Cleopatra's Nose
Lacan alludes to a Blaise Pascal's famous assertion that if only Cleopatra's nose had been minimally shorter, the whole of human history would be changed. This theory is based upon the once-common belief that the size of a person's nose could be equated with the quality of their character:
"If Cleopatra's nose changed the course of the world, it was because it entered the world's discourse, for to change it in the long or short term, it was enough, indeed, it was necessary, for it to be a speaking nose."
The Unconscious
Psychoanalysis is dependent upon not just the existence unconscious thoughts, but the ability to translate them in meaning. The translation is one requiring movement from symbol to meaning which makes it more mundane than some might expect:
"...the unconscious is structured in the most radical way like a language...according to certain laws, which are the same laws as thos discovered in the study of actual languages."
Don't We Know It
Sometimes a metaphor comes along that is hard to identify with due to language. The march of time serves to make the language of the metaphor seem out of sync with the times. Americans have not had to deal with many men who thought they were monarchs. When one finally did, this particular metaphor became much timelier and easier to understand:
"...it should be noted that if a man who thinks he is a king is mad, a king who thinks he is a king is no less so."
The Unconscious as History
Lacan forwards the easily understood metaphor of the mind operating as a person's history. The conscious mind is the history textbook which can be referenced at will. But, as with actual textbooks, the whole story is not written down:
"The unconscious is that chapter of my history that is marked by a blank or occupied by a falsehood: it is the censored chapter."
Don't Fear the Truth
Much of Lacan's writings about Freud are directed exemplifying how if he did nothing else, Freud brought to light certain truths about human behavior. He compares this to the mythological premise of Prometheus stealing fire from the gods and applies an overarching metaphor applicable to all great minds that have revealed what had been hidden:
"Such is the fright that seizes man when he unveils the face of his power that he turns away from it even in the very act of laying its features bare."
