Changes
The LinkTitles extension automatically added links to existing pages (<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles">https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles</a>).
==Sigmund Freud==
[[Freud]] introduced the [[concept ]] of [[regression]] in longing for a protective [[father]],<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Future of an Illusion]]'', 1927c: [[SE]] XXI, 22-4</ref> and described [[The Interpretation of Dreams]] in [[order ]] to explain the [[visual]] [[nature ]] of [[dreams]].
Basing himself on a [[topographical]] [[model ]] in which the [[psyche ]] is conceived of as a series of distinct systems, [[Freud]] argued that during [[sleep ]] [[progress]]ive access to motor [[activity ]] is blocked, thus forcing [[thoughts ]] to travel regressively through these systems towards the [[system ]] of [[perception]].<ref>{{F}} ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', 1900a: [[SE]] V, 538-55</ref>
He later added a passage to this section distinguishing between this [[topographical]] kind of [[regression]] and what he called [[temporal]] [[regression]] (when the subject reverts to previous phases of [[development]]) and [[formal]] [[regression]]. (the use of modes of expression which are less [[complex ]] than [[others]]).<ref>{{F}} ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', 1900a: [[SE]] V, 548</ref>
==Jacques Lacan==
[[Lacan]] argues that the concept of [[regression]] has been one of the most misunderstood [[concepts ]] in [[psychoanalytic theory]].
In [[particular]], he criticises the 'magical' view of [[regression]], according to which [[regression]] is seen as a [[real ]] phenomenon, in which [[adults]] "actually regress, return to the [[state ]] of a small [[child]], and start wailing."
In this [[sense ]] of the term, "[[regression]] does [[exist]]."<ref>{{S2}} p. 103</ref>
In [[place ]] of this misconception, [[Lacan]] argues that [[regression]] must be [[understood ]] first and foremost in a [[topographical]] sense, which is the way [[Freud]] understood the term when he introduced it in 1900, and not in a [[temporal]] sense.
In [[other ]] [[words]], "there is [[regression]] on the plane of [[signification and not on the plane of [[reality]]."<ref>{{S2}} p. 103</ref>
Thus [[regression]] is to be understood "not in the [[instinct]]ual sense, nor in the sense of the resurgence of something anterior," but in the sense of "the reduction of the [[symbolic]] to the [[imaginary]]."<ref>{{S4}} p. 242</ref>
Insofar as [[regression]] can be said to have a [[temporal]] sense, it does not involve the [[subject]] "going back in [[time]]," but rather a rearticulation of certain [[demand]]s:
"[[Regression]] shows [[nothing ]] other than a [[return]] to the [[present ]] of [[signifier]]s used in [[demand]]s for which there is a prescription."<ref>{{E}} p.255</ref>
[[Regression]] to the [[oral stage]], for example, is to be understood in [[terms ]] of the articulation of [[oral ]] [[demand]]s (the [[demand]] to be fed, evident in the [[demand]] for the [[analyst]] to supply [[interpretation]]s).
When understood in this sense, [[Lacan]] reaffirms the importance of [[regression]] in [[psychoanalytic treatment]], arguing that [[regression]] to the [[anal stage]], for example, is so important that no [[analysis]] which has not encountered this can be called [[complete]].<ref>{{S8}} p. 242</ref>
== References ==
