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The term [[psychosis]] arose in [[psychiatry]] in the nineteenth century as a way of designating 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 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 (e.g. <ref>Freud, 1924b and 1924e).</ref>
[[Lacan]]'s interest in [[psychosis]] predates his interest in [[psychoanalysis]].
Indeed it was his doctoral research, which concerned a psychotic [[woman ]] whom [[Lacan]] calls '[[AimÈe]]', that first led [[Lacan ]] to [[psychoanalytic theory]] (see .<ref>Lacan, 1932).</ref>
It has often been 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]] is by way of [[neurosis]], [[Lacan]]'s first approach is via [[psychosis]].
It has also been common to compare [[Lacan]]'s tortured and at times almost incomprehensible style of [[writing ]] and [[speaking ]] to the discourse of [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s.
"Whatever one are stabilized in the delusional [[delusion]]al [[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>
