beacon

clue

hint

marker

signal

symptom

Things That Point

beacon, clue, hint, marker, signal, symptom

, by allowing us to imagine what we do not know, stimulates a desire for knowledge.

The tiny, initial clue ... by allowing us to imagine what we do not know, stimulates a desire for knowledge.

is nothing but the cry from suffering organs.

Symptoms, then, are in reality nothing but the cry from suffering organs.

is distinguished overly rigidly from a sign in that a symptom - for example, fatigue or pain - is subjective; whereas a sign - for example, fever or high blood pressure - objective, while in fact both are reports made about the body, only from the positions of patient vs. clinician.

The most important distinction in the diagnostic vocabulary of medicine is that between symptom and sign. Typically, a symptom-for example, fatigue or pain-is said to be subjective; whereas a sign-for example, fever or high blood pressure- is said to be objective. Although this is a fair approximation to what is at stake here, the subjective/objective dichotomy may mislead. In fact, both symptoms and signs are reports a person makes about a body: A symptom is a report a person ('patient') makes about his own body; whereas a sign is a report a person ('physician', 'clinical pathologist', or other expert) makes about the patient's body. Symptoms no less than signs may be true or false. However, a symptom is more likely to be false in the sense that the patient's purpose is to deceive the listener, whereas a sign is more likely to be false in the sense that the reporter has made an unintentional error. For example, a laboratory technician may mix up two blood specimens and thus attribute James's anemia to John, but James is unlikely to erroneously attribute his headache to John, or vice versa.

Lacan always insisted that a psychoanalytic symptom could be treated by linguistic ambiguity precisely what Freud failed to do with Dora, to whom he was too eager to announce his 'truth' (rabate 'lacan')