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[[Freud]]'s most important discussion of the "[[repetition|repetition compulsion]]" (''[[Wiederholungszwang]]'') occurs in ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'' (1920) where he links it to the concept of the [[death drive]].

[[Freud]] posited the [[existence]] of a basic [[repetition|compulsion to repeat]] in order to explain certain clinical data: namely, the tendency of the [[subject]] to expose himself again and again to distressing situations.

It is a basic principle of [[psychoanalysis]] that a person is only condemned to [[repetition|repeat]] something when he has forgotten the origins of the compulsion, and that [[psychoanalytic treatment]] can therefore break the cycle of [[repetition]] by helping the [[patient]] [[remember]].

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.

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

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

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'').

<blockquote>"Repetition is fundamentally the insistence of speech."<ref>{{S3}} p. 242</ref></blockquote>

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

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]].<ref>{{S17}} p.51</ref>

The [[repetition|repetition compulsion]] manifests itself in [[treatment|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.

[[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>

{{See}}

* [[Death]]

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[[Category:Practice]]