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In 1897 [[Freud ]] remarked, on the basis of his [[analysis ]] of his first [[patients ]] and his [[self]]-analysis, that "The [[father ]] forbids the [[child ]] from realizing its [[unconscious ]] [[wish ]] to [[sleep ]] with his [[mother]]" ([[letter ]] to [[Fliess]], October 15, 1897). This first [[outline ]] of the [[Oedipus ]] [[complex]], which now appears simplistic, grew increasingly complex throughout Freud's research. In [[time ]] the [[Law of the Father ]] turned out to be directed both toward the mother ("You will not reintegrate your product") as well as her offspring swept up by [[desire]]. The law is also accompanied by an [[injunction ]] against cannibalism and [[murder]], and hold up ideals, primarily [[sexual ]] ones ("Later you will [[enjoy]], like me, a [[woman ]] from [[another ]] [[family]]"). Once introjected, this becomes the origin of the [[superego ]] and ego [[ideal]]. The [[repression ]] of [[drives]], their [[suppression ]] and [[sublimation]], are the principal outcomes of the [[conflict ]] that connects [[them ]] structurally to this law.

Freud quickly recognized that the actual [[presence ]] of a father is not the best [[guarantee ]] of the fulfillment of this law: An [[absent ]] or [[dead ]] father can serve as the [[agent]], as well as or better than the [[living ]] father. This led to the creation of the [[myth ]] of the [[primitive ]] father (a, 1912-1913a). Jacques [[Lacan ]] showed that this Law of the Father, to the extent that it serves as a [[principle ]] of differentiation and [[separation]], is in fact the law of [[language ]] and a sine qua non for the [[existence ]] of desire. He claimed that the [[subject ]] [[structures ]] himself through his unconscious response to the law and to the incestuous desires it shapes to: the repression of desire ([[neurosis]]), and the [[denial ]] or foreclosure of the law ([[perversion ]] and [[psychosis]], respectively). Lacan also showed that it is important to differentiate the [[real ]] Father, the [[imaginary ]] Father, and the [[symbolic ]] Father.

# Collectif. (1989). Le [[Père]]. [[Métaphore ]] paternelle et [[fonction ]] du père: L'interdit, la filiation, la transmission. [[Paris]]: Denoël.# De Neuter, Patrick. (1992). Le père [[réel ]] et la sexualité du fils. Psychiatrie de l'[[enfant]], 13, 65-80.# ——. (1993). Fonctions paternelles et naissances du [[sujet]]. Cahiers des [[sciences ]] familiales et sexologiques, 16, 105-127.# Dor, Joël. (1989). Le Père et sa Fonction en [[psychanalyse]]. Paris: Point hors ligne.# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1912-1913a). [[Totem ]] and [[taboo]]. SE, 13: 1-161.