拉岡講座225

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SEXUALITY IN THE DEFILES OF THE SIGNIFIER

意符之褻瀆與性

The reality of the unconscious is sexual

無意識的真實界是性
Of Chinese astronomy.
論中國天文學

Last time, I ended with a formula which, I later realized, was well received, which I can attribute only
to the fact that it contains promises, since, in its aphoristic form, it was not yet developed.

上一次，我結束時提出一個公式，我後來發現還頗受好評。它之所以受人接納，主要是因為它包
含許多展望。不過那只是一句警語，還沒有充份發展。

I said that we would be dealing with the following proposition—the transference is the enactment of
the reality of the unconscious. What is implied here is precisely what one tends most to avoid in the
analysis of the transference.

我說過，我們將會處理以下的命題：移情是無意識在真實界的扮演。這個意涵恰恰是精神分析的
移情極力要避免的。

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In advancing this proposition, I find myself in a problematic position—for what have I taught about the
unconscious? The unconscious is constituted by the effects of speech on the subject, it is the dimension
in which the subject is determined in the development of the effects of speech, consequently, the
unconscious is structured like a language. Such a direction seems well fitted to snatch any
apprehension of the unconscious from an orientation to reality, other than that of the constitution of the
subject.

在推展這個命題時，我發現自己進退維谷。對於無意識，我到底在教導些什麼？無意識的組成是
主體言說產生的影響。這是個主體在言說產生的影響過程，被制約的國度，結果形成，無意識的
結構像個語言。這樣的推展似乎非常適合用來理解，無意識在真實界的定向，以及主體組成的定
向。

And yet this teaching has had, in its approach, an end that I have called transferential. In order to

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recentre those of my listeners with whom I was most concerned—the psychoanalysts—in a direction
conforming with analytic experience, the very handling of the concept must, depending on the level
at which the teacher's speech is placed, take into account the effects of the formulation on the listener.
We are all such that we, the teacher included, are in a relation to the reality of the unconscious, which
my intervention not only elucidates, but, to a certain point engenders.

不過，這個教導方式有一個目的，我稱之為因材施教。為了引導我念茲在茲的精神分析師的聽眾
認同精神分析的經驗，對於觀念的處理，我必須依照教導內容的深淺，考慮到聽眾是否能理解
的效果。

Let us look at the facts. The reality of the unconscious is sexual reality—an untenable truth. At every
opportunity, Freud defended his formula, if I may say so, with tooth and nail. Why is it an untenable
reality?

讓我們觀看一些事實。佛洛伊德說，無意識的真實界就是性的真實界，這是難於自圓其說。一有
機會，佛洛伊德總是不厭其煩地辯解他的公式，容我這樣說。為什麼這個性的真實界那麼難於自
圓其說？

On the question of sex, we have, since the time when Freud articulated his discovery of the
unconscious, that is to say, the I900s, or the last years of the nineteenth century, made some
scientific progress. However integrated it may be in our mental imagery, it must not be thought that the
knowledge we have obtained of sex since then has always been there. We now know a little more about
sex. We know that sexual division, in so far as it reigns over most living beings, is that which ensures
the survival of a species.

對於性的問題，自從佛洛伊德宣佈他發現無意識，換言之，自從二十世紀，或十九世紀末，我
們的科學已經突飛猛進。不論我們心理學方面的形象如何先進，我們切不可以認為，從此以後，
我們有關性的知識已經完備。我們現在對於性的知識，比起以前是稍微更加豐富。我們知道，雄
性與雌性的區別，統轄大部份的生物界，使得物種得以延續後代。

Whether, with Plato, we place the species among the Ideas, or whether we say, with Aristotle, that it is
to be found nowhere but in the individuals that support it, hardly matters here. Let us say that the
species survives in the form of its individuals. Nevertheless, the survival of the horse as a species has a
meaning —each horse is transitory and dies. So you see, the link between sex and death, sex and the
death of the individual, is fundamental.

不論是柏拉圖將物種定位在「理型界」，或亞利斯多德的說法，物種只能在各別的存在個體上找
到，這些並多大關係。容我們假設說，物種是以各別的形式繁衍存在。可是馬的繁衍存在有一個

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意義：每匹馬都是存活一段時間，然後死亡。所以，你瞧，性跟死亡之間的關係，性跟個體的死
亡，是最根本的。

Existence, thanks to sexual division, rests upon copulation, accentuated in two poles that time-
honoured tradition has tried to characterize as the male pole and the female pole. This is
because the mainspring of reproduction is to be found there. Around this fundamental reality, there
have always been grouped, harmonized, other characteristics, more or less bound up with the finality of
reproduction. I can do no more than point out here, what, in the biological register, is associated with
sexual differentiation, in the form of secondary sexual characteristics and functions.

由於性的區別，物種繁衍便有賴於雄雌雙方的交媾，自古以來的傳統，曾設法界定其特徵，為
雄雌兩個極端。這是因為繁殖的主要泉源就被發現在那裡。以這個真實界作為基礎，才開始有群
居、和睦、等其它特徵，最終或多或少都跟繁殖的功能有牽連關係。我在此只能指出一些在生物學
的領域，跟性別差異有關的聯想，以及一些次要的性的運作特徵的形式。

We know today how, in society, a whole distribution of functions in a play of alternation is grounded on
this terrain. It is modern structuralism that has brought this out best, by showing that it is at the level of
matrimonial alliance, as opposed to natural generation, to biological lineal descent—at the level
therefore of the signifier—that the fundamental exchanges take place and it is there that we find once
again that the most elementary structures of social functioning are inscribed in the terms of a
combinatory.
我們今天知道，在社會上，男女地位互動的千變萬化，都建立在這個平台。現代的結構主義將這
一點發揮得最為淋漓盡致。它指出，社會的基本的交換功能，就發生在婚姻結盟的層次，因此也
是在意符的層次上，而非僅僅是自然界生物代代相傳的繁殖。就在那個層次上，我們再一次發現
到，社會功能的最基本的結構，都是以聯盟的形式呈現。

The integration of this combinatory into sexual reality raises the question of whether it is not in this
way that the signifier came into the world, into the world of man.

聯盟被合併成為性的真實界的部份，引起的問題是：意符進入世界，進入人的世界，是否就是
以這種方式。

What would make it legitimate to maintain that it is through sexual reality that the signifier came into
the world — that man learnt to think—is the recent field of discoveries that begins by a more accurate
study of mitosis. There are then revealed the modes according to which the maturation of sexual cells
operates, namely, the double process of reduction. What is involved, in this reduction, is the loss of a
certain number of visible elements, chromosomes. This, of course, brings us to genetics. And what
emerges from this genetics if not the dominant function, in the determination of certain elements of the

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living organism, of a combinatory that operates at certain of its stages by the expulsion of remainders?

I am not rushing into analogical speculation by referring here to the function of the petit a—I am
simply pointing out an affinity between the enigmas of sexuality and the play of the signifier.

意符透過性的真實界進入世界，也就是人類思想的開始，這種主張之所以能夠自圓其說，從最
近細胞有絲分裂的正確研究所獲得的發現，可以得到印證。因此我們能夠看出，性細胞的成熟的
賴以運作，會遵循一些模式，換言之，還原的雙重功能。在這種還原過程，會牽涉到某些數量的
可見的因素，也就是某些遺傳因子的喪失。這當然會引導我們來談基因學。從這個基因學，我們
發現的難道不就是，有機體受到某些因素的操控，必須以聯盟來發揮積極的功能？也就是，聯
盟的運作在某些的階段，必須要排除一些剩餘。

The only thing that I am bringing to the light of day at this point is the remark that, in fact, in history,
primitive science has taken root in a mode of thinking which, playing on a cornbinatory, on such
oppositions as those of Yin and Yang, water and fire, hot and cold, make them lead the dance—the
word is chosen for its more than metaphorical implications, for their dance is based on dance ritual
profoundly motivated by the sexual divisions in society.

目前我能清楚告訴你們的部份是，事實上，遠古以來，原始的科學就建立在陰與陽、水與火、熱
與冷，相對物質的聯盟結合上。這種思維模式構成社會舞蹈的主流。我們選用舞蹈這個字詞，是
因為它有比喻跟實際的一語雙關。他們的舞蹈要以舞蹈儀式為基礎，而這個舞蹈儀式則是源自社
會的男女性別區分。

I am not rushing into analogical speculation by referring here to the function of the petit a—I am
simply pointing out an affinity between the enigmas of sexuality and the play of the signifier.

我並不是因為提到小客體的功用，就匆促地牽強附會。我只是指出，性的奧祕，跟意符的運作，
有千絲萬縷的關係。

This is not the place to embark on a lecture, even a short one, on Chinese astronomy. Amuse yourselves
by opening the book by Leopold de Saussure—geniuses tend to pop up from time to time in that
family. You will see there that Chinese astronomy is based on the play of the signifiers that reverberate
from top to bottom in politics, the social structure, ethics, the regulation of the slightest acts, and that it
is, nevertheless, a very fine astronomical science. It is true that, up to a certain point, all the reality of
the heavens may be inscribed in nothing more than a vast constellation of signifiers.

我在這裡不是要長篇大論中國的天文學。你們不妨欣賞一下李奧波、索緒爾的著作。那個家族有時
會出現一些天才人物。在那本著作中，你會發現，中國的天文學的基礎，充斥著從最上層到最最

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下層的政治意符的運作，社會結構，倫理，及日常生活細節的規範。可是，那仍然是一門有條不
紊的天文科學。的確，自古迄今，所有天上星座的真實界，僅僅是人間意符的衍生詮釋。

To carry the thing to its limit, one might say that primitive science is a sort of sexual technique. It is not
possible to say where the limit occurs, for it is certainly a science. Their perfectly valid observations
show us that the Chinese had a perfectly efficient system for predicting diurnal and nocturnal
variations, for example, at a very early period—which because of their signifying plotting we can date,
because it is far enough away for the precession of the equinoxes to be marked in it on the figure of the
heavens, and because the pole star does not appear in it in the same place as in our time. This is not a
line of demarcation between experimental collation which remains valid for all and the principles that
have guided it. Any more, Claude Levi-Strauss emphasizes, than one can say that everything in
primitive magic is phantasy and mystification, since an enormous collation of quite usuable
experiences is contained in it.

中國天文學真是奧妙無窮，我們甚至可以說，原始的科學是一種性愛的技巧。天文學能應用到什
麼程度，我們很難說，因為那確實是一門科學。我們從他們的明確觀察得知，例如，中國在很早
時期，就有一套非常有效的系統，來預測日夜星辰的變化。因為他們具有意義的規劃，我們能夠
定下日期，因為春分與秋分的劃分可以預先標示在星座的構圖上，因為北極星的位置跟我們這
個時代的位置不一樣。其間的差別並不是，他們只是一些始終有效的巧妙組合，而我們就是有引
導的原理。列維、史特勞斯強調得最為有力：原始時代的魔術，都是幻術跟奧秘，因為裡面包含
相當多的日常經驗巧合的東西。

But, nevertheless, there comes a moment, with the sexual initiation of the mechanism, when the
moorings are broken. Paradoxical as it may seem, the break occurs all the later as the function of the
signifier is more implicit, less mapped in this mechanism.

但是，從性的心理機制去啟動，幻術或奧秘被破解的時刻。這似乎有點弔詭，但是破解隨後會發
生，因為性的意符的功用越來越含蓄，越來越模糊。

I will illustrate what I mean. Well after the Cartesian revolution and the Newtonian revolution, we still
see, at the heart of positivist doctrine, a religious theory of the earth as a great fetish, perfectly coherent
with a statement to be found in Comte, namely, that we shall never know anything about the chemical
composition of the stars, that the stars will continue to be stuck to their places, that is to say—if we can
see it from another perspective—purely as signifiers. Tough luck! At almost that very moment, the
analysis of light enabled us to see in the stars many things at once, including their chemical
composition. The break was then consummated between astronomy and astrology—which does not
mean that astrology is not alive for a great many people.

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讓我舉例說明是什麼意思。笛卡爾提出「我思故我在」的主體革命，以及牛頓提出的地球物理革命
後，我們在科學實證主義的核心，依舊看到一個把地球物理當著是宗教理論的唯物論，跟哲學
實證論者孔德所提出的主張，若合一契。換言之，孔德認為，我們將永遠無法知道組成星座的化
學成份，換言之，即使我們能夠從另外一個角度來看，視星座為人的意符的運作，星座將繼續
存在於原有位置，不為所動。真是誤打誤撞！幾乎就在那個時刻，物理學對於光的分析，使我們
能夠同時看到星座上的許多東西，包含他們的化學組成。這個破解在天文學跟星相學的關係，被
發揮得淋漓盡致。可是，這並不意味著，對於許多人，星相學從此就消聲匿跡。

雄伯
32hsiung@pchome.com.tw