Difference between revisions of "Repetition"

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(Jacques Lacan)
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=====Jacques Lacan=====
 
=====Jacques Lacan=====
[[Lacan]]'s notion of the "'''[[repetition|insistence of the letter]]'''", or of the [[repetition|compulsive repetition]] of certain '''[[signifier]]s''' or '''[[letter]]s''' despite the [[subject]]'s [[consciousness|conscious attempts]] to [[repression|repress]] them, is a [[development]] of [[Freud]]'s "[[repetition|compulsion to repeat]]", but it is also influenced by the idea of "'''[[repetition|automatisme de répétition]]'''" ("[[repetition|repetition automatism]]"), which, in the French psychiatric tradition of Pierre Janet, refers to the [[repetition|compulsive repetition]] or [[repetition|reproduction]] of ''an [[complex|internalized social structure]]''.
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[[Lacan]]'s notion of the "'''[[insistence of the letter'''" (''[[l'instance de la lettre]]''), or of the [[repetition|compulsive repetition]] of certain '''[[signifier]]s''' or '''[[letter]]s''' despite the [[subject]]'s [[consciousness|conscious attempts]] to [[repression|repress]] them, is a [[development]] of [[Freud]]'s "[[repetition|compulsion to repeat]]"
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but it is also influenced by the idea of "'''[[repetition|automatisme de répétition]]'''" ("[[repetition|repetition automatism]]"), which, in the French psychiatric tradition of Pierre Janet, refers to the [[repetition|compulsive repetition]] or [[repetition|reproduction]] of ''an [[complex|internalized social structure]]''.
  
 
[[Lacan]]'s tendency to use "'''[[repetition|automatisme de répétition]]'''" as a translation of [[Freud]]'s ''[[Wiederholungszwang]]'' is a reminder of how much he owes to the [[school]] of [[psychiatry]] in which he was first trained.
 
[[Lacan]]'s tendency to use "'''[[repetition|automatisme de répétition]]'''" as a translation of [[Freud]]'s ''[[Wiederholungszwang]]'' is a reminder of how much he owes to the [[school]] of [[psychiatry]] in which he was first trained.

Revision as of 01:25, 11 September 2006

French: répétition
Sigmund Freud
"Compulsion to Repeat"

For Freud, the "compulsion to repeat" -- also referred to as the "repetition compulsion" (Wiederholungszwang) -- is related to the death drive and the desire to return to an inorganic state.

The "compulsion to repeat" refers to the tendency of the patient to expose himself again and again to a distressing or painful situation, although he has forgotten of origins of the compulsion.

Psychoanalytic treatment involves an effort to break the cycle of repetition by helping the patient remember.

Jacques Lacan

Lacan's notion of the "[[insistence of the letter" (l'instance de la lettre), or of the compulsive repetition of certain signifiers or letters despite the subject's conscious attempts to repress them, is a development of Freud's "compulsion to repeat"


but it is also influenced by the idea of "automatisme de répétition" ("repetition automatism"), which, in the French psychiatric tradition of Pierre Janet, refers to the compulsive repetition or reproduction of an internalized social structure.

Lacan's tendency to use "automatisme de répétition" as a translation of Freud's Wiederholungszwang is a reminder of how much he owes to the school of psychiatry in which he was first trained.

Complex

In Lacan's pre-1950s work, the concept of repetition is linked with that of the complex - an internalised social structure which the subject repeatedly and compulsively re-enacts.

Automatisme de Répétition

At this time Lacan often translates Freud's Wiederholungszwang as automatisme de répétition, a term borrowed from French psychiatry.

While Lacan never completely abandons the term automatisme de répétition, in the 1950s he increasingly uses the term "insistence" (French: instance) to refer to the repetition compulsion.

Insistence of the Letter

Thus repetition is -- now defined -- as the insistence of the signifier, or the insistence of the signifying chain, or the insistence of the letter (l'instance de la lettre).

"Repetition is fundamentally the insistence of speech."[1]

Resistance

Certain signifiers insist on returning in the life of the subject, despite the resistances which block them.

In schema L, repetition / insistence is represented by the axis A-S, while the axis a-a' represents the resistance (or "inertia") which opposes repetition.

Jouissance

In the 1960s, repetition is redefined as the return of jouissance, an excess of enjoyment which returns again and again to transgress the limits of the pleasure principle and seek death.[2]

Transference

The repetition compulsion manifests itself in analytic treatment in the transference, whereby the analysand repeats in his relationship to the analyst certain attitudes which characterised his earlier relationships with his parents and others.

Lacan lays great emphasis on this symbolic aspect of transference, distinguishing it from the imaginary dimension of transference (the affects of love and hate).[3]

However, Lacan points out that although the repetition compulsion manifests itself perhaps most clearly in the transference, it is not in itself limited to the transference; in itself, "the concept of repetition has nothing to do with the concept of transference."[4]

Repetition is the general characteristic of the signifying chain, the manifestation of the unconscious in every subject, and transference is only a very special form of repetition (i.e. it is repetition within psychoanalytic treatment), which cannot simply be equated with the repetition compulsion itself. [5]

See Also
References
Index

Further information about Repetition can be found in the following reference(s):

repetition, repeating (Wiederholen), 12, 19, 33, 39-40, 48-51, 53-4, 58, 60-2, 67-9, 79-80, 127-8, 143, 239, 263
automaton (return, insistence of signs), 52-64, 67
repetition and the arbitrary (Zufall), 39, 45
repetition-compulsion (Wiederholungszwang), 56, 67
reproduction and repetition, 50, 54
return ([[Wiederkehr), 48-9