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==Sigmund Freud==
In [[Freud]]'s account of the [[Oedipus complex]], the [[mother]] is the first [[love]] [[object]] of the [[child]]; it is only the intervention of the [[father]], via the threat of [[castration]], which forces the [[child]] to give up his [[desire]] for the [[mother]].
==Melanie Klein==In the work of [[Melanie Klein]], the emphasis shifted from the role of th ethe [[father]] to the [[genital|pre-genital ]] [[mother]]-[[child]] [[dual relation|relation]]; the latter was described as a [[sadistic]] relation in whic the [[child]] makes (in [[fantasy]]) vicious attacks on the [[mother]]'s [[body]] and then [[fear]]s retaliation from her. ---
==Jacques Lacan==
==Early Work==
In his pre-war writings, [[Lacan]] alludes several times to [[Melanie Klein]]'s work, and describes the cannibalistic [[fantasies]] of devouring, and being devoured by, the [[mother]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the first of the [[family complexes ]] [[complex]]es is the [[weaning complex]], in which the interrruption of the symbiotic relation with the [[mother]] leaves a permanent trace in the [[child]]'s [[psyche]].
==Symbolic Father==
Hence much of [[Lacan]]'s work is aimed at shifting the emphasis in [[psychoanalytic theory]] from the [[mother]]-[[child]] relation (the [[preoedipal, the prototype of the [[imaginary]]) back onto the role of the [[father]] (the [[Oedipus complex, the prototype of the [[symbolic]]).
==The Desire of the Mother===
According to [[Freud]], a [[woman]]'s [[desire]] to have a [[child]] is rooted in her [[envy]] of the [[man]]'s [[penis]].
When the [[girl]] first realizes that she does not possess a penis, she feels deprived of something valuable, and seeks to compensate for this by obtaining a child as a symbolic substitute for the penis she has been denied.<ref>Freud. 1924d</ref>
[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]], aruging arguing that the [[child]] always represents for the [[mother]] a substitute for the [[symbolic]] [[phallus]] which she [[lacks]] (see [[privation]]).
However, [[Lacan]] emphasizes that ths the substitute never really satisfies the [[mother]]; her [[desire]] for the [[phallus]] persists even after she has had a [[child]].
The [[child]] soon realizes that he does not completely [[satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], that her [[desire]] aims at something beyond him, andthus and thus attempts to decipher this enigmatic [[desire]]; he must work out an answer to the question ''[[Che vuoi?]]'' ("What do you want from me?").
==Imaginary Phallus==
The answer the [[child]]] comes up with is that what the [[mother]] [[desire]]s is the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]].
The [[child]] then seeks to [[satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] by [[identification|identifying ]] with the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]] (or by [[identifying ]] with the [[phallic ]] [[mother]], the [[mother ]] imagined as possessing the [[phallus]]).
In this game of "to be or not to be the phallus," the [[child ]] is completely at the mercy of the capricious [[desire]] of the [[mother]], [[helplessness|helpless]] in the face of her omnipotence.<ref>{{S4}} p.69, 187</ref>
However, this sense o fpowerlessness of powerlessness may not give rise to much [[anxiety]] at first; for a time, the [[child]] experiencces experiences his attempts at being the [[phallus]] as a relatively satisfying game of seduction.
It is only when the [[child]]'s sexual drives begin to stire (e.g. in infantile masturbation), and na element of the [[real]] is thus introduced into the[[imaginary]] game, that the omnipotence of the [[mother]] begins to provoke greater [[anxiety]] in the [[child]].
==The Mother: Real, Symbolic and Imaginary==
[[Lacan]] argues that it is important to distinguish between the [[real]] [[mother]], the [[symbolic]] [[mother]], and the [[imaginary]] [[mother]].
The [[mother]] manifests herself in the [[real]] as the primary caretaker of the [[infant]].
The [[mother]] is first of all [[symbolic]]; she only becomes [[real]] by [[frustration|frustrating]] the [[subject]]'s [[demand]] (see [[frustration]]).
When the [[mother]] ministers to the [[infant]], bringing him the [[object]]s that will [[satisfy]] his [[needs]], these [[object]]s soon take on a [[symbolic]] function that completely eclipses their real funciton; the [[object]]s are seen as gifts, symbolic tokens of the [[mother]]'s [[love]].
it is she who introduces the [[child]] into [[language]] by interpreting the [[child]]'s screams and thereby retroactively determining their meaning (see [[punctuation]]).
The [[mother]] is manifested in the [[imaginary order]] in a number of images.
One important [[image ]] that has aleady been mentioned is that of the devouring [[mother ]] which is at the root of [[anxiety]].
Another important maternal [[image ]] is that of the [[mother|phallic mother]], the [[mother ]] imagined as possessing the [[imaginary ]] [[phallus]].
==See Also==
* [[Father]]
* [[Other]]* [[Phallus]]
==References==
<references/>
