ABSTRACT
Metaphorical effects are produced between the two signifiers rather than by the replacement itself. At the same time, the replacement is more like a movement. The replacement does not completely cancel the existence of the replaced signifier. Dick or “mother’s prick” is a name and metaphor for the phallus misrecognized as imaginary phallus. The phallus is the signifier of a lack of the imaginary phallus, while the symbolic phallus is a missing phallus. Verschiebung or “displacement” – the transfer of signification that metonymy displays is closer to the German term; it is presented, right from its first appearance in Freud’s work, as the unconscious’ best means by which to foil censorship. For Lacanian theory, the unconscious activity of desire is revealed through metaphor and metonymy. Signifiers of desire function as signified for a conscious series of signifiers which designates the position of the subject in language.
