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{{Top}}lack of object|privation{{Bottom}}
==Jacques Lacan==
===Three Types Lack of LackObject===
In his [[seminar]] of 1956-7, [[Seminar IV|Object Relations]], [[Lacan]] distinguishes between three types of "[[lack of object]]":
# [[privation]],
# '''[[frustration]] ''' and # '''[[castration]]'''.
Each of these types of [[lack]] is located in a different [[order]], each is brought about by a different kind of [[agent]], and each involves a different kind of [[object]].
==Definition=Lack in the Real of a Symbolic Object===
[[Privation]] is defined as a [[lack]] in the [[real]] of a [[symbolic]] [[object]] (the [[symbolic]] [[phallus]]).
The [[agent]] who brings about this [[lack]] is the [[imaginary]] [[father]].
===Castration complexComplex===[[Privation]] is [[Lacan]]'s attempt to theorise theorize more rigorously [[Freud]]'s concept of [[female]] [[castration]] and [[penis envy]].
According to [[Freud]], when [[children]] realize that some people ([[women]]) do not have a [[penis]], this is a [[traumatic]] moment which produces different effects in the [[boy]] and in the [[girl]] (see [[castration complex]]).
Whereas the [[boy]] develops a [[fear]] of having his [[penis]] cut off, the [[girl]] envies the [[boy]] his possession of the [[penis]], which she sees as a highly desirable organ.
The [[girl]] blames the [[mother]] for depriving her of a [[penis]], and redirects her affections to the father in the hope that he will provide her with a [[child]] as a [[symbolic]] [[substitute]] for the [[penis]] she [[lacks]].<ref>{{F}} (1924d) ''[[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|An Autobiographical Study]]'', . [[SE]] XX, 3.</ref>
[[Privation]], then, refers to the [[female]]'s [[lack]] of a [[penis]], which is clearly a [[lack]] in the [[Real]].
===The realReal===
However, by definition, "the [[real]] is full".
The [[real]] is never [[lacking]] in itself, and thus "the notion of privation ... implies the [[symbolisation]] of the [[object]] in the [[real]]."<ref>{{S4}} p.218</ref>
In other words, when the [[child]] perceives the [[penis]] (a rea] organ) as [[absent]], it is only because he has a notion that it somehow should be there, which is to introduce the [[symbolic]] into the [[real]].
Thus what is [[lacking]] is not the [[real]] organ, for, [[biologically]] speaking, the vagina is not incomplete without one; what is [[lacking]] is a [[symbolic]] object, the [[symbolic]] [[phallus]].
Its [[symbolic]] nature is confirmed by the fact that it can be substituted by a [[child]] in the [[girl]]'s [[unconscious]]; in appeasing her [[penis envy]] by [[desiring]] a [[child]], [[Freud]] argues, the [[girl]] "[[slip]]s - along the lines of a [[symbolic]] equation, one might say - from the [[penis]] to a [[baby]]."<ref>{{F}} (1924d) "[[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex]]."; [[SE]] XIX, 178-9</ref>
[[Freud]] argues that the little [[girl]] blames her [[mother]] for depriving her of a [[penis]].
However, these two accounts are not necessarily incompatible.
==From =Girl to and Mother===
Even though the [[girl]] may at first resent the [[mother]] for depriving her of a [[penis]] and turn to the [[father]] in the hope that he will provide her with a [[symbolic]] [[substitute]], she later turns her resentment against the [[father]] when he fails to provide her with the desired [[child]].
Her [[desire]] for the [[phallus]] remains [[unsatisfied]], no matter how many [[children]] she has.
The [[mother]]'s basic [[dissatisfaction]] is perceived by the [[child]] from very early on; he realizes that she has a [[desire]] that aims at something beyond her [[dual relationship]] with him - the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]].<ref>{{S4}} p.194</ref>
The [[child]] then seeks to fulfil her [[desire]] by [[identifying]] with the [[Imaginary]] [[phallus]].
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Castration]]
* [[Desire]]
||
* [[Dialectic]]
* [[Frustration]]
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* [[FeminismCastration]]
* [[Frustration]]
||
* [[Mother]]
* [[Need]]
* [[Phallus]]
* [[Father]]
{{Also}}
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
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