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{{TopTopp}}adapt|adaptation{{Bottom}}

The [[concept ]] of [[adaptation]] is a [[biology|biological]] [[:category:concepts|concept]]; [[biology|organism]]s are supposed to be driven to [[adapt]] themselves to fit the [[biology|environment]].  [[Adaptation]] implies a [[harmonious ]] relation between the ''[[Adaptation|Innenwelt]]'' (inner [[world]]) and ''[[adaptation|Umwelt]]'' (surrounding world).

[[Ego-psychology]] applies the [[biological]] concept of [[adaptation]] to [[psychoanalysis]], explaining [[neurotic]] [[symptom]]s in [[terms ]] of [[maladaptive]] [[behavior]] (such as applying archaic [[defense mechanism]]s 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]].

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>

The stress on the [[adaptation|adaptive function]] of the [[ego]] misses the [[ego]]'s [[alienation|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 [[fiction]]al [[mirror stage|misrepresentations]] and [[projection]]s.

<blockquote>"[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></blockquote>

The task of [[psychoanalysis]] is rather to subvert the [[illusory]] [[sense ]] of [[adaptation]], since this blocks access to the [[unconscious]].

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]].

The [[idea ]] of [[harmony]] between the [[biology|organism]] and its [[biology|environment]], implicit in the concept of [[adaptation]], is inapplicable to [[human]] [[being]]s because [[human|man]]'s inscription in the [[symbolic]] [[order]] [[nature|de-naturalises]] him and means that "in man the [[imaginary]] relation [to nature] has deviated".   Whereas "all [[animal ]] machines are strictly riveted to the [[conditions ]] of the [[external ]] [[environment]],"<ref>{{S2}} p. 322</ref> in the [[human]] [[being]] there is "a certain biological gap."<ref>{{S2}} p. 323</ref>  Any attempt to regain [[harmony]] with [[nature]] overlooks the essentially excessive [[drive]] potential summed up in the [[death drive]].   [[Human]] [[being]]s 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 [[psychoanalyst]]s who had emigrated to the USA in the late 1930s.  These [[analyst]]s felt not only that they had to [[adapt]] to [[life ]] in the USA, but also that they had to [[adapt]] [[psychoanalysis]] to American tastes.<ref>{{E}} p.115</ref>