24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[Freud]]'s work is full of references to [[biology]].
[[Freud]] regarded [[biology]] as a [[scientific]] model (of [[scientific]] rigour) on which to base the new [[science]] of [[psychoanalysis]]. [[Biology]] was at that time a model of [[scientific]] rigour in general. [[Lacan]] expresses his point with a [[paradox]]: "Freudian biology has nothing to do with biology."<ref>{{S2}} p.75</ref>
[[Freud]] borrowed concepts from [[biology]] (such as the concept of the [[drive]) but reworked them in such a radical way that they become totally new concepts.
==Biological Reduction==
[[Lacan]] opposed [[biological]] reductionism, that is, the application of [[biological]] (or ethological/[[psychological]]) concepts (such as [[adaptation]], [[biological]] explanations of [[human]] [[behavior]]) to [[psychoanalysis]].
[[Lacan]] rejects the reduction of psychic phenomena any attempt to crude biological determination. explain [[Lacanpsychic]] rejects any attempt to explain psychic phenomena on the basis in terms of purely crude [[biological]] data[[determinism]].
[[Lacan]] draws distinctions between [[need]] and [[desire]], [[drives]] and [[instinct]]s.
[[Lacan]] stresses the primacy of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] in [[human]] [[existence]].
[[Freud]] conceives of the [[castration complex]] and [[sexual difference]] in terms of the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[penis]].
[[Lacan]] reformulates the [[castration complex]] and [[sexual difference]] in non-[[biological]], non-[[anatomical ]] terms (the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phallus]]).
[[Lacan]] conceives of the [[phallus]] as a [[signifier]] rather than as a [[bodily]] [[organ]].
[[Lacan]] is in favor of attempts to discern the precise way in which [[biology]] has an impact on the [[psychic]] field.<ref>{{Ec}} p.723</ref>
[[Lacan]]'s refers to pigeons and locusts in his account of the , like [[Freud]], uses concepts borrowed from [[mirror stagebiology]]<ref>{{E}} p.3</ref>, and to crustaceans then reworks them in his account of an entirely [[mimicrysymbolic]]framework.<ref>{{S11}} 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==
<references/>
==See Also==
* [[Science]]
* [[Nature]]
[[Category:Terms]]
