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=====Sigmund Freud=====
=====Mother as First Love Object=====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]].
=====Melanie Klein=====
=====Mother-Child Dual RelationshipRelation=====In the work of [[Melanie Klein]], the emphasis shifted from the role of the '''[[father]] ''' to the [[genital|pre-genital]] [[mother]]|mother-[[child]] '''[[dual relation|relation]]'''; the latter was described as a [[sadistic]] relation in whic which the [[development|child]] makes (in [[fantasy]]) vicious attacks on the [[mother]]'s [[fragmented body|body]] and then [[phobia|fear]]s retaliation from her.
=====Jacques Lacan=====
=====Devouring Mother=====
In his [[Works of Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|pre-war writings]], [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]] alludes several times to [[Melanie Klein]]'s work, and describes the cannibalistic [[fantasy|fantasies]] of devouring, and being devoured by, the [[mother]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the first of the [[complex|family]] [[complex]]es is the [[complex|weaning complex]], in which the interrruption of the [[dual relation|symbiotic relation]] with the [[mother]] leaves a permanent trace in the [[development|child]]'s [[psyche]].
He also describes the [[death drive]] as a [[nostalgia|''nostalgic yearning]] '' to return to this relation of fusion with the [[mother]]'s [[mother|breast]].
This view of the [[mother]] as an engulfing force which threatens to devour the [[child]] is a constant theme in [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]]'s [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work ]] thereafter.<ref>{{S4}} p. 195; {{S17}} p. 118</ref>
=====Socio-Symbolic World=====
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[child]] must detach himself from the '''[[imaginary]] [[dual relation|relation]] ''' with the [[mother]] in order to enter the [[symbolic|social world]]; failure to do so can result in any one of various peculiarities ranging from [[phobia]] to [[perversion]].
=====Paternal Function=====
=====Oedipus Complex=====
Hence much of [[Lacan]]'s work is aimed at shifting the emphasis in [[psychoanalytic theory]] from the [[mother]]|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]]).
=====Desire of the Mother=====
According to [[Freud]], a [[woman]]'s [[desire]] to have a [[development|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]] [[fetish|substitute]] for the [[penis]] she has been denied.<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex]]," 1924d. [[SE]] XIX, 173.</ref>
=====Symbolic Phallus=====
[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]], arguing that the [[child]] always represents for the [[mother]] a [[fetish|substitute]] for the '''[[phallus|symbolic]] [[phallus]] ''' which she [[lacks]] (see [[privation]]).
However, [[Lacan]] emphasizes that the [[fetish|substitute]] never really [[desire|satisfies]] the [[mother]]; her [[desire]] for the [[phallus]] persists even after she has had a [[child]].
====="Che Vuoi?"=====
The [[development|child]] soon realizes that he does not completely [[desire|satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s '''[[desire]]''', that her [[desire]] aims at something beyond him, and thus attempts to decipher this enigmatic [[desire]]; he must work out an answer to the question ''[[Che vuoi?]]'' ("What do you want from me?").
=====Imaginary Phallus=====
The answer the [[child]]] comes up with is that what the [[mother]] [[desire]]s is the '''[[phallus|imaginary]] [[phallus]]'''.
The [[child]] then seeks to [[desire|satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] by [[identification|identifying]] with the '''[[phallus|imaginary]] [[phallus]] ''' (or by [[identifying]] with the [[mother|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>
=====Anxiety=====
However, this sense of [[helplessness|powerlessness]] may not give rise to much '''[[anxiety]] ''' at first; for a time, the [[child]] experiences his attempts at being the [[phallus]] as a relatively satisfying game of seduction.
It is only when the [[development|child]]'s [[drive|sexual]] [[drive]]s begin to stire (e.g. in infantile masturbation), and an element of the [[real]] is thus introduced into the [[imaginary]] game, that the omnipotence of the [[mother]] begins to provoke greater [[anxiety]] in the [[development|child]].
This '''[[anxiety]] ''' is manifested in images 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]].
=====Imaginary, Symbolic and Real Mother=====
[[Lacan]] argues that it is important to distinguish between the [[mother|real]] [[mother]], the [[mother|symbolic]] [[mother]], and the [[mother|imaginary]] [[mother]].
The [[mother]] manifests herself in the [[real]] as the primary caretaker of the [[infant]].
The [[mother]] is first of all [[symbolic]]; she only becomes [[real]] by [[frustration|frustrating]] the [[subject]]'s [[demand]] (see [[frustration]]).
When the [[mother]] ministers to the [[infant]], bringing him the [[object]]s that will [[desire|satisfy]] his [[needs]], 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 [[mother]]'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 [[lack|loss]] of her [[love]].
=====Symbolization=====
[[Freud]] showed how the [[child]] attempts to cope with this [[castration|loss]] by [[symbol|symbolizing]] the [[[mother]]'s '''[[presence]] ''' and '''[[absence]] ''' in games and [[language]].
[[Lacan]] regards this primary [[symbolization]] as the [[child]]'s first steps into the [[symbolic|symbolic order]]."<ref>{{S4}} p.67-</ref>
The [[mother]] which interests [[psychoanalytic theory]] is thus above all the [[mother|symbolic]] [[mother]], the [[mother]] in her role as the primordial [[Other]].
It is she who introduces the [[child]] into [[language]] by [[interpretation|interpreting ]] the [[child]]'s screams and thereby retroactively determining their [[signification|meaning ]] (see [[punctuation]]).
=====Imaginary Mother=====
The [[mother]] is manifested in the [[imaginary|imaginary order]] in a number of [[specular image|image]]s.
One important [[specular image|image]] that has aleady been mentioned is that of the devouring [[mother]] which is at the root of [[anxiety]].
Another important [[mother|maternal]] [[image]] is that of the [[mother|phallic mother]], the [[mother]] imagined as possessing the [[phallus|imaginary]] [[phallus]].
==See Also==
<references/>
[[Category:Imaginary]]
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