Fel studies the meaning of the “Real” since Freud, particularly in terms of the attempt to conceptualize the unconscious as autonomous, yet not completely self- contained, and therefore open to reality. Castoriadis emphasizes the radical discontinuity between the psychic and the biological and social “Real,” criticizing Freud for denying the unconscious its own autonomous status by reducing it to the meaning which can be provided through interpretation. This reduction of unconscious being to conscious meaning was also taken up by Lacan, who drew upon the science of structural linguistics to assert the autonomous structure of the unconscious structured like a language. Fel considers how the Freudian “it” presents meaning as mediated by dynamic forces whereas the Lacanian “it” forces meaning to be mediated through the linguistic structure. Laplanche’s critique of Lacan’s idealism of the signifier is taken up by Fel, who insists that the unconscious always has some positive material content and therefore functions in accord with causal and not merely