This is why the object a comes this year into the centre of our remarks. And if effectively it is inscribed in the frame of this anxiety that I took as a title, it is precisely for the reason that it is essentially from this angle that it is possible to speak about it, which means again that anxiety is its only subjective expression. If the a which we are dealing with here was all the same introduced a long time ago and along the path which brings it to you, was therefore announced elsewhere, it was announced in the formula of the fantasy ($ ◇ a), desire of a.

L’objet a vient cette année au centre de notre propos. S’il s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un Séminaire que j’ai intitulé de l’angoisse, c’est parce que c’est essentiellement par ce biais qu’il est possible d’en parler, ce qui veut dire encore que l’angoisse est sa seule traduction subjective. Le a qui vient ici a pourtant été introduit dès longtemps. Il s’est annoncé dans la formule du fantasme en tant que support du désir, ($ ◇ a), $ désir de a.

Jacques Lacan, Le Séminaire, Livre X, L’angoisse, Paris, éd. du Seuil, 2004, p. 119