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==Sigmund Freud==
===Early Lacan===
The term [[psychosis]] arose in [[psychiatry]] in the nineteenth century as a way of designating [[treatment|mental illness]] in general.
During [[Freud]]'s life, a basic distinction between [[psychosis]] and [[neurosis]] came to be generally accepted, according to which [[psychosis]] designated extreme forms of [[reatment|mental illness]] and [[neurosis]] denoted less serious disorders.
This basic distinction between [[neurosis]] and [[psychosis]] was taken up and developed by [[Freud]] himself in several papers.<ref>{{F}} p.1924b. "Neurosis and Psychosis." SE XIX. p.149.</ref>
==Jacques Lacan==
[[Lacan]]'s interest in [[psychosis]] predates his nterest interest in [[psychoanalysis]].
Indeed it was his doctoral research, which concerned a psychotic woman whom [[Lacan]] calls [[Aimée]] that first led [[Lacan]] to [[psychoanalytic theory]].<ref>{{L}} p1932.1932''De la psychose paranoiaque dans ses rapports avec la personalité''. Paris: Seuil, 1975.</ref>
It is often remarked that [[Lacan]]'s debt to this [[patient]] is reminiscent of [[Freud]]'s debt to his first [[neurotic]] [[patient]]'s (who were also [[female]]).
In other words, whereas [[Freud]]'s first approach to the [[unconscious]] sis is by way of [[neurosis]], [[Lacan]]'s tortured and at times almsot incomprehensible style of writing and speaking to the [[discourse]] of [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s.
Whatever one makes of such comparisons, it is clear that [[Lacan]]'s discussions of [[psychosis]] are among the most significant and original aspects of his work.
[[Lacan]]'s most detailed discussion of [[psychosis]] appears in his [[seminar]] of 1955-6, entitled simply ''[[Seminar III|The Psychoses]]''.
It is here that he expounds what come to be the main tents of the [[Lacan]]ian approach to [[madness]].
[[Psychosis]] is defined as one of the three [[clinical structure]]s, one of hwihc which is defined by the operation of [[foreclosure]].
In this operation, the [[Name-of-the-Father]] is not integrated in the [[symbolic order|symbolic universe]] of the [[psychotic]] (it is "[[foreclosed]]"), with the result that a hole is left in the [[symbolic order]].
