Changes
The LinkTitles extension automatically added links to existing pages (https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles).
According to [[Sigmund Freud]], the [[loss]] of the [[object]] is a two-step [[process ]] whereby the [[subject]] is constituted.
First, the earliest [[partial object]], the [[breast]], is [[lost]].
Then the primary [[love]] [[object]], the [[mother]], is likewise [[lost]].
The earliest [[sexual]] [[object]] is the [[breast]], and the earliest source of [[satisfaction]] for the [[sexual]] [[instinct]] is the [[encounter ]] between two [[partial object]]s, the [[infant]]'s [[mouth]] and the [[mother]]'s [[breast]].
In <i>[[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]]</i> (1905), [[Freud]] explained that the [[breast]] becomes a [[lost object]] "just at the [[time]], perhaps, when the [[child]] is able to [[form ]] a [[total]] [[idea]] of the person to whom the [[organ ]] that is giving him [[satisfaction]] belongs."<ref>[[Freud, Sigmund]]. [[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]]. 1905. p. 222</ref>
[[Loss]] of the [[object]] of the [[oral]] [[instinct]] is thus a precondition of access to the [[total]] person as a possible [[love]] [[object]].
At the same time, however, this [[loss]] opens the door to [[autoeroticism]] for the [[infant]] as the [[infant]] assumes a [[complete]] [[body]] [[image]].
The [[infant]], though in a [[passive]] [[position]], is [[active]] with [[regard ]] to a part of its own [[body]], and this enables the [[infant]] to find a [[source]] of [[satisfaction]] that is the first [[substitute]] for the [[breast]].
Later the [[lost object]] becomes the "[[whole]] person" in the context of the "[[Fort/Da]]" [[game]] described by [[Freud]] in <i>[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]</i> (1920).
Here [[separation]] from the [[object]] is addressed in two ways:
# either the [[child]] expresses an impulse to [[master]] the [[object]] by breaking it, casting it aside, or incorporating it in [[fantasy]] (and so [[working ]] it over in the [[psyche]]), or
# the [[child]] bypasses the [[need]] for the [[object]] by regarding it as a [[lost object]] beyond the reach of the [[self]].
With the [[recognition ]] of the [[absence]] of the [[object]], therefore, the [[child]] makes a transition, as a result of working over in the [[psyche]], to a capacity to do without the [[object]].
When the [[subject]] does not recognize the [[object]] as [[lost]], as in [[melancholia]], the [[object]] is incorporated in [[fantasy]], where it maintains a [[silent]] [[existence]] within the [[subject]].
==Post-Freudian==
After [[Freud]], a [[number ]] of [[psychoanalyst]]s took up the [[lost object]] and developed it in their theories.
[[Melanie Klein]] described [[internal]] [[object]]s in "[[Mourning and Its Relation to Manic-Depressive States]]" (1935).
[[Jacques Lacan]] theorized that ''[[objet a]]'' is [[substitute]]d for the [[lost object]].
And Nicolas [[Abraham ]] and Maria Torok related [[mourning]] and [[melancholia]] to the [[lost object]].
==Quotes==
<blockquote>Where is the [[subject]]? It is necessary to find the [[subject]] as a [[lost object]].<ref>[[Lacan, Jacques]]. [[Of Structure as an Inmixing of an Otherness Prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever]]. Talk at John Hopkins [[University]], Baltimore. 1966. <http://www.lacan.com/hotel.htm></ref></blockquote>
==References==
<references/>
# Freud, Sigmund. (1905d). [[Three ]] essays on the [[theory ]] of [[sexuality]]. SE, 7: 123-243.
# ——. (1916-1917g [1915]). Mourning and melancholia. SE, 14: 237-258.
# ——. (1920g). Beyond the [[pleasure ]] [[principle]]. SE, 18: 1-64.# ——. (1926d [1925]). Inhibitions, [[symptoms]], and anxiety. SE, 20: 75-172.# [[Klein]], Melanie. (1935). Mourning and its relation to [[manic-depressive ]] states. International Journal of [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]], 21, 125-153.# [[Lacan]], Jacques. (1966).Écrits. [[Paris]]: Seuil.
[[Category:New]]
