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[[Psychosis]] is a nosological [[category]] distinct from [[neurosis]] and [[perversion]]. It is brought [[about]] by the [[foreclosure]] of a primordial [[signifier]], the [[Name-of-the-Father]].
In his seminar of 1955-56 ([[Seminar III|Seminar III, ''The Psychoses'']]), Lacan argues that there is a [[defense mechanism]] specific to [[psychosis]] on the grounds that the peculiarly invasive and devastating [[nature]] of psychotics' delusional systems and hallucinations indicates major [[structural]] differences between [[psychosis]] and [[neurosis]].
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The term [[psychosis]] is used in many ways, but in general refers to [[people]] [[suffering]] from so-called [[schizophrenia]], with [[hallucination]]s and [[delusion]]s; manic [[depression]]; various [[paranoia|paranoid states]]; and severe hypochondrial, [[obsessional neurosis|obsessional]], or [[narcissism|narcissistic states]]. The term "[[psychosis]]" is used in [[psychoanalysis]] to describe a ''severe [[mental]] disorder'', more serious than [[neurosis]], characterized by disorganized [[thought]] [[processes]], disorientation in [[time]] and [[space]], [[hallucination]]s, and [[delusion]]s. Types of [[psychosis]] include [[paranoia]], [[manic depression]], [[megalomania]], and [[schizophrenia]]. [[Psychosis]] has many different forms: [[paranoia]], [[schizophrenia]], and [[manic-depression]]. Common features are difficult to define exactly, but psychoanalytically [[speaking]] one can see [[three]] broad features in psychotic patients:
# A [[particular]] relation to reality
# A special relation of the subject to his [[speech]];
# A particular structure of the subject
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==Sigmund Freud==
It is [[true]] that Freud had found that the [[discourse]] of the psychotic and the apparently bizarre and meaningless phenomena of psychosis could be deciphered and [[understood]], just as [[dreams]] can. Freud's [[analysis]] of the psychotic [[Schreber]]'s memoirs thus broke with contemporary approaches to psychosis, which regarded psychotics as beyond the limits of [[understanding]] (Freud, 1951).
Freud claims that in both neurosis and psychosis there is a [[withdrawal]] of investment, or [[object]]-[[cathexis]], from [[objects]] in the [[world]]. In the [[case]] of neurosis the object-cathexis is retained, but is invested in fantasized objects in the neurotic's [[internal]] world. In the case of psychosis the withdrawn cathexis is invested in the ego at the expense of all object-[[cathexes]], even in [[fantasy]]. This basic distinction between turning of [[libido]] upon the ego accounts for [[neurosissymptoms]] and such as [[psychosishypochondria]] was taken up and developed by megalomania. The delusional [[Freudsystem]] himself , the most striking feature of psychosis, arises in several papersa second [[stage]].<ref>Freudcharacterizes the [[construction]] of a delusional system as an attempt at recovery in which the psychotic re-establishes a new, 1924b often very intense, relation with the people and 1924e</ref>things in the world by way of a delusional [[formation]].
==Jacques Lacan==
===History===
[[Lacan]] discussed [[psychosis]] throughout his [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]]. His interest in [[psychosis]] predates his interest in [[psychoanalysis]]. [[Jacques Lacan]] studied [[psychosis]] for his doctoral research about a [[woman]] he calls "[[Aimee]]."<ref>{{1932}}</ref> Indeed it was his doctoral research, which concerned a [[psychotic]] [[woman]] whom [[Lacan]] calls [[Aimée]] that first led [[Lacan]] to [[psychoanalytic theory]].<ref>{{1932}}</ref> It is common to compare [[Lacan]]'s tortured and at [[times]] almost incomprehensible style of [[writing]] and speaking to the discourse of [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s. [[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 tenets of the [[Lacan]]ian approach to [[madness]].
===The Psychotic Relation to Reality===In 1956, Lacan attributes these language disorders to his articles on [[psychosis]] [[Freud]] noted the [[psychotic]]'s lack altered relation to [[reality]]. The 'imaginary [[external]] world' of a sufficient number psychosis attempts to put itself in [[place]] of points de capitonthe 'external world'. (In Lacanian [[terms]], there are altered relations between [[the Imaginary]] and Real Orders, in parallel with an alteration in [[the Symbolic]] Order).
<!-- Not only is the classical method of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] inappropriate for [[psychotic]] [[subject]]s, but it is even contraindicated. For example [[Lacan]] points out that the technique of [[psychoanalysis]], which involves the use of the couch and [[free association]], can easily trigger off a latent [[psychosis]].<ref>{{S3}} p. 15</ref> This is the [[reason]] why [[Lacan]]ian [[analyst]]s usually follow [[Freud]]'s recommendation to begin the [[treatment]] of a new [[patient]] with a series of face-to-face interviews.<ref>{{F}} p.1913c. [[SE]] XII. 123-4</ref> Only when the [[analyst]] is reasonably sure that the [[patient]] is not [[psychotic]] will the [[patient]] be asked to lie down on the couch and [[free association|free associate]]. -->This does not mean that Lacanian [[analysts]] do not work with [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s. On the contrary, much work has been done by [[Lacanian]] [[analyst]]s in the [[treatment]] of [[psychosis]]. However, the method of [[treatment]] differs substantially from that used with [[neurotic]] and [[perverse]] [[patient]]s. [[Lacan]] himself works with [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s but left very few comments on the technique he employed; rather than setting out a technical procedure for [[working]] with [[psychosis]], he limited himself to discussing the questions preliminary to any such work.<ref>{{L}} p. 1957-8b</ref><!-- [[Lacan]] rejects the approach of those who [[limit]] their analysis of [[psychosis]] to the [[imaginary order]]; "If [[nothing]] is to be expected from the way psychosis is explored at the level of the neurotic inhabits language[[imaginary]], since [[the imaginary]] [[mechanism]] is what gives psychotic [[alienation]] its [[form]], but not its dynamics."<ref>{{S3}} p. 146</ref> It is only by focusing on the [[symbolic order]] that [[Lacan]] is inhabitedable to point to the fundamental determining element of [[psychosis]], possessednamely, the hole in the [[symbolic]] [[order]] caused by [[foreclosure]] and the consequent "imprisonment" of the psychotic subject in the imaginary. It is also this emphasis on the [[symbolic order]] which leads [[Lacan]] to [[value]] above all the [[linguistic]] phenomena in [[psychosis]]: "the importance given to languagephenomena in psychosis is for us the msot fruitful lesson of all."<ref>{{S3}} p.250144</ref> -->
===The Relation of the Subject to his Speech===
Lacan asserted that the failure to take account of the relation of the subject to his speech had resulted in a failure to [[understand]] psychotic phenomena.
<!--====Language Disorders==== --><!-- The [[language]] phenomena most notable in [[psychosis]] are ''disorders'' of [[language]], and [[Lacan]] argues that the [[presence]] of such disorders is a necessary condition for a diagnosis of [[psychosis]].<ref>{{S3}} p. 92</ref> Among the psychotic language disorders which Lacan draws attention to are holophrases and the extensive use of neologisms (which may be completely new [[words]] coined by the psychotic, or already existing words which the psychotic redefines).<ref>{{Ec}} p. 167</ref> In [[{{Y}}|1956]], [[Lacan]] attributes these [[language]] disorders to the [[psychotic]]'s [[lack]] of a sufficient [[number]] of ''[[points de capiton]]''. --><!-- The lack of sufficient ''[[points de capiton]]'' means that the psychotic experience is characterized by a constant [[slippage]] of the [[signified]] under the signifier, which is a disaster for [[signification]]; there is a continual "cascade of reshapings of the signifier fromw hich the increasing disaster of the imaginary proceeds, until the level is reached at which signifier and signified are stablized in the delusional [[metaphor]]."<ref>{{E}} p. 217</ref> [[Another]] way of describing this is as "a [[relationship]] between the subject and the signifier in its most [[formal]] [[dimension]], in its dimension as a pure signifier."<ref>{{S3}} p. 250</ref> This relationship of the subject to the signifier in its purely formal aspect constitutes "the nucleus of psychosis."<ref>{{S3}} p.250</ref> "If the neurotic inhabits language, the psychotic is inhabited, possessed, by language."<ref>{{S3}} p. 250</ref> -->
[[Category:Jacques Lacan follows Freud in maintaining a structural distinction between paranoia and schizophrenia.]][[Category:Terms]][[Category:Treatment]][[Category:Concepts]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]]{{OK}}[[Category:Practice]][[Category:Subject]]__NOTOC__