ABSTRACT
This section describes Lacan’s discovery of the sinthome while exploring the question of how the symptom obliges the psychoanalyst to take deeper account of the functioning of listening. It considers the topological distinctions of the symptom in relation to the real, the symbolic, and the imaginary. It also builds upon preceding sections by showing that the real, the symbolic, and the imaginary are like dimensions of space. This section extends Freud’s considerations of elements such as phobic symptoms and sheds light on how a symptom can help a person gain more freedom.
