ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concept of the phallus in Lacan’s work, and its relation to considerations of unconscious desire and sexual identity categories, most particularly within the context of Lacan’s fifth seminar, Formations of the Unconscious. It is important to stress that the phallus is a concept within Lacan’s theoretical framework and open to interpretation, not a signifier with static signification. Historically, the phallus as “signifier of desire” has been contentious and has invited arguments and interpretations centring on its patriarchal overtones. In contrast, this chapter argues that the phallus, although targeted as an agent of the binary conception of male-female relations, is actually a signifier which leads to the undoing of this binary. This exploration of the crossroads of the phallus opens out a pathway to considering unconscious desire as something not reducible to sexuality, and ultimately beyond any categorisation of identity.
