Vanishing mediator
A vanishing mediator is a concept that exists to mediate between two opposing ideas, as a transition occurs between them. This mediating concept exists just long enough to facilitate such an interaction: at the point where one idea has been replaced by the other, the concept is no longer required and thus vanishes.[http://www.lacan.com/zizekchro1.htm Slavoj Zizek - Key Ideas] In terms of Hegelian dialectics the conflict between the theoretical abstraction and its empirical negation (through trial and error) is resolved by a concretion of the two ideas, representing a theoretical abstraction taking into account the previous contradiction, whereupon the mediator vanishes.
In terms of psychoanalytic theory, when someone is caught in a dilemma they experience hysteria. A conceptual deadlock exists until the resulting hysteric breakdown precipitates some kind of resolution, therefore the Hysteria is a vanishing mediator in this case.{{cite web |url=http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~hartleyg/epoetry/avant/hysteria.html |title=Hysteria and Interpellation |website=oak.cats.ohiou.edu |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070620203152/http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~hartleyg/epoetry/avant/hysteria.html |archive-date=20 June 2007 |url-status=dead}}
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.]
Fredric Jameson introduced the term in a 1973 essay ("The Vanishing Mediator: Narrative Structure in Max Weber," in New German Critique 1 [Winter, 1973]: 52-89). Alain Badiou uses a similar, but more explicitly post-structuralist term (″terme évanouissant″ or ″vanishing term″) in Théorie du sujet.
Since, this concept has been adopted by Žižek 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.
Applications of this concept exist in various fields, making it a viable framework in cultural studies, literature, and qualitative research among others ("Developing the Vanishing Mediator as Theoretical Framework: Synthesis and Application," [Fall, 2019]).{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334124369 |doi=10.17719/jisr.2019.3368|title=Developing the Vanishing Mediator as Theoretical Framework: Synthesis and Application |year=2019 |last1=Kahambing |first1=Jan Gresil |journal=Journal of International Social Research |volume=12 |issue=64 |pages=470–479 |s2cid=198347628 |doi-access=free }} One application is provided, for instance, by Balibar in his argument of Europe as a vanishing mediator.