Vanishing mediator

A vanishing mediator is a concept that exists to mediate between two opposing ideas, as a transition occurs between them. At the point where one idea has been replaced by the other, and the concept is no longer required, the mediator vanishes. [http://www.lacan.com/zizekchro1.htm Slavoj Zizek - Key Ideas] ] In terms of Hegelian dialectics, the conflict between thesis and antithesis is resolved by a synthesis of the two ideas, although the synthesis represents the final solution, whereupon the mediator vanishes.

In terms of psychoanalytic theory, when someone is caught in a dilemma they experience Hysteria. The conceptual deadlock, exists until the resulting Hysteric breakdown precipitates some kind of resolution, therefore the Hysteria is a vanishing mediator in this case. [http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~hartleyg/epoetry/avant/hysteria.html Hysteria and interpellation] ]

In terms of political history, it refers to social movements, which operate in a particular way to influence politics, until they either are forgotten or change their purpose. [http://www.long-sunday.net/long_sunday/2006/01/zizek_and_us.html Zizek and us.] ]

It is a concept that was originally described by Fredric Jameson:- In The Ideologies of Theorycite book |author=Jameson, Fredric |title=The ideologies of theory: essays 1971-1986 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |year=1988 |Volume=2 |isbn=08-166-157-64 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=6UgOAAAAQAAJ] , a two volume compilation of his essays, Jameson first defines the instance of "textual unconscious" outlined by Jacques Lacan, before the general idea of "a vanishing mediator".cite book |author=Mellard, James M. |title=Beyond Lacan (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture) |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany, N.Y |year=2006 |chapter=Chapter 1. From Freud to Jacques Lacan and the Textual Unconscious |chapterurl=http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/61344.pdf |isbn=07-914-690-34] Since, this concept has been adopted by Zizek in "For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political factor", where he uses it in a political sense, similar to Marx's Analysis of Revolution.

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