Changes

<!-- In the previous [[seminar]] of 1956-7, [[Lacan]] calls this the [[preoedipal]] [[triangle]]. However, whether this [[triangle]] is regarded as [[preoedipal]] or as a moment in the [[Oedipus complex]] itself, the main point is the same: namely, that prior to the invention of the [[father]] there is never a purely [[dual relation]] between the [[mother]] and the [[child]] but always a third term, the [[phallus]], an [[imaginary]] [[object]] which the [[mother]] [[desire]]s beyond the [[child]] himself (S4, 240-1). [[Lacan]] hints that the presence of the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]] as a third term in the [[imaginary]] [[triangle]] indicates that the [[symbolic]] [[father]] is already functioning at this time.<ref>{{L}} 1957-8: [[seminar]] of 22 January 1958</ref> -->

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The [[mother]] provides the necessary care, feeding and satisfaction of [[need]]s, while there is within her the [[desire]] for something other than [[satisfaction|satisfying]] the [[infant]]'s [[desire]]. The [[mother]] [[lack]]s the [[phallus]] and [[desire]]s in the [[infant]] something other than himself - the [[phallus]] she [[lack]]s (the basis of the relationship with her [[father]], and of her own [[Oedipus complex]]). The [[mother]] [[desire]]s something apart from attending to the [[child]]'s [[need]]s and cares, for behind her there is the [[Symbolic]] [[Order]] on which she depends, and also the [[phallus]], which plays the prominent role in the [[Symbolic]] [[Order]]. The [[infant]] is then caught in an imaginary relationship with the mother, familiar from the mirror stage, only this time centered on the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phallus]].

<!-- At this point, the [[mother]] is omnipotent and her [[desire]] is the [[law]]. Although this omnipotence may be seen as threatening from the very beginning, the sense of threat is intensified when the [[child]]'s own sexual [[drive]]s begin to manifest themselves (for example in infantile masturba­tion). This emergence of the [[real]] of the [[drive]] introduces a discordant note of [[anxiety]] into the previously seductive [[imaginary]] [[triangle]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 225-6</ref> The [[child]] is now confronted with the realization that he cannot simply fool the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] with the [[imaginary]] [[semblance]] of a [[phallus]] - he must present something in the [[real]]. Yet the [[child]]'s real organ (whether boy or girl) is hopelessly inadequate. This sense of inadequacy and impotence in the face of an omnipotent [[mother|maternal]] [[desire]] that cannot be placated gives rise to [[anxiety]]. Only the intervention of the [[father]] in the subsequent times of the [[Oedipus complex]] can provide a real solution to this [[anxiety]]. -->

The second time of the [[Oedipus complex]] is characterized by the interven­tion of the [[imaginary]] [[father]]. The [[father]] imposes the [[law]] on the [[mother]]'s [[desire]] by denying her access to the [[phallic]] [[object]] and [[prohibition|forbidding]] the [[subject]] access to the [[mother]]. [[Lacan]] often refers to this intervention as the "[[castration]]" of the [[mother]], even though he states that, properly speaking, the operation is not one of [[castration]] but of [[privation]].

<!-- This intervention is mediated by the [[discourse]] of the [[mother]]; in other words, what is important is not that the [[real]] [[father]] step in and impose the [[law]], but that this [[law]] be respected by the [[mother]] herself in both her words and her actions. The [[subject]] now sees the [[father]] as a rival for the [[mother]]'s [[desire]]. -->

<!-- In this second position, the father intervenes, either directly or through the mother's discourse, as the omnipotent and prohibiting figure, putting in question and forbidding the desire of the mother (le désir de la Mère), laying down the law and permitting identification with him as the one who has the phallus. ((He says, as it were, to the child, "no you won't sleep with your mother"; and to the mother, "No, the child is not your phallus. I have it." -->

The third 'time' of the [[Oedipus complex]] is marked by the intervention of the [[real]] [[father]].

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[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]] in arguing that the [[superego]] is formed out of this [[Oedipal]] [[identification]] with the [[father]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 415</ref>

<!-- The [[Oedipus complex]] marks the transition from the [[imaginary]] to the [[symbolic]]. Through the intervention of a third term, the [[Name-of-the-Father]], that closed circuit of mutual desire between the [[mother]] and [[child]] is broken and a space is created, within which the [[child]] can begin to identify itself as a separate being from the [[mother]]. [[Lacan]] calls this third term the [[Name-of-the-Father]], because it does not have to be the real father, or even a male figure, but is a symbolic position that the child perceives to be the location of the object of the [[mother]]'s [[desire]]. It is also, as we will see, a position of authority and the [[symbolic]] [[law]] that intervenes to prohibit the [[child]]'s [[desire]]. For [[Lacan]], the key signifier that this whole process turns upon is the [[phallus]]. -->

==Structure==

Since the [[symbolic]] is the realm of the [[law]], and since the [[Oedipus complex]] is the conquest of the [[symbolic order]], it has a normative and normalizing function. "The Oedipus complex is essential for the human being to be able to accede to a humanized structure of the real."<ref>{{S3}} p.198</ref> This normative function is to be understood in reference to both [[clinic]]al [[structure]]s and the question of [[sexuality]].

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===Psychopathology===

[[Freud]] argued that all psychopathological [[structure]]s could be traced to a malfunction in the [[Oedipus complex]], which was thus dubbed "the nuclear complex of the neuroses".

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In accordance with [[Freud]]'s view of the [[Oedipus complex]] as the root of all psychopathology, [[Lacan]] relates all the [[clinic]]al [[structure]]s to difficulties in this [[complex]]. Since it is impossible to resolve the [[complex]] completely, a completely non-pathological position does not [[exist]]. The closest thing is a [[neurotic]] [[structure]]; the [[neurotic]] has come through all three times of the [[Oedipus complex]], and there is no such thing as a [[neurosis without [[Oedipus]]. On the other hand, [[psychosis]], [[perversion]] and [[phobia]] result when "something is essentially incomplete in the Oedipus complex."<ref>{{S2}} p.201</ref> In [[psychosis]], there is a fundamental blockage even before the first time of the [[Oedipus complex]].

In [[perversion]], the [[complex]] is carried through to the third time, but instead of [[identifying]] with the [[father]], the [[subject]] [[identifies]] with the [[mother]] and/or the [[imaginary]] [[phallus]], thus harking back to the [[imaginary]] [[preoedipal]] [[triangle]].