==Freud and Biology==
[[Freud]]'s work is full of references to [[biology]].
[[Freud]] regarded [[biology]] as a model of scientific rigour on which to base the new [[science]] of [[psychoanalysis]].
==Lacan's Critique of 'Biologism'==[[LacanFreud]], however, is strongly opposed to any attempt to construct regarded [[psychoanalysisbiology]] upon as a [[biologicalscientific]] model, arguing that on which to base the direct application of new [[biologicalscience]] (or ethological/psychological) concepts (such as [[adaptation]]) to of [[psychoanalysis]] will inevitably be misleading and will obliterate the essential distinction between [[nature]] and [[:category:culture|culture]].
Such biologising explanations of human behaviour ignore, according to [[LacanBiology]], the primacy was at that time a model of the [[symbolic]] [[orderscientific]] rigour in human [[existence]]general.
[[Lacan]] sees this '[[biologism]]' in the work of those [[psychoanalysts]] who have confused [[desire]] expresses his point with a [[need]], and [[drivesparadox]] : "Freudian biology has nothing to do with [[instincts]], concepts which he insists on distinguishingbiology."<ref>{{S2}} p.75</ref>
These arguments are evident [[Freud]] borrowed concepts from [[biology]] (such as the very earliest concept of the [[Lacan]drive]'s psychoanalytic writings) but reworked them in such a radical way that they become totally new concepts.
In his 1938 work on the [[familyLacan]], for example, he rejects any attempt to explain like [[familyFreud]] , uses concepts borrowed from [[structurebiology]]s on the basis of purely [[biological]] data, and argues that then reworks them in an entirely [[humansymbolic]] [[psychology]] is regulated by [[complex]]es rather than by [[instinct]]sframework.<ref>Lacan, 1938: 23-4</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that his refusal For example, the concept of the [[biologicaldeath instinct]] reductionism "is not a contradiction question of [[Freud]] but a [[return]] to the essence of [[Freud]]'s workbiology."<ref>{{E}} p. 102</ref>
When ==Biological Reduction==[[FreudLacan]] used consistently rejects all forms of [[biological]] models, he did so simply because [[biology]] was at that time a model of scientific rigour in general, and because the conjectural [[science]]s had not then achieved the same degree of rigourreductionism.
[[FreudLacan]] certainly did not confuse opposed the application of [[psychoanalysisbiological]] with (or ethological/[[biologypsychological]] or any other exact ) concepts (such as [[scienceadaptation]], and when he borrowed concepts from [[biologybiological]] (such as the concept explanations of the [[drivehuman]] [[behavior]]) he reworked them in such a radical way that they become totally new conceptsto [[psychoanalysis]].
For example, the concept of the [[death instinctLacan]] "is not a question rejects the reduction of biology."<ref>{{E}} ppsychic phenomena to crude biological determination.102</ref>
[[Lacan]] expresses his point with a rejects any attempt to explain psychic phenomena on the basis of purely [[biological]] data. [[paradoxLacan]]draws distinctions between [[need]] and [[desire]], [[drives]] and [[instinct]]s. [[Lacan]] stresses the distinction between [[nature]] and [[: "Freudian biology has nothing to do with biologycategory:culture|culture]]."<ref>{{S2}} p [[Lacan]] stresses the primacy of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] in [[human]] [[existence]].75</ref> ==Penis and Phallus==
[[LacanFreud]], like conceives of the [[Freudcastration complex]], uses concepts borrowed from and [[biologysexual difference]] in terms of the [[presence]], and then reworks them in an entirely [[symbolicabsence]] of the [[penis]] framework.
==Phallus==Perhaps the most significant example of this is [[Lacan]]'s concept of reformulates the [[phalluscastration complex]] and [[sexual difference]]in non-biological, which he conceives as a non-anatomical terms (the [[signifierpresence]] and not as a bodily organ[[absence]] of the [[phallus]]).
Thus while [[FreudLacan]] conceives of the [[castration complexphallus]] and [[sexual difference]] in terms of the as a [[presencesignifier]] and rather than as a [[absencebodily]] of the [[penis]], Lacan theorises them in non-biological, non-anatomical terms (the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phallusorgan]]).
This has been one of the main attractions of [[Lacan]]ian theory for certain Many [[:category:feminist theory|feministFeminist]] writers who theories have seen it as a way of drawn from [[Lacan]] in constructing a [[essentialism|non-essentialist]] account of gendered [[subjectivity]].
==Culturalism==
However, while [[Lacan]] consistently rejects all forms of [[biological]] reductionism, he also rejects the culturalist position which completely ignores the relevance of [[biology]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.723</ref>.
If 'biologising' is understood correctly (that is, not as [[Lacan]] also rejects the reduction of psychic phenomena to crude biological determination, but as discerning the precise way in [[culturalist]] position which biological data impact on ignores the psychical field), then relevance of [[Lacanbiology]] is all in favour of biologising thought.<ref>{{Ec}} p.723</ref>
The clearest examples of this are [[Lacan]]'s appeals is in favor of attempts to examples from animal ethology to demonstrate discern the precise way in which [[biology]] has an impact on the power of images to act as releasing mechanisms; hence [[psychic]] field.<ref>{{Ec}} p.723</ref> [[Lacan]]'s references refers to pigeons and locusts in his account of the [[mirror stage]]<ref>{{E}} p.3</ref>, and to crustaceans in his account of [[mimicry]].<ref>{{SllS11}} p.99</ref>
Thus in his account of [[sexual difference]], [[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]]'s rejection of the false dichotomy between "anatomy or convention."<ref>Freud, 1933a: SE XXII, 114</ref>
[[Lacan]]'s concern is not to privilege either term but to show how both interact in complex ways in the process of assuming a sexual position.
==References==
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==See Also==
* [[Nature]]
==References==<references/>
[[Category:Terms]]
