Difference between revisions of "Adaptation"

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The concept of [[adaptation]] is a [[biology|biological]] [[:category:concepts|concept]].
 
 
Organisms are supposed to be driven to [[adapt]] themselves to fit the environment.
 
 
[[Adaptation]] implies a harmonious relation between the ''Innenwelt'' (inner world) and ''Umwelt'' (surrounding world).
 
 
==Ego-psychology==
 
[[Ego-psychology]] applies the [[biological]] concept of [[adaptation]] to [[psychoanalysis]]., explaining [[neurotic]] [[symptom]]s in terms of [[maladaptive]] [[behavior]] (such as applying archaic defense mechanisms in contexts where they are no longer appropriate) and arguing that the aim of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is to help the [[patient]] [[adapt]] to [[reality]].
 
 
[[Ego-psychology]] explain [[neurotic]] [[symptom]]s in terms of maladaptive [[behaviour]].
 
 
[[Ego-psychology]] argues that the aim of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is to help the [[patient]] adapt to [[reality]].
 
 
==Jacques Lacan==
 
From his early work in the 1930s on, [[Lacan]] opposes any attempt to explain human phenomena in terms of [[adaptation]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.158; {{Ec}} p.171-2</ref>
 
 
This forms a constant theme in [[Lacan]]'s work; in 1955, for example, he states that "the dimension discovered by analysis is the opposite of anything which progresses through adaptation."<ref>{{S2}} p.86</ref>
 
 
He takes this view for several reasons:
 
 
===One===
 
The stress on the adaptive function of the [[ego]] misses the [[ego]]'s [[alienating]] function and is based on a simplistic and unproblematic view of '[[reality]]'.
 
 
Reality is not a simple, objective thing to which the ego must adapt, but is itself a product of the ego's fictional misrepresentations and projections.
 
 
Therefore "it is not a question of adapting to it [reality], but of showing it [the ego] that it is only too well adapted, since it assists in the construction of that very reality."<ref>{{E}} p.236</ref>
 
 
The task of [[psychoanalysis]] is rather to subvert the [[illusory]] sense of [[adaptation]], since this blocks access to the [[unconscious]].
 
 
===Two===
 
To set [[adaptation]] as the [[aim]] of the [[treatment]] is to turn the [[analyst]] into the arbiter of the [[patient]]'s [[adaptation]].
 
 
The [[analyst]]'s own "relation to reality thus goes without saying."<ref>{{E}} p.230</ref>
 
 
It is automatically assumed that the [[analyst]] is better adapted than the [[patient]].
 
 
This inevitably turns [[psychoanalysis]] into the exercise of [[power]], in which the [[analyst]] forces his own particular view of
 
[[reality]] onto the [[patient]]; this is not [[psychoanalysis]] but [[suggestion]].
 
 
===Three===
 
The idea of [[harmony]] between the organism and its environment, implicit in the concept of [[adaptation]], is inapplicable to human beings because man's inscription in the [[symbolic]] [[order]] de-naturalises him and means that 'in man the [[imaginary]] relation [to nature] has deviated'.
 
 
Any attempt to regain [[harmony]] with [[nature]] overlooks the essentially excessive [[drive]] potential summed up in the [[death drive]].
 
 
Human beings are essentially [[maladaptive]].
 
 
--
 
 
[[Lacan]] argues that the stress put by [[ego-psychology]] on the [[adaptation]] of the [[patient]] to [[reality]] reduces [[psychoanalysis]] to an instrument of social control and conformity.
 
 
He sees this as a complete betrayal of [[psychoanalysis]], which he regards as an essentially subversive [[practice]].
 
 
--
 
 
[[Lacan]] regards it as significant that the [[adaptation]] theme was developed by the European psychoanalysts who had emigrated to the USA in the late 1930s.
 
 
These analysts felt not only that they had to adapt to life in the USA, but also that they ahd to adapt psychoanalysis to American tastes.<ref>{{E}} p.115</ref>
 
 
==See Also==
 
* [[Biology]]
 
* [[Gap]]
 
* [[Suggestion]]
 
 
==References==
 
<references/>
 
 
[[Category:Dictionary]]
 
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 
[[Category:Sigmund Freud]]
 
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
 
[[Category:Imaginary]]
 
[[Category:Concepts]]
 
[[Category:Terms]]
 

Revision as of 21:19, 3 August 2006