Her absence. when he has to make do with substitutes or signs that recall her to him, is first contrasted with her presence. But it turns out that her presence is not a moment of fulfilment, of immediate access to the thing itself, without supplements or signs: in her presence too the structure, the need for supplements is the same. Hence the grotesque incident of swallowing the food she had put into her mouth. And the chain of substitutions can be continued. Even if Rousseau were to 'possess her. as we say. he would still feel that she escaped him and could only be anticipated and recalled. And Maman herself is a substitute for the mother Rousseau never knew a mother who would not have sufficed but who would, like all mothers, have faded to satisfy and have required supplements.