Difference between revisions of "Name-of-the-Father"
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to emphasize the '''[[law|legislative and prohibitive function]]''' of the '''[[symbolic]] [[father]]'''. | to emphasize the '''[[law|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]] [[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]]. | |
If this [[signifier]] is '''[[foreclosed]]''' (not included in the '''[[symbolic order]]'''), the result is '''[[psychosis]]'''. | If this [[signifier]] is '''[[foreclosed]]''' (not included in the '''[[symbolic order]]'''), the result is '''[[psychosis]]'''. | ||
Revision as of 05:12, 3 September 2006
| 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 (In nomine patris) 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.
to emphasize 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.
If this signifier is foreclosed (not included in the symbolic order), the result is psychosis.
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
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.67
