ABSTRACT
This chapter condenses and expands Lacanian work conducted in the field of psychoanalytic topology. Being the study of surfaces, the topological space is one that Lacan utilised and developed for his theories of the unconscious, and of the Freudian clinical structures: those of neurosis (hysteric and obsessional), psychosis, and perversion. This chapter delves into ‘Möbial’ and ‘Borromean’ topology; the first referring to the peculiar, single-surfaced structure known as the Möbius strip, experiments with which are detailed in the first portion of the chapter, and the second to the Borromean link, in which three rings are linked together precisely by their triplicity. (The supplement to this chapter found in the work’s appendix investigates the dividing line between these two topological regimes.)
These theorisations and experimental findings lead to the putting-forward of conceptualisations concerning the positions of symptom and cut in the psychoanalytic clinic, and beyond. The chapter draws on and incorporates work carried out in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lacanian Psychoanalytic Theory.
