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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]].

In the [[work ]] of [[Melanie Klein]], the emphasis shifted from the [[role ]] of the '''[[father]]''' to the [[genital|pre-genital]] [[mother|mother-child]] '''[[dual relation|relation]]'''; the latter was described as a [[sadistic]] relation in which the [[development|child]] makes (in [[fantasy]]) vicious attacks on the [[mother]]'s [[fragmented body|body]] and then [[phobia|fear]]s retaliation from her.

In his [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|pre-war writings]], [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]] alludes several [[times ]] to [[Melanie Klein]]'s work, and describes the cannibalistic [[fantasy|fantasies]] of devouring, and [[being ]] devoured by, the [[mother]]. [[Lacan]] argues that the first of the [[complex|family complex]]es is the [[complex|weaning complex]], in which the interrruption of the [[dual relation|symbiotic relation]] with the [[mother]] leaves a permanent trace in the [[development|child]]'s [[psyche]].

He also describes the [[death drive]] as a ''nostalgic [[yearning]]'' to [[return ]] to this relation of fusion with the [[mother]]'s [[mother|breast]]. This view of the [[mother]] as an engulfing force which threatens to devour the [[child]] is a constant theme in [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]]'s [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]] thereafter.<ref>{{S4}} p. 195; {{S17}} p. 118</ref>

[[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]].

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]].

The [[development|child]] soon realizes that he does not completely [[desire|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?").

The answer the [[child]]] comes up with is that what the [[mother]] [[desire]]s is the '''[[phallus|imaginary phallus]]'''. The [[child]] then seeks to [[desire|satisfy]] the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] by [[identification|identifying]] with the '''[[phallus|imaginary phallus]]''' (or by [[identifying]] with the [[mother|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 ]] 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 [[development|child]]'s [[drive|sexual drive]]s begin to stire (e.g. in [[infantile ]] [[masturbation]]), and 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 [[development|child]]. This '''[[anxiety]]''' is manifested in [[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]] 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 [[desire|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]].

[[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|symbolic order]]."<ref>{{S4}} p. 67-</ref> The [[mother]] which interests [[psychoanalytic theory]] is thus above all the [[mother|symbolic mother]], the [[mother]] in her role as the primordial [[Other]]. It is she who introduces the [[child]] into [[language]] by [[interpretation|interpreting]] the [[child]]'s screams and thereby [[retroactively ]] determining their [[signification|meaning]] (see [[punctuation]]).

The [[mother]] is manifested in the [[imaginary|imaginary order]] in a [[number ]] of [[specular image|image]]s. One important [[specular image|image]] that has aleady been mentioned is that of the devouring [[mother]] which is at the root of [[anxiety]]. [[Another ]] important [[mother|maternal image]] is that of the [[mother|phallic mother]], the [[mother]] imagined as possessing the [[phallus|imaginary phallus]]. ===Real Mother===Lacan’s remarks on [[the Real]] Mother are few and far between, but it is a safe bet to assume that the Real Mother is none other than the [[das Ding|Thing]] itself, as the ultimate [[object of desire]]. The Real Mother is the one we are once united with, or indeed the One beyond all symbolization itself.