaginary, the symbolic and the record of the real.
The first one refers to the site in which the first identifications of the subject are produced with the others.
The second, the register of the symbolic, represents the signifiers, that is, the words with which the individual identifies himself.
And, the third register, symbolizes the real, understanding it as that which can not be represented symbolically because it has no meaning.
These three rings, then represented by the component registers of the subject's psychic structure, are knotted together. So that if any of the rings are cut, the others also do.
Each of these rings overlaps with the others, forming points of intersection with the other rings.
The different forms of knotting will be those that determine the different structures of subjectivity. To the extent that the subject is understood to be a particular type of knot, various forms of knotting can be imagined between the three registers.
Thus, from the Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective the subject's psychic structure must be understood as a particular form in which the Borromean knot is bound.
The analysis will then be understood as the practice of untying and remaking knots to produce a new structure.
This is the model that Lacan used in the 1970s to account for the notion he had at that time of the human psyche.
In this model, the three rings represent the edges, or holes in a body, around which the desire flows. The idea of Lacan is that the psyche is itself a space in which its edges are intertwined in a knot, which is at the center of being.
In 1975 Lacan decided to add a fourth ring to the configuration of three. This new ring was called Sinthome (symptom). According to his explanations, it would be this fourth element that keeps the psyche locked up.
From this perspective, the objective of the Lacanian analysis is to unlock the link by breaking the knotting of the shintome. That is, untie this fourth ring.
Lacan describes psychoses as a structure with the knot borromeo untied. And it proposes that in some cases it can be prevented by adding this fourth ring to tie the structure of the other three.
The Lacanian orientation is towards the real, being what matters in psychoanalysis for him.
Two moments in the theory of the Borromeo Knot
In its beginnings, Lacanian psychoanalytic theory proposes the Borromean knot as a model of the subject's psychic structure, understanding the structure as a metaphor in the signifying chain. He conceives of the triggering (psychotic by then) as the breaking of a link in that chain.
Towards the end of his theory, he approaches the knot from the real (no longer from the symbolic). He abandons the notion of chain and understands the different effects of psychic structure as a lapsus of the Borromean knot.
In the first moment, Lacan explains that it is the signifiers that are chained in a borromean, saying that the cut of one of the links of the same, frees the rest.
This is how Lacan studies the Borromean knot in relation to the psychotic structure. Understanding the onset of psychosis as a break or cut in one of the links of the chain of signifiers. In this way madness is conceived as the dis-connection of the Borromean knot.
His theory advanced, Lacan made a turn in the same, no longer considering the borromeo knot as a significant chain, but as the relationship between the three registers (symbolic, imaginary and rea).
In this way the Borromean knot will no longer represent the psychic structure, but Lacan will say that it is the structure as such.
At one point in his theory Lacan introduces the existence of a fourth element, which he named Father's Name. Finally he concludes that in reality it is the three linked registers that hold each other and it is from this the existence of its own consistency.
From this new perspective will no longer be considered a trigger, but the possibility of a slip in the knot. This being the possibility of a bad tie of the same.
References
- Bailly, L. (2012). Lacan: A Beginner's Guide. Oneworld Publications.
- Bristow, D. (2016). Joyce and Lacan: Reading, Writing and Psychoanalysis.
- Dylan Evans, R. O. (2006). An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
- Ellie Ragland-Sullivan, D.M. (2004). Lacan: Topologically Speaking. Other Press.
- Moncayo, R. (2008). Evolving Lacanian Perspectives for Clinical Psychoanalysis: On Narcissism, Sexuation, and the Phases of Analysis in Contemporary Culture. Karnac Books.
- Notes on the Borromean Clinic. (Dec 4, 2008). Obtained from Larvalsubjects.
- Philippe Julien, D.B. (1995). Jacques Lacan's Return to Freud: The Real, the Symbolic, and the Imaginary. NYU Press.
- Roudinesco, E. (1990). Jacques Lacan & Co: A History of Psychoanalysis in France, 1925-1985. University of Chicago Press.
- Wolf, B. (2016). More Lacanian Coordinates: On Love, Psychoanalytic Clinic, and the Ends of Analysis. Karnac Books.