法：point de capiton
法文术语“point de capiton”在拉康著作的英文版本中被不同地译作“缝合点”(quilting point)或者“锚定点”(anchoring point)。为了避免此种翻译的多样性所导致的混淆，该术语在此便被保留为其法语原文的形式。在字面上，该词指的是一种家具衬垫装饰扣，这里的类比在于，正如家具衬垫装饰扣是“床垫制造者为了防止大量不成形的填塞物过于自由地移动而多缝几针”的地方 (Bowie, 1991:74), 所以“结扣点”也是“所指与能指被扭结在一起的”地点 (S3,268)。拉康在其1955一1956年度有关精神病的研讨班上引入了这一术语，以说明这样一个事实，即尽管所指在能指之下连续滑动 (见：滑动[SLP]), 然而就正常的（神经症的）主体而言，在所指与能指之间也还是存在着一些基本的“附着点”(ttachment points), 从而暂时性地停止了此种滑动。这些点在数量上的最小限值“对于把一个人称作正常人而言是必不可少的”，而且“当它们没有建立的时候，或是当它们坍塌的时候”（S3,268-9),其结果便会导致精神病 (PSYCHOSIS)。这一点有助于解释何以在精神病的经验中“能指与所指会以一种完全割裂的形式呈现出来”(S3,268).
因而，“结扣点”便是在能指链条上使“能指停止原本永无止境的意指运动”并产生某固定意义的必要幻象的点。因为能指链条同时具有一个历时性的维度与一个共时性的维度，所以“结扣点”亦是如此：
(1)“结扣点”的历时性维度即在于这样一个事实：交流始终是标点 (PUNCTUATION)的一种回溯性效果。只要当一个句子是完整的时候，前面的词的意义才会被回溯性地决定下来。这一功能是在欲望图解 (GRAPH OF DESIRE)的基本单位中被加以阐明的，其中“结扣点”即矢量S一S’与矢量△一8之间的最左边的交点。
(2)共时性的面向即能指借以穿越杠而进入所指的隐喻 (METAPHOR)。“【结扣点的】共时性的结构是更加隐蔽的，而且正是这一结构将我们带向了源头。它便是隐喻。”(E, 303)
The French term point de capiton is variously translated in English editions of Lacan'swork as 'quilting point'or 'anchoring point'. To avoid the confusion resulting from thisvariety of translation, the term has here been left in the original French. It literallydesignates an upholstery button, the analogy being that just as upholstery buttons areplaces where 'the mattress-maker's needle has worked hard to prevent a shapeless massof stuffing from moving too freely about' (Bowie, 1991:74), so the points de capiton arepoints at which 'signified and signifier are knotted together' (S3,268). Lacan introducesthe term in his 1955-6 seminar on the psychoses to account for the fact that despite thecontinual slippage of the signified under the signifier (see SLIP), there are nevertheless inthe normal (neurotic) subject certain fundamental 'attachment points'between thesignified and the signifier where this slippage is temporarily halted. A certain minimumnumber of these points are necessary for a person to be called normal', and when theyare not established, or when they give way'the result is PSYCHOSIS (S3,268-9). Thishelps to explain how it is that in the psychotic experience, the signifier and the signifiedpresent themselves in a completely divided form' (S3,268).
The point de capiton is thus the point in the signifying chain at which 'the signifierstops the otherwise endless movement of the signification' (E, 303) and produces thenecessary illusion of a fixed meaning. Since the signifying chain has both a diachronicand a synchronic dimension, so also does the point de capiton:
- The diachronic dimension of the point de capiton lies in the fact thatcommunication is always a retroactive effect of PUNCTUATION. It is only when thesentence is completed that the sense of the first words is determined retroactively. Thisfunction is illustrated in the elementary cell of the GRAPH OF DESIRE, in which thepoint de capiton is the leftmost point of intersection between the vector S-S'and thevector△-8.
- The synchronic aspect is METAPHOR, by which the signifier crosses the bar intothe signified. The synchronic structure [of the point de capiton]is more hidden, and it isthis structure that takes us to the source. It is metaphor' (E, 303)