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{{Top}}stade préœdipien{{Bottom}} The [[preoedipal phase]] ([[Fr]]. ''[[stade préœdipien]]'') is the [[stage]] of [[psychosexual development]] prior to the formation of the [[Oedipus complex]].
==Sigmund Freud==
==Jacques Lacan==
===Dual relation===
Before [[Lacan]], the [[preoedipal phase]] was usually represented as a [[dual relation]] between [[mother]] and [[child]] existing prior to any [[third]] term which could mediate it.
However, [[Lacan]] argues that such an approach has the disadvantage of rendering the concept unthinkable in [[psychoanalytic theory]].
[[Psychoanalysis]] deals exclusively with [[structure]], which requires a minimum of [[three]] terms, and thus a [[preoedipal phase]] which is represented as a purely [[dual relation]] "cannot be conceived of in analytic terms."<ref>{{E}} p.197</ref> The [[child]] is never completely alone with the [[mother]], since there is always a [[third]] term.<ref>{{S4}} p.240-1</ref>
===Triadic Structure===
The third element in the [[preoedipal]] [[triangle]], which mediates the [[dual relation]] between the [[mother]] and the [[child]], is the [[phallus]], an [[imaginary]] object which circulates between them in a series of exchanges.
The [[infant]] realises that the [[mother]] is not completely [[satisfied]] with him alone, but [[desire]]s something else (the [[phallus]]).
The [[child]] then seeks to be the [[phallus]] for the [[mother]], which involves him in a [[seductive]] [[game]] of [[lures]] in which the [[child]] "is never really there at the [[place]] where he is, and is never completely [[absent]] from the [[place]] where he is not."<ref>{{S4}} p.193; {{S4}} p.223-4</ref>
===The end End of the prepoedipal phasePrepoedipal Phase===In the [[seminar]] of 1956-7, where [[Lacan]] analyses the [[case]] of [[Little Hans]],<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy]]," 1909. [[SE]] X, 1909b3.</ref> he shows how, for a while, this [[game]] is [[satisfying]] for [[Hans]], and argues that there is nothing inherent in it that would put an end to this [[preoedipal phase]].<ref>{{S4}} p.226</ref>
However, at some point something else intervenes which introduces a discordant note of [[anxiety]] into the [[game]].
This 'something else' is the first stirring of the [[drive]], which manifests itself in ''infantile masturbation''.<ref>{{S4}} p.225-6</ref>
The intervention of the real organ in this way transforms the [[imaginary]] [[triangle]] into a [[death|deadly]] [[game]], an [[impossible]] task, in which the [[child]] is completely prey to the arbitrary [[desire]] of the omnipotent devouring [[mother]].<ref>{{S4}} p.69, 195</ref>
The [[child]] is only saved from this [[death|deadly]] [[game]] by the intervention of the [[father]] as a fourth term, the [[father]] who rightfully claims possession of the [[phallus]] on the basis of a [[symbolic]] [[law]].
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Dual relation]]
* [[Imaginary]]
||* [[Dual relationMother]]
* [[Oedipus complex]]
* [[Perversion]]
* [[Phallus]]
{{Also}}
==References==
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
{{OK}}
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