Revelations and Truth: A Personal Understanding of VARITY

by Ruqayya Masood

Following is my understanding of a part of the text titled “VARITY: Variations of Truth in Psychoanalysis” by Patricia Bosquin-Caroz.

The presentation of the NLS Congress Theme 2026 by Patricia Bosquin-Caroz named “VARITY” which is a neologism meaning the variations of truth which are revealed over time in analysis by the analysand. “What the analysand says is not the truth, but the variation of sinthome.”

Sinthome literally translates to symptom. Over time the symptoms change, or the explanation of symptoms change throughout the course of analysis thus rejecting the idea of ‘The Truth’ a singular truth was which was used by Lacan initially but later changed to the plural, variable and lying truth. Lying truth according to my understanding can be referred to as the Truth which analysand speaks in order to avoid revelations which is another dimension of speech in addition to that of expression and mediation meaning the “unveiling of a supposedly hidden or veiled truth and coincides with the instant of seeing” or a moment of realization or understanding. Lying truth can serve as a defense against revelations such as negation or rationalization, or can it also be called the veiled truth which is unveiled over the time in analysis? As Patricia says in the presentation, ‘Truth thus moves from unveiling to evasion or escape, while analysis is defined as a series of revelations specific to each subject.’ In the process of unveiling the truth, when it is unveiled and a revelation is made proves to be unbearable for the conscious and the analysand instantly tries escape the unbearable through the defense of lying truth and trying to veil it again which is again uncovered as a revelation. Is analysis a loop until it is not? When truths are revealed in speech, it changes from empty speech to full speech. As the truth in speech is variable, it can neither be denied nor can it be accepted by reality because similarly to the truth, reality is also variable, and the variable truth is what makes the reality plural. Hence, it cannot conform with objective and singular reality and cannot be referenced to as “exactitude” but instead it is a reconstructed version of reality which is influenced by the subjects’ emotions. What prevents us from making the truth is the traumas, which have made a hole in fiction or memory of a subject. It is about trying to remember or make truth of what has been forgotten as it is deemed unbearable to the conscious and has resorted to the unconscious and thus made a hole. To make the truth, what is required is the revelations of the unconscious which are often showed in the forms of errors like “misunderstanding, a lapsus, a bungled act, something that trips up and reveals a truth from behind”. Or a truth behind the lying truth? Or a revelation?