ABSTRACT
The relation between knowledge and the world was conceptualized on the basis of a fantasy of copulation. It seems inconceivable that some fantasy could be found in psychoanalysis, but the fact of the matter is that, if there is one major fantasy at work therein, it is clearly that a harmonious relationship between the sexes must be possible! Jacques Lacan's goal does not seem to be to provide a mathematization of psychoanalysis, but rather formalization. Formalization seems to be a possible way of moving toward scientificity, and is what Lacan finds most important about science—far more important than measurement. In physics, formalization allowed theorists an independent field of speculation: one could play with the formulas themselves and work out all of their interrelations, without having the slightest idea what the new configurations meant or implied. But the formalization itself allowed for new breakthroughs, gave physicists a basis for a non-intuitive, non-image based, non-imaginary approach to their field.
