Changes

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

The "[[repetition|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 [[memory|forgotten]] of [[scene|origins]] of the [[repetition|compulsion]].

[[Lacan]] expands upon [[Freud]]'s [[concept ]] of the "[[repetition|compulsion to repeat]]" in various ways.

He borrows the term "'''[[repetition|automatisme de répétition]]'''" ("[[repetition|repetition automatism]]") from [[French]] [[psychiatry]]<ref>[[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 [[French]] [[school]] of [[psychiatry]] in which he was first trained.</ref> to refer to the ''[[repetition|compulsive repetition]] or [[repetition|reproduction]] of an [[complex|internalized social structure]] which the [[subject]] '''repeatedly''' and '''compulsively''' re-enacts.''.

[[Lacan]] also defines [[repetition]] as the "'''[[insistence of the letter]]'''" (''[[l'instance de la lettre]]''), that is, as ''the [[repetition|compulsive repetition]] of certain '''[[signifier]]s''' or '''[[letter]]s''' despite the [[subject]]'s [[consciousness|conscious attempts]] to [[repression|repress]] [[them]]''.

Certain [[signifier]]s insist on returning in the [[life ]] of the [[subject]], despite the [[resistance]]s which block them.

The [[repetition|compulsion to repeat]] is often [[acting out|acted out]], the [[repetition|repetition compulsion]] manifests itself, 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]].

[[Freud]] establishes an important distinciton between the [[repetition|compulsive repetition]] of [[material ]] that has not been mastered or [[understood]], and the [[recollection]], verbalization and [[working]]-through characteristic of the [[talking cure]].

[[Lacan]] lays great emphasis on this [[symbolic]] aspect of [[transference]], distinguishing it from the [[imaginary]] [[dimension ]] of [[transference]] (the [[affect]]s of [[love]] and [[hate]]).<ref>{{S8}} p.204</ref>

However, [[Lacan]] points out that although the [[repetition|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."<ref>{{S11}} p. 33</ref>

[[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|repetition compulsion]] itself. <ref>{{S8}} p. 208</ref>

<blockquote>It is quite common, for example, to hear it said that the [[transference]] is a form of [[repetition]]. I am not saying that this is untre, or that there is not an element of [[repetition]] in the [[transference]]. I am not saying that it is not on the basis of his [[experience ]] of the [[transference]] that [[Freud]] approached [[repetition]]. What I am saying is that the concept of [[repetition]] has nothing to do with the concept of [[transference]]. Because of this confusion, I am obliged to go through this explanation at the outset, to lay down the necessary [[logical ]] steps. For to follow [[chronology ]] would be to encourage the ambiguities of the concept of [[repetition]] that derive from the fact that its discovery took [[place ]] in the course of the first hesistant steps necessitated by the experience of the [[transference]]."<ref>{{S11}} p. 33</ref></blockquote>