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{{TopTopp}}agressivité{{Bottom}}

[[Lacan]] draws a [[distinction ]] between [[aggressivity]] and [[aggressivity|aggression]]: [[aggressivity|aggression]] refers only to [[violence|violent]] [[act]]s whereas [[aggressivity]] is a fundamental relation which underlies not only such [[acts ]] but many [[other ]] phenomena also.<ref>{{S1}} p. 177</ref> [[Lacan]] argues that [[aggressivity]] is just as [[present ]] in apparently [[love|loving]] [[act]]s as in violent ones; it "underlies the [[activity ]] of the philanthropist, the idealist, the pedagogue, and even the reformer.<ref>{{E}} p. 7</ref> [[Lacan]] is simply restating [[Freud]]'s [[concept ]] of [[ambivalence]] -- the interdependence of [[love]] and [[hate]], which [[Lacan]] regards as one of the fundamental discoveries of [[psychoanalysis]].

The consequent [[identification]] with the [[specular image]] thus implies an [[ambivalence|ambivalent]] relation with the [[counterpart]], involving both [[eroticism]] and [[aggressivity|aggression]]. This "[[aggressivity|erotic aggression]]" continues as a fundamental [[ambivalence]] underlying all [[future ]] forms of [[identification]], and is an essential characteristic of [[narcissism]]. [[Narcissism]] can thus easily veer from extreme [[love|self-love]] to the opposite extreme of "[[narcissism|narcissistic suicidal aggression]]" (''[[agression ]] suicidaire narcissique'').<ref>{{Ec}} p. 187</ref>

By linking [[aggressivity]] to the [[imaginary]] [[order]] of [[eros]], [[Lacan]] seems to diverge significantly from [[Freud]], since [[Freud]] sees [[aggressivity]] as an outward manifestation of the [[death drive]] (which is, in [[Lacan]]ian [[terms]], situated not in the [[imaginary]] but in the [[symbolic]] [[order]]). [[Aggressivity]] is also related by [[Lacan]] to the [[Hegel]]ian concept of the [[fight to the death]], which is a [[stage]] in the [[dialectic]] of the [[master]] and the [[slave]].

[[Lacan]] argues that it is important to bring the [[analysand]]'s [[aggressivity]] into play early in the [[treatment]] by causing it to emerge as [[negative ]] [[transference]]. This [[aggressivity]] directed towards the [[analyst]] then becomes "the initial [[knot ]] of the [[analytic ]] drama."<ref>{{E}} p.14</ref> This [[phase]] of the [[treatment]] is very important since if the [[aggressivity]] is handled correctly by the [[analyst]], it will be accompanied by "a marked decrease in the [[patient]]'s deepest [[resistances]].<ref>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Some Reflections on the Ego]]", ''Int. J. [[Psycho]]-[[Anal]]''., vol. 34, 1953: p. 13</ref>