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  "[[mother]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[mère]]'') In [[Freud]]'s account of the [[Oedipus complex]], the [[mother]] is the first [[love]] [[object]] of the [[child]]; it is only the intervention of the [[father]], via the threat of [[castration]], which forces the [[child]] to give up his [[desire]] for the [[mother]]. In the work of [[Melanie Klein]], the emphasis shifted from the role of th e[[father]] to the pre-genital [[mother]]-[[child]] [[dual relation|relation]]; the latter was described as a [[sadistic]] relation in whic the [[child]] makes (in [[fantasy]]) vicious attacks on the [[mother]]'s [[body]] and then [[fear]]s retaliation from her. ---  In his pre-war writings, [[Lacan]] alludes several times to [[Melanie Klein]]'s work, and describes the cannibalistic [[fantasies]] of devouring, and being devoured by, the [[mother]]. [[Lacan]] argues that the first of the family complexes is the weaning complex, in which the interrruption of the symbiotic relation with the [[mother]] leaves a permanent trace in the [[child]]'s [[psyche]]. he also describes the [[death drive]] as a nostalgic yearning to return to this relation of fusion with the [[mother]]'s [[breast]]. -- This view of the [[mother]] as an engulfing force whcih threatens to devour the [[child]] is a constant theme in [[Lacan]]'s work thereafter.<ref>{{S4}} p.195; {{S17}} p.118</ref> [[Lacan]] argues that the [[child]] must detach himself fromt he [[imaginary]] [[dual relation|relation]] with the [[mother]] in order to enter the social world; failure to do so can result in any one of various peculiarities ranging from [[phobia]] to [[perversion]]. Since the agent who helps the [[child]] to overcome the primary attachment to the [[mother]] is the [[father]], these peculiarities may also be said to result from a failure of the paternal function. Hence much of [[Lacan]]'s work is aimed at shifting the emphasis in [[psychoanalytic theory]] from the [[mother]]-[[child]] relation (the [[preoedipal, the prototype of the [[imaginary]]) back onto the role of the [[father]] (the [[Oedipus complex, the prototype of the [[symbolic]]). ==The Desire of the Mother===According to [[Freud]], a [[woman]]'s [[desire]] to have a [[child]] is rooted in her [[envy]] of the [[man]]'s [[penis]]. When the [[girl]] first realizes that she does not possess a penis, she feels deprived of something valuable, and seeks to compensate for this by obtaining a child as a symbolic substitute for the penis she has been denied.<ref>Freud. 1924d</ref> [[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]], aruging that the [[child]] always represents for the [[mother]] a substitute for the [[symbolic]] [[phallus]] which she [[lacks]] (see [[privation]]). However, [[Lacan]] emphasizes that ths substitute never really satisfies the [[mother]]; her [[desire]] for the [[phallus]] persists even after she has had a [[child]]. The [[child]] soon realizes that he does not completely [[satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], that her [[desire]] aims at something beyond him, andthus attempts to decipher this enigmatic [[desire]]; he must work out an answer to the question ''Che vuoi?'' ("What do you want from me?"). The answer the [[child]]] comes up with is that what the [[mother]] [[desire]]s is the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]]. The [[child]] then seeks to [[satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] by identifying with the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]] (or by identifying with the phallic mother, the mother imagined as possessing the phallus). In this game of "to be or not to be the phallus," the child is completely at the mercy of the capricious [[desire]] of the [[mother]], [[helplessness|helpless]] in the face of her omnipotence.<ref>{{S4}} p.69, 187</ref> However, this sense o fpowerlessness may not give rise to much [[anxiety]] at first; for a time, the [[child]] experiencces his attempts at being the [[phallus]] as arelaively satisfying game of seduction. It is only when the [[child]]'s sexual drives begin to stire (e.g. in infantile masturbation), and na element of the [[real]] is thus introduced into the[[imagianry]] game, tha tthe omnipotence of the [[mother]] begins to provoke greater [[anxiety]] in the [[chld]]. This [[anxiety]] is manifested in iamges of being devoured by the [[mother]], and is only resolved by the intervention of the [[real]] [[father]] who castrates the [[child]] in the third time of the [[Oedipus complex]]. ==The Mother: Real, Symbolic and Imaginary== [[Lacan]] argues that it is important to distinguish between the [[real]] [[mother]], the [[symbolic]] [[mother]], and the [[imaginary]] [[mother]]. -- The [[mother]] manifests herself in the [[real]] as the primary caretaker of the [[infant]]. The [[infant]] is incapable of [[satisfying]] its own [[needs]] and so depends absolutely on an [[Other]] to care for him (see [[helplessness]]). The [[mother]] is first of all [[symbolic]]; she only becomes [[real]] by [[frustrating]] the [[subject]]'s [[demand]] (see [[frustration]]). --- When the [[mother]] ministers to the [[infant]], bringing him the [[object]]s that will [[satisfy]] his [[neeeds]], these [[object]]s soon take on a [[symbolic]] function that completely eclipses their real funciton; the [[object]]s are seen as gifts, symbolic tokens of the [[motehr]]'s [[love]]. Finally, it is the [[mother]]'s [[presence]] which testifies to this [[love]], even if she does not bring any real object with her. COnsequently, the [[mother]]'s [[absence]] is experienced as a traumatic rejection, as a loss of her love. [[Freud]] showed how the [[child]] attempts to cope with this loss by symbolizing the [[[mother]]'s [[presence]] and [[absence]] in games and [[language]]. [[Lacan]] regard sthis primary [[symbolization]] as the [[chld]]'s first steps into the [[symbolic order."<ref>{{S4}} p.67-</ref> The [[mother]] which itnerests [[psychoanalytic theory]] is thus above all the [[symbolic]] [[mother]], the [[mother]] in her role as the primordial [[Other]]. it is she who introduces the [[child]] into [[language]] by interpreting the [[child]]'s screams and thereby retroactively determining their meaning (see [[punctuation]]). ----  The [[mother]] is manifested in the [[imaginary order]] in a number of images. One important image that has aleady been mentioned is that of the devouring mother which is at the root of anxiety.  Another important maternal image is that of the phallic mother, the mother imagined as possessing the imaginary phallus.  ==See Also==* [[Father]] ==References==<references/>

[[Category:PeopleJacques Lacan]][[Category:Dictionary]][[Category:Concepts]]