The quilting point is a term from [[Lacanian]] [[psychoanalysis]].
Lacan explains the quilting point as the moment when a chain of signifiers provides meaning.
Once this signifier âthe fear of Godâ does exist it changes everything, because it dominates the meanings of this particular structuration of human discourse. It has become the âmajor and primordial signifierâ that transforms all fears into âperfect courageâ. Indeed Lacan invites us into the paradox that, âhowever constraining it may beâ, what is called âfear of Godâ is the opposite of a fear.
Lacan suggests Racineâs artful introduction of the word âfearâ and connected key words, such as âtrembleâ and âexterminationâ, which partly coincide in the discourse of the two protagonists, transforms âzealâ at the beginning, with its connotations of âeverything that is ambiguous, doubtful, always liable to be reversedâ, into the âfaithfulnessâ of the end. This, Lacan says, is an example of âthe transmutation of the situation through the intervention of the signifierâ.
Lacan considers the effect of introducing âfearâ into the narrative an example of a âquilting pointâ. The metaphor of a âquilting pointâ refers to the way upholsterers use buttons to secure the fabric of their work to the backing, in order to maintain a defined shape. There is a certain tensioning of the fabric involved as it resists this stitching down, and this tension can be seen in the way the fabric bunches up around the button and radiates out from it. In a similar way a major and primordial signifier (fear) can enter a discourse at a particular point and in a particular way as to âknot togetherâ signified and signifier, âbetween the still floating mass of meaningsâ that circulate between âthe two characters and the textâ. There is a tension involved as language resists such âbuttoning downâ, and the lines of force radiate out in language around these âquilting pointsâ situating the discourse both âretroactively and prospectivelyâ.
The term was introduced in Lacanâs [[Seminar III]].