PHILOSOPHIE ET COMMUNICATION 168 REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PHILOSOPHIE EN LIGNE AVEC PEER REWIEV WWW.METABASIS.IT mai 2015 an X n° 19 L’IMAGINAIRE ET L’HYPOSTASIE DE LA COMMUNICATION DOI: 10.7413/18281567065 par Ana Taís Martins Portanova Barros Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) The imaginary and the communication hypostasis Abstract: This paper aims to review the definitions and vagueness of the concept of imaginary and symbolic, and to relate its limits and its reach within the research in Communication. The difficulties of the approach in Communication to a notion of course of the sense are addressed. Inherited from the School of Grenoble, this notion underlies the theory of the imaginary. Communication is here considered to be insufficient for the study of the catalysis of imaginaries and the production of symbolic images which are present in communi- cation phenomena. This is due not only to the inadequacy of a process that is described in terms of sender- message-receiver, but especially to the self-evidence of imaginary and symbolic, as expressed in the lan- guage, resulting in a reduction of the imaginary to its social symptoms. Keywords: Communication, Imaginary, School of Grenoble, Language, Social Sciences. 1. Fabrique d’images La spécialisation nous a apporté de nouvelles faiblesses et de nouvelles professions. Pour qui a mal à l’estomac, un gastro-entérologue ; pour qui ne sait pas faire ses courses, un personal shopper (Acheteur personnel) ; pour les femmes ayant une cystite, un uro-gynécologiste ; pour qui ne sait pas s’habiller, un personal stylist (styliste personnel) ; pour qui ne connaît rien aux technologies de la communication, un personal nerd (as informatique personnel) ; pour l’humanité déconnectée du sacré et des rites, les techniciens de l’imaginaire.