ABSTRACT
Key concepts: the different meaning of S2, the signifier as semblance, the missing element in masculine libido, the singularity of femininity.
The S2 can have different meanings. It can be S1/S2, like signifier/signified. The signified is another signifier, so S2 is a signified, which is another signifier for S1 – it gives you the meaning of S1. That is one meaning. The other S2, in the paternal metaphor, is also in the place of the Name of the Father. In this case, he is using S2 to represent knowledge; as in the formula for the analyst, there is the a over S2, where the S2 there represents unconscious knowledge. These are the three ways in which Lacan uses S2.
In the formula for the four discourses (Seminar XVII), in the discourse of the analyst, the first fraction is https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003424581/b0e566eb-58e7-4032-8fe5-b8ef13257c8b/content/CH15_equ_0001.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> and the analyst is in the position of a. The S2 is in the position of unconscious knowledge or knowing (savior). The second way he uses S2 is when S1 and S2 are written as the relation of signifiers and what is signified. The third way is in the formula for the paternal metaphor, which is https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003424581/b0e566eb-58e7-4032-8fe5-b8ef13257c8b/content/CH15_equ_0002.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>. S2 there stands for the Name of the Father and S1 stands for the Desire of the Mother.
In Seminar XVIII, in a discourse that would not be based on semblance, he starts treating the signifier as a semblance and something more Imaginary, because he is moving from the Symbolic to the Real. Now, he is relativizing the Symbolic and making it more Imaginary, as if it were an appearance. The argument for this is in the three formulas that I gave you about the uses of S2 and how S2 appears. If you look at https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003424581/b0e566eb-58e7-4032-8fe5-b8ef13257c8b/content/CH15_equ_0003.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, the S2 in that case represents the ‘big Other’. The ‘big Other’ here, instead of meaning the unconscious, signifies the socially acceptable narrative. The social code in that case is a form of semblance because it is not articulating the truth of desire. While Lacan degrades the signifier to being a semblance, he upgrades the concept of the letter to the level of the Real of jouissance rather than the signifier.
