Aphanisis

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aphanisiS The literal meaning of this Greek term is 'disappearance'. It was

      first introduced into psychoanalysis by Ernest Jones, who uses it to mean 'the
      disappearance of sexual desire' (Jones, 1927). For Jones, the fear of aphanisis
      exists in both sexes, giving rise to the castration complex in boys and to penis
      envy in girls.
          Lacan takes up Jones's term, but modifies it substantially. For Lacan,
      aphanisis does not mean the disappearance of desire, but the disappearance
      of the subject (see S11, 208). The aphanisis of the subject is the fading of the
      subject, the fundamental division of the subject (see SPLIT) which institutes the
      dialectic of desire (see S11, 221). Far from the disappearance of desire being
      the object of fear, it is precisely what the neurotic aims at; the neurotic
      attempts to shield himself from his desire, to put it aside (S8, 271).
          Lacan also uses another term, 'fading', in a way that makes it synonymous
       with the term aphanisis. Fading (a term which Lacan uses directly in English)
      refers to the disappearance of the subject in the process of alienation. The term
      is used by Lacan when describing the MATHEMEs of the drive and of fantasy: the
      subject 'fades' or 'disappears' in the face of demand and in the face of the
      object, as is shown by the fact that the subject is barred in these mathemes.