other (perverse) Master-Signifier (S1). In other words, the Name-of-the-Father/
symbolic phallus as S1 will in any case be considered as the most standardphantas-
matic compensation or defense against the lack in the Symbolic, but no structural
difference will distinguish it from “perverse” Master-Signifiers. The Name-of-the-
Father will no longer “encircle” the Other; it will simply suture it by “veiling” its
lack. Consequently, all S1s will be defined as equally privileged signifiers on which
their respective signifiers S2 depend. Such a dependence will, however, be con-
fined to the level of signification: the fact that signifiers S2 depend on a given S1—
represent or signify an unconscious subject for his S1—will no longer imply that
that S1 signifies its S2s. There will no longer be any signifier of signifiers,only a mu-
tually exclusive—though potentially infinite—plurality of signifiers S1 that sig-
nify the signifiedas such by fixing the subject’s unconscious in a fundamental fantasy.
With regard to the algebraic formula of fantasy Sa—to be read as “the castrated
subject in (retroactive) relation to the Real of the primordial trauma”—S1 will bethe subject of the symbolic (other)precisely that which keeps the two elements bound.