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→The Mother: Real, Symbolic and Imaginary
The [[mother]] manifests herself in the [[real]] as the primary caretaker of the [[infant]].
The [[infant]] is incapable of [[satisfaction|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 [[frustration|frustrating]] the [[subject]]'s [[demand]] (see [[frustration]]).
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When the [[mother]] ministers to the [[infant]], bringing him the [[object]]s that will [[satisfy]] his [[neeedsneeds]], 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 [[motehrmother]]'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.
[[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 regards this 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]].
Another important maternal image is that of the phallic mother, the mother imagined as possessing the imaginary phallus.
==See Also==
