ABSTRACT
Speech remains for Lacan a condition of the transference and therefore of an analysis. Speaking is determined by the transference as much as the transference is determined by speaking, for it is in speaking to somebody that authors constitute him as an object. In this sense, speech has a dimension of alienation to the Other, which from the perspective of a treatment is a necessary dimension. At a certain level, writing and speech are not opposed. Lacan argues that both are necessary and uses the analytic discourse as an example. Without speech, writing risks remaining a dead letter, unheeded. Lacan uses this to highlight the achievement of calligraphy: that it demonstrates the void hollowed out by writing. Writing is the mark that extracts the subject from anonymity. This is why Lacan states that the mark is not language and that it is fateful (fatale) for it is not open to any interpretation.
