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Father
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[[Image:Kida_f.gif|right|frame|[[Kid A In Alphabet Land]]]]
==Jacques Lacan==
===History===
From very early on in his [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]], [[Lacan]] lays great importance on the [[role]] of the [[father]] in [[psychic structure]]. In his 1938 [[article on the family]], he attributes the importance of the [[Oedipus complex]] to the fact that it combines in the [[figure]] of the [[father]] two almost conflicting functions: the ''protective function'' and the ''prohibitive function''. He also points to the contemporary social decline in the [[paternal metaphor|paternal]] [[imago]] as the [[cause]] of current [[treatment|psychopathological]] peculiarities.<ref>{{1938}} p. 73</ref> The [[father]] continues to be a constant theme of [[Lacan]]'s [[work]] thereafter.
===Symbolic, Imaginary and Real===
However, the [[father]] is not a simple [[concept]] but a [[complex]] one, one which begs the question of what exactly is meant by the term "[[father]]."
It is in order to answer this question that, from 1953 on, [[Lacan]] stresses the importance of distinguishing between the [[symbolic]] [[father]], the [[imaginary]] [[father]] and the [[real]] [[father]].
<!-- [[Lacan]] argues that the question "What is a father?" forms the central theme which runs throughout [[Freud]]'s entire work.<ref>{{S4}} p.204-5</ref> -->
==The Symbolic Father==
The [[symbolic]] [[father]] is not a [[real]] [[being]] but a [[position]], a function, and hence is synonymous with the term "[[Name-of-the-Father|paternal function]]." This function is none [[other]] than that of imposing the [[law]] and regulating [[desire]] in the [[Oedipus complex]], of intervening in the [[imaginary]] [[dual relation]]ship between [[mother]] and [[child]] to introduce a necessary "[[symbolic|symbolic distance]]" between [[them]].<ref>{{S4}} p.161</ref>
==The Imaginary Father==
The [[imaginary]] [[father]] is an [[imago]], the composite of all the [[imaginary]] constructs that the [[subject]] builds up in [[fantasy]] around the figure of the [[father]]. This [[imaginary]] [[construction ]] often bears little [[relationship ]] to the [[father]] as he is in [[reality]].<ref>{{S4}} p.220</ref> The [[imaginary]] [[father]] can be construed as an ideal [[father]],<ref>{{S1}} p.156'</ref><ref>{{E}} p.321</ref> or the opposite, as "the father who has fucked the kid up."<ref>{{S7}} p.308</ref> <!-- In the former guise, the [[imaginary]] [[father]] is the prototype of [[God]]-[[figures ]] in [[religion]]s, an all-powerful protector. In the latter role, the [[imaginary]] [[father]] is both the terrifying father of the [[primal horde]] who imposes the [[incest]] [[taboo]] on his sons,<ref>[[Freud]] 1912-3</ref> and the [[agent]] of [[privation]], the [[father]] whom the daughter blames for depriving her of the [[symbolic]] [[phallus]], or its equivalent, a [[child]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 98</ref> In both guises, though, whether as the [[ideal]] [[father]] or as the [[father|cruel]] [[father|agent]] of [[privation]], the [[imaginary]] [[father]] is seen as omnipotent.<ref>{{S4}} pp. 275-6</ref> -->[[Psychosis]] and [[perversion]] both involve, in different ways, a reduction of the [[father|symbolic father]] to the [[father|imaginary father]].
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Castration complex]]
* [[Dual relation]]
||
* [[Foreclosure]]
* [[Name-of-the-Father]]
||* [[Phallus]]* [[Superego]]{{Also}}
==References==
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[[Category:Development]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]