‌‌‌‌　　英: absence; 法:absence

‌‌‌‌　　象征秩序是以缺位与在场之间的基本二元对立为特征的(S4, 76-8)。

‌‌‌‌　　在象征秩序中，“除非是在一种假定缺位的基础之上，否则便没有任何事物存在”(Ec,392)。这便是象征界与实在界之间的一个基本差异；“实在界中没有任何缺位。只有当你提出在没有任何在场的地方可能有某种在场的时候，缺位才会存在”(S2,313)》(见：[[privation 剥夺]])。

‌‌‌‌　　正如罗曼·雅各布森以其音素分析所表明的那样，所有的语言现象皆可能完全是根据某些“区分性特征”的在场或缺位而特征化的。拉康把弗洛伊德在《超越快乐原则》(Freud,1920g)中所描述的“fot!/da!”(不见了！/在这儿！)游戏看作代表着孩子登陆象征秩序的一对原始音素。孩子发出的这两个声音，O/A(噢啊)，即“是一对根据在场与缺位而调节的声音”(E,65),而且这些声音还联系着“人物或事物的在场与缺位”(E,109,n.46)。

‌‌‌‌　　拉康注意到，词语是“某种由缺位所构成的在场”(E,65),因为(1)象征符是在事物的缺位之时被使用的，而且(2)能指的存在也仅仅是就它们对立于其他能指而言的。

‌‌‌‌　　因为缺位与在场在象征秩序中的这种相互牵连，所以缺位便可以说是在象征界中具有与在场同样肯定的存在。正是这一点允许拉康能够说，“虚无”（英：the nothing;法：le rien)就其本身而言，同样是一个对象（亦即：一个部分对象）(S4,184-5)。

‌‌‌‌　　正是围绕着阳具(PHALLUS)的在场与缺位，孩子才得以象征性地理解性别差异。

‌‌‌‌　　(absence) The symbolic order is characterised by the fundamental binary oppositionbetween absence and presence (S4, 67–8).

‌‌‌‌　　In the symbolic order ‘nothing exists except upon an assumed foundation of absence’(Ec, 392). This is a basic difference between the symbolic and the real; ‘There is noabsence in the real. There is only absence if you suggest that there may be a presencethere where there isn’t one’ (S2, 313) (see PRIVATION).

‌‌‌‌　　As Roman Jakobson showed with his analysis of phonemes, all linguistic phenomena may be entirely characterised in terms of the presence or absence of certain ‘distinctivefeatures’. Lacan sees the game of fort!/da!, which Freud describes in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud, 1920g), as a primitive phonemic opposition representing the child’s entry into the symbolic order. The two sounds made by the child, O/A, are ‘a pair of sounds modulated on presence and absence’ (E, 65), and these sounds are related ‘to the presence and absence of persons and things’ (E, 109, n. 46).

‌‌‌‌　　Lacan notes that the word is ‘a presence made of absence’ (E, 65) because (i) the symbol is used in the absence of the thing and (ii) signifiers only exist insofar as they are opposed to other signifiers.

‌‌‌‌　　Because of the mutual implication of absence and presence in the symbolic order,absence can be said to have an equally positive existence in the symbolic as presence.This is what allows Lacan to say that ‘the nothing’ (le rien) is in itself an object (a partial object) (S4, 184–5).

‌‌‌‌　　It is around the presence and absence of the PHALLUS that sexual difference issymbolically apprehended by the child.