Void

I've been trying to develop a better understanding of the concept of the void in Lacan's teaching. As I've been trying to do this I've been supplementing my readings (of Lacan and prominent Lacanians) with exchanges with different LLM AIs.

I'm careful here, and try to use the AI not as a source of high quality inf0rmation, but as a kind of thinking/conversation partner that it is productive to engage with as I explore the concept of void.

There are times when the AI produces something that is clear, succinct, and aligns with what I'm reading.

Here is an example of something that Claude AI produced.

In his later seminars, Lacan used the topological model of the Borromean knot to illustrate the relationships between the Symbolic, Imaginary, and Real. The void became conceptualized as the central space around which these three orders are knotted. [...] The later Lacan placed more emphasis on contingency [what is possible but not guaranteed] and the unexpected. The void became associated with the possibility of radical novelty or change emerging in the subject's psychic structure. [In his later teaching,] Lacan developed the concept of "ex-sistence" to describe something that exists outside of or apart from consistent reality. The void came to be associated with this notion of an "outside" that paradoxically exists within.

This was interesting because it made me think of how the void went from being (perhaps) another name for the real, to the space where the imaginary, symbolic, and real overlap with one another. This takes the void from being a place where meaning is impossible to being a sort of empty space that can provoke an elaboration.

I'll keep thinking about this more throughout the day.