ABSTRACT
The subject of the unconscious is always in conflict. The ethical responsibility of the subject is to come to terms with this fact and that implies the assumption of lack and desire via the medium of words. The addiction is a stepping away from the confrontation with the desire of the Other in the illusion that, by doing so, lack and castration can be avoided. The violation of the social bond in addiction does not make it less of a social bond: it only provides it with its particularity. Lacan agrees with communication theory in so far as there is an agent who speaks to another in whom an effect might be produced. The product of the discourse, which comes as an effect of communication between the agent and the other, is unable to reach the truth. There are the four fixed places of discourse: truth, agent, other and product.
