Difference between revisions of "Psychosis"
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| + | Defined in clincal psychiatry as a serious mental illness affecting the whole of the personality. | ||
| + | Unlike a patient suffering from [[neurosis]], the psychotic cannot be treated on a consensual basis and may therefore have to be committed to a psychiatric institution. | ||
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| + | The word ''Psychose'' has been current since the 1840s, but was originally used to refer to any form of mental illness.<ref>Laplanche and Pontalis 1967</ref> | ||
| + | The distinction between psychosis and neurosis was introduced and gradually refined in the course of the nineteenth century, and is basic to psychoanalysis. | ||
| + | In psychoanalysis, 'psychosis' is used to describe conditions such as hallucinatory confusion, paranoia and schizophrenia. | ||
| + | Freud's theory of psychoanalysis was developed primarily with reference to neurosis. | ||
| + | Lacan, in contrast, began his career by working with psychotics in | ||
| + | psychiatric hospitals before he became a psychoanalyst (1932) and therefore elaborates a more specific theory of the origins of psychosis. | ||
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| + | Contrasting neurosis snad psychosis, Freud argues that, whilst both conditions originate in a conflict between the ego and other agencies of the psyche, psychosis results from a disturbance in the ego's relationship with the external world, neurosis from a conflict between the ego and the id. | ||
| + | In psychosis the ego withdraws from some part or aspect of the rela world, either fialing to perceive it or being unaffected by its perceptiuon of it.. | ||
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| + | Lacan draws on Freud's comment and remarks on the case of Daniel Paul Schrebe, an appeal court judge who wrote an autobiographicla account of his paranoid delusions, to elaborate the thesis that psychosis is trigged by the specific mechanism of [[foreclosure]].<ref>Lacan 1957-8, 1981</ref> | ||
| + | A key signifier or the name of the father is expelled or foreclosed fromt he subject's symbolic world and a hole or rent is left in its ploace. | ||
| + | The foreclosed signifier is not integrated into the unconscious thanks to an act of repression,a nd therefore cannot return on the form of a neurotic signifier. | ||
| + | It returns, rather, in the real, usually in the form of persecutory hallucinations and delusions. | ||
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A mental condition whereby the patient completely loses touch with reality. | A mental condition whereby the patient completely loses touch with reality. | ||
Revision as of 01:39, 5 June 2006
Defined in clincal psychiatry as a serious mental illness affecting the whole of the personality. Unlike a patient suffering from neurosis, the psychotic cannot be treated on a consensual basis and may therefore have to be committed to a psychiatric institution.
The word Psychose has been current since the 1840s, but was originally used to refer to any form of mental illness.[1]
The distinction between psychosis and neurosis was introduced and gradually refined in the course of the nineteenth century, and is basic to psychoanalysis.
In psychoanalysis, 'psychosis' is used to describe conditions such as hallucinatory confusion, paranoia and schizophrenia.
Freud's theory of psychoanalysis was developed primarily with reference to neurosis.
Lacan, in contrast, began his career by working with psychotics in
psychiatric hospitals before he became a psychoanalyst (1932) and therefore elaborates a more specific theory of the origins of psychosis.
Contrasting neurosis snad psychosis, Freud argues that, whilst both conditions originate in a conflict between the ego and other agencies of the psyche, psychosis results from a disturbance in the ego's relationship with the external world, neurosis from a conflict between the ego and the id.
In psychosis the ego withdraws from some part or aspect of the rela world, either fialing to perceive it or being unaffected by its perceptiuon of it..
Lacan draws on Freud's comment and remarks on the case of Daniel Paul Schrebe, an appeal court judge who wrote an autobiographicla account of his paranoid delusions, to elaborate the thesis that psychosis is trigged by the specific mechanism of foreclosure.[2] A key signifier or the name of the father is expelled or foreclosed fromt he subject's symbolic world and a hole or rent is left in its ploace. The foreclosed signifier is not integrated into the unconscious thanks to an act of repression,a nd therefore cannot return on the form of a neurotic signifier. It returns, rather, in the real, usually in the form of persecutory hallucinations and delusions.
A mental condition whereby the patient completely loses touch with reality.
Psychosis versus Neurosis
The term 'psychosis' denotes an severe form of mental illness, while 'neurosis' denotes less severe forms.
Sigmund Freud elaborated a distinction between psychosis and neurosis.[3]
"[In] neurosis the ego suppresses part of the id out of allegiance to reality, whereas in psychosis it lets itself be carried away by the id and detached from a part of reality."[4]
Psychosis and Lacan
Jacques Lacan studied psychosis for his doctoral research about a woman he calls "Aimee."[5]
It is common to compare Lacan's style of writing and speaking to the discourse of psychotic patients.
Psychosis has many different forms: paranoia, schizophrenia, and manic-depression.[6]
