Difference between revisions of "Name-of-the-Father"

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{{Topp}}Nom-du-Père{{Bottom}}
  
 
==Jacques Lacan==
 
==Jacques Lacan==
[[Jacques Lacan]] developed the concept of the [[Name-of-the-Father]] (''le nom du père'').
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===Symbolic Father===
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When the expression "[[Name-of-the-Father|the name of the father]]" first appeared in [[Lacan]]’s [[work]], in the early 1950s, it is without [[capital]] letters and refers generally to the '''legislative''' and '''prohibitive''' function of the "'''[[symbolic]] [[father]]'''" as the one who lays down the [[taboo]] on [[incest]] in the '''[[Oedipus complex]]'''.  
  
The expression is capitalized and hyphenated in the [[seminar]] on [[The Psychoses]].
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<blockquote>"It is in the '[[Name-of-the-Father|name of the father]]' that we must recognize the support of the '''symbolic function''' which, from the dawn of [[history]], has [[identified]] his person with '''the [[figure]] of the law'''."<ref>{{E}} p. 67</ref></blockquote>
  
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===Legislative and Prohibitive Function===
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The rexpression is at once a semi-humorous [[religion|religious]] allusion and a play on the near-homonyms '''''non''''' and '''''nom''''': the '''[[name-of-the-father]]''' ('''''le nom du père''''') is also the [[father]]'s "'''no'''" ('''''le "non" du père''''') to the [[child]]'s [[incest]]uous '''[[desire]]''' for its '''[[mother]]'''. (the '''[[law|legislative and prohibitive function]]''' of the '''[[symbolic]] [[father]]''')
  
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===Fundamental Signifier===
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In [[Lacan]]'s 1955-6 [[seminar]], [[The Psychoses]], the expression becomes capitalized and hyphenated and takes on a more precise [[meaning]];  the [[Name-of-the-Father]] is described as the '''[[fundamental signifier]]''' which permits '''[[signification]]''' to proceed normally.
  
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The [[Name-of-the-Father]] both confers [[identity]] on [[human]] [[subject]]s (by situating [[them]] in a lineage and the [[symbolic]] [[order]]), and [[signification|signifies]] the '''[[Oedipus complex|Oedipal]] [[law|prohibition]]''', the ''''no'''' of the [[incest]] [[taboo]].
  
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===Foreclosure===
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The [[foreclosure]] of this [[fundamental signifier]], or its [[expulsion]] from the [[subject]]'s [[symbolic|symbolic universe]], is said by [[Lacan]] to be the [[mechanism]] that triggers '''[[psychosis]]'''.
  
The Oedipus complex makes the father the agent of the prohibition that makes it the impossible to access the object-cause-of-desire.
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===Paternal Metaphor===
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[[Image:NOTF.gif|thumb|404px|right|The paternal metaphor]]
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In [[another]] work on [[psychosis]], [[Lacan]] represents the '''[[Oedipus complex]]''' as a '''[[metaphor]]''' ('''[[paternal metaphor]]'''), in which one [[signifier]] (the [[Name-of-the-Father]]) [[metaphor|substitutes]] another (the [[desire]] of the [[mother]]).
  
French [[psychoanalyst]] [[Jacques Lacan]] revised the [[oedipus complex]] in line with his [[structuralism|structuralist]] attempt to combine [[psychoanalysis]] and [[linguistics]].
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==See Also==
 
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{{See}}
The [[father]] is no longer a [[biology|biological]] father, but a function of a father: the [[Name-of-the-Father]].
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* [[Castration]]
 
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* [[Father]]
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The '[[Name of the Father]]' refers to the [[law]]s and restrictions that control both [[desire]] and the rules of [[communication]].
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
== Prohibitive Function of the Symbolic Father ==
 
The expression “the name of the father,” when it first appeared in Lacan’s work, in the early 1950s, referred generally to the “[[prohibition|prohibitive role]]” of the “[[symbolic]] [[father]]” as the one who lays down the [[incest]] [[taboo]] in the [[oedipus complex]].
 
 
 
<blockquote>“It is in the ‘name of the father’ that we must recognize the support of the symbolic function which, from the dawn of history, has identified his person with the figure of the law.”<ref>Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. p.67</ref></blockquote>
 
 
 
 
 
In [[Lacan]]'s 1955-6 [[seminar]], [[The Psychoses]], the [[name-of-the-father]] is described as the fundamental [[signifier]] that both confers [[identity]] on [[human]] [[subject]]s by situating them in a lineage and the [[symbolic]] [[order]], and reiterates the [[prohibition]] on [[incest]].
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
===The “No” of the Father===
 
In the French language, the expression “the name of the father” (''le nom du père'') is phonetically similar to the expression “the ‘no’ of the father” (''le ‘non’ du père'').
 
Lacan plays on this similarity to emphasize the prohibitive function of the symbolic father (the ‘no’ of the [[incest]] [[taboo]]).
 
 
 
 
 
The term is a play on the near-homonyms ''non'' and ''nom''.
 
 
 
The "[[Name-of-the-Father]]" (''[[nom-du-père]]'') can be read the "'No' of the [[Father]]" (''non-du-père'').
 
 
 
The 'No' refers to the [[symbolic]] [[prohibition]]
 
The 'No' of the [[Father]] to the [[desire]] of the [[child]] for [[incest]]uous relations with the [[mother]].
 
The 'No' of the [[Father]] to the [[child]]'s [[incest]]uous [[desire]] for the [[mother]].
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Language==
 
 
 
 
 
The [[Name of the Father]]' (Fr. ‘’Nom du père’’) , is the [[signifier]] associated with the [[signified]] [[concept]] of the [[father]].
 
The name of the Father is a [[symbolic]] formation.
 
 
 
 
 
The [[Name-of-the-Father]] is the [[fundamental signifier]] which permits [[signification]] to proceed normally.
 
 
 
 
 
This fundamental signifier both confers [[identity]] on the [[subject]] (insofar as it names him, positions him within the symbolic order, etc.) and signifies the [[oedipus complex|oedipal]] [[prohibition]], the ‘no’ of the [[incest]] [[taboo]]. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Psychosis==
 
The [[foreclosure]] of the [[name-of-the-father]], or its expulsion from the [[subject]]'s [[symbolic]] universe, is said by [[Lacan]] to be the mechanism that triggers [[psychosis]].
 
 
 
If this signifier is foreclosed (not included in the symbolic order), the result is [[psychosis]].
 
Nevertheless, [[Jacques Lacan]] developed this concept with the ultimately unsuccessful aim of curing psychosis.
 
 
 
 
 
==Outside Language==
 
 
 
 
 
The [[phallus]], as a [[representation]] of [[mastery]], can never be reached.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The [[father]] is above or [[outside]] the [[structure]] of [[language]].
 
 
 
 
 
[[Language]] relies on the [[absence]] of the [[phallus]] from the [[structure]] of [[signification]].
 
 
 
[[Language]] would not make sense, or produce [[meaning]], if the [[phallus]] were not '[[outside]]'.
 
 
 
 
 
Nothing can be thought that is ''outside'' of language, but the phallus ''is'' there and therefore structures the whole system of thought accordingly.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Freud vs Lacan==
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'', [[Sigmund Freud]]
 
 
 
There was a [[father]] which the brothers killed.
 
 
 
The brothers felt guilty about killing their [[father]].
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Associations==
 
The Name-of-the-Father is closely bound up with the [[superego]], the [[phallus]], the [[symbolic]] [[order]], and the [[oedipus complex]].
 
 
 
 
 
The [[Name-of-the-Father]] has a [[shadow double]] in the [[Father-of-Enjoyment]].
 
 
 
 
 
* [[Fatherhood]]  
 
 
* [[Foreclosure]]  
 
* [[Foreclosure]]  
* [[Identification
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||
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* [[Law]]
 
* [[Metaphor]]  
 
* [[Metaphor]]  
* [[Metonymy]]  
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* [[Oedipus complex]]
* [[Myth of origins]]
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||
* [[Phobia]]  
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* [[Paternal metaphor]]
 
* [[Psychosis]]  
 
* [[Psychosis]]  
* [[Real,
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* [[Seminar]]
* [[Schizophrenia]]  
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||
* [[Seminar]]  
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* [[Signification]]
 
* [[Signifier]]  
 
* [[Signifier]]  
* [[Signified]]  
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* [[Symbolic]]
* [[Signifying chain]]
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{{Also}}
* [[Superego]]
 
* [[Symptom]]
 
* [[Sinthome]]
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small">
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
* Lacan, Jacques. (2002). The subversion of the subject and the dialectic of desire in the Freudian subconscious. In Écrits: A selection (Bruce Fink, Trans.). New York: Norton.
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</div>
 
 
 
[[category:Freudian psychology]]
 
[[category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Psychoanalytic theory]]
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[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
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[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Terms]]
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[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
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{{OK}}
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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__NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__

Latest revision as of 19:47, 20 May 2019

French: Nom-du-Père

Jacques Lacan

Symbolic Father

When the expression "the name of the father" first appeared in Lacan’s work, in the early 1950s, it is without capital letters and refers generally to the legislative and prohibitive function of the "symbolic father" as the one who lays down the taboo on incest in the Oedipus complex.

"It is in the 'name of the father' that we must recognize the support of the symbolic function which, from the dawn of history, has identified his person with the figure of the law."[1]

Legislative and Prohibitive Function

The rexpression is at once a semi-humorous religious allusion and a play on the near-homonyms non and nom: the name-of-the-father (le nom du père) is also the father's "no" (le "non" du père) to the child's incestuous desire for its mother. (the legislative and prohibitive function of the symbolic father)

Fundamental Signifier

In Lacan's 1955-6 seminar, The Psychoses, the expression becomes capitalized and hyphenated and takes on a more precise meaning; the Name-of-the-Father is described as the fundamental signifier which permits signification to proceed normally.

The Name-of-the-Father both confers identity on human subjects (by situating them in a lineage and the symbolic order), and signifies the Oedipal prohibition, the 'no' of the incest taboo.

Foreclosure

The foreclosure of this fundamental signifier, or its expulsion from the subject's symbolic universe, is said by Lacan to be the mechanism that triggers psychosis.

Paternal Metaphor

The paternal metaphor

In another work on psychosis, Lacan represents the Oedipus complex as a metaphor (paternal metaphor), in which one signifier (the Name-of-the-Father) substitutes another (the desire of the mother).

See Also

References

  1. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 67