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| − | The concept of [[causality]] forms an important thread that runs throughout [[Lacan]]'s entire work.
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| − | It first appears in the context of the question of the [[cause]] of [[psychosis]], which is a central concern of [[Lacan]]'s doctoral thesis <ref>Lacan, 1932</ref>.
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| − | [[Lacan]] returns to this question in 1946, where the [[cause]] of [[madness]] becomes the very essence of all psychical [[causality]].
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| − | In the 1946 paper he reiterates his earlier view that a specifically psychical [[cause]] is needed to explain [[psychosis]]; however, he also questions the possibility of defining 'psychical' in terms of a simple opposition to the concept of matter, and this leads him, in 1955, to dispense with the simplistic notion of 'psychogenesis' <ref>{{S3}} p.7</ref>.
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| − | In the 1950s [[Lacan]] begins to address the very concept of [[causality]] itself, arguing that it is to be situated on the border between the [[symbolic]] and the [[real]]; it implies "a mediation between the chain of symbols and the real."<ref>{{S2}} p.192</ref>.
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| − | He argues that the concept of [[causality]], which underpins all [[science]], is itself a non-scientific concept; "the very notion of cause ... is established on the basis of an original wager."<ref>{{S2}} p.192</ref>.
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| − | In the [[seminar]] of 1962-3, [[Lacan]] argues that the true [[meaning]] of [[causality]] should be looked for in the phenomenon of [[anxiety]], for [[anxiety]] is the cause of doubt.
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| − | He then links this with the concept of [[objet petit a]], which is now defined as the [[cause]] of [[desire]], rather than that towards which [[desire]] tends.
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| − | In 1964, [[Lacan]] uses [[Aristotle]]'s typology of [[cause]]s to illustrate the difference between the [[symbolic]] and the [[real]].
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| − | [[Lacan]] returns to the [[subject]] of [[causality]] in his 1965-6 [[seminar]], where he distinguishes between [[magic]], [[religion]], [[science]] and [[psychoanalysis]] on the basis to their relationship to [[truth]] as [[cause]].<ref>Lacan, 1965a</ref>
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| − | [[Lacan]] also plays on the ambiguity of the term, since besides being "that which provokes an effect," a [[cause]] is also "that for which one fights, that which one defends."
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| − | [[Lacan]] clearly sees himself as fighting for "the Freudian cause," although this fight can only be won when one realises that the [[cause]] of the [[unconscious]] is always "a lost cause."<ref>{{Sll}} p.128</ref>.
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| − | ==References==
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| − | <references/>
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| − | [[Category:Philosophy]]
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| − | [[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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| − | [[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
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| − | [[Category:Dictionary]]
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