In defense of the Sinthome
Symptom, alienation, separation, Other, subject
The present work aims to address the importance of symptoms for the psychic structuring of the subject based on the
mechanisms of alienation and separation discussed by Jacques Lacan, especially in his Seminar 11. We will approach the
structuring of the subject in relation to symptoms through the registers designated by Lacan as the real, imaginary, and
symbolic – which can be understood as an epistemological axis of his teaching – to see symptoms as a creation by the subject
based on the conditions that constituted them as such, and whose function is to structure them in a particular way in the face of
the inadequacy of alienation as an operation that designates the subject's condition of language and desire. Separation will be
approached in its relation to fantasy, where the subject may create alternatives for themselves due to the inadequacy of
alienation and the high costs of symptoms for their structuring as a desiring subject and of language. Thus, central concepts in
Lacan's work such as the Other, the subject, and desire will be addressed, as well as preceding concepts proposed by Freud such
as drive, trauma, and fantasy.