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=====Sigmund Freud==========Mother as First Love Object=====
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==========Mother-Child Dual Relationship=====
In the work of [[Melanie Klein]], the emphasis shifted from the role of the [[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===Devouring Mother=====In his [[Works of Jacques Lacan|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]] [[complex]]es is the [[weaning complex]], in which the interrruption of the [[dual relation|symbiotic relation ]] with the [[mother]] leaves a permanent trace in the [[child]]'s [[psyche]].
He also describes the [[death drive]] as a [[nostalgia|nostalgic yearning ]] to return to this relation of fusion with the [[mother]]'s [[breast]].
This view of the [[mother]] as an engulfing force which threatens to devour the [[child]] is a constant theme in [[Lacan]]'s work thereafter.<ref>{{S4}} p. 195; {{S17}} p. 118</ref>
==Symbolization===Socio-Symbolic World=====
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[child]] must detach himself from the [[imaginary]] [[dual relation|relation]] with the [[mother]] in order to enter the [[symbolic|social world]]; failure to do so can result in any one of various peculiarities ranging from [[phobia]] to [[perversion]].
=====Paternal Function=====
Since the agent who helps the [[child]] to overcome the primary attachment to the [[mother]] is the [[father]], these peculiarities may also be said to result from a failure of the [[Name-of-the-Father|paternal function]].
==Symbolic Father===Oedipus Complex=====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]]).
=====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 ]] [[fetish|substitute ]] for the [[penis ]] she has been denied.<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex]]," 1924d. [[SE]] XIX, 173.</ref>
=====Symbolic Phallus=====[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]], arguing that the [[child]] always represents for the [[mother]] a [[fetish|substitute ]] for the [[symbolic]] [[phallus]] which she [[lacks]] (see [[privation]]).
However, [[Lacan]] emphasizes that the [[fetish|substitute ]] never really [[desire|satisfies ]] the [[mother]]; her [[desire]] for the [[phallus]] persists even after she has had a [[child]].
====="Che Vuoi?"=====
The [[child]] soon realizes that he does not completely [[satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]], that her [[desire]] aims at something beyond him, 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]].
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>
=====Anxiety=====However, this sense of [[helplessness|powerlessness ]] may not give rise to much [[anxiety]] at first; for a time, the [[child]] experiences his attempts at being the [[phallus]] as a relatively satisfying game of seduction.
It is only when the [[child]]'s [[sexual drives ]] [[drive]]s begin to stire (e.g. in infantile masturbation), and na an 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]].
This [[anxiety]] is manifested in iamges images of being devoured by the [[mother]], and is only resolved by the intervention of the [[real]] [[father]] who castrates the [[child]] in the third time of the [[Oedipus complex]].
==The Mother: Real===Imaginary, Symbolic and ImaginaryReal Mother=====
[[Lacan]] argues that it is important to distinguish between the [[real]] [[mother]], the [[symbolic]] [[mother]], and the [[imaginary]] [[mother]].
The [[infant]] is incapable of [[satisfaction|satisfying]] its own [[needs]] and so depends absolutely on an [[Other]] to care for him (see [[helplessness]]).
=====Symbolic Mother=====
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]].
Finally, it is the [[mother]]'s [[presence]] which testifies to this [[love]], even if she does not bring any [[real ]] [[object ]] with her.
Consequently, the [[mother]]'s [[absence]] is experienced as a traumatic rejection, as a [[lack|loss]] of her [[love]].
=====Symbolization=====[[Freud]] showed how the [[child]] attempts to cope with this [[castration|loss ]] by [[symbol|symbolizing ]] the [[[mother]]'s [[presence]] and [[absence]] in games and [[language]].
[[Lacan]] regards this primary [[symbolization]] as the [[child]]'s first steps into the [[symbolic order]]."<ref>{{S4}} p.67-</ref>
The [[mother]] which itnerests interests [[psychoanalytic theory]] is thus above all the [[symbolic]] [[mother]], the [[mother]] in her role as the primordial [[Other]].
It is she who introduces the [[child]] into [[language]] by interpreting the [[child]]'s screams and thereby retroactively determining their meaning (see [[punctuation]]).
=====ImaginaryMother=====The [[mother]] is manifested in the [[imaginary order]] in a number of images[[specular image|image]]s.
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==
{{Also}}
* [[Absence]]
* [[Anxiety]]
* [[Demand]]
||
* [[Desire]]
* [[Drive]]
* [[Dual relation]]
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* [[Father]]
* [[Frustration]]
* [[Helplessness]]
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* [[Language]]
* [[Lack]]
* [[Love]]
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* [[Name-of-the-Father]]
* [[Needs]]
* [[Oedipus complex]]
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* [[Other]]
* [[Phallus]]
* [[Privation]]
{{Also}}
==References==
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Imaginary]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
