Difference between revisions of "Seminar III"

From No Subject - Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis
Jump to: navigation, search
 
 
(58 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
1955-1956 Le séminaire, Livre III: Les psychoses.
+
{{SeminarsNavBar|RightPrevLink=Seminar II|RightPrevText=Seminar II|RightNextLink=Seminar IV|RightNextText=Seminar IV}}
French: (texte établi par Jacques-Alain Miller), Paris: Seuil, 1981.
 
English: Book III: The Psychoses. (edited by Jacques-Alain Miller), New York: Norton, 1993.
 
  
Psychosis is one of the three clinical structures, the one defined by foreclosure. The other two are neurosis and perversion. By way of forclosure of the signifier of the Name-of-the-Father it is possible to understand psychosis and distinguish it from neurosis. Foreclosure corresponds to Lacan's translation of Verwerfung (repudiaton). The Name-of-the-Father is not integrated in the symbolic order of the psychotic, it is foreclosed: a hole is left in the symbolic chain. In psychosis "the unconscious is present but not functioning." The psychotic structure results from a malfunction of the Oedipus complex, a lack in the paternal function: the paternal function is reduced to the image of the father (the symbolic reduced to the imaginary).
+
{| align="center" style="width:600px; border:1px solid #aaa;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"
Two conditions are required for psychosis to emerge: the subject has a psychotic structure (inheritance) and the Name-of-the-Father is called into symbolic opposition to the subject. When both conditions are fulfilled, psychosis is actualized; the latent psychosis becomes manifest in hallucinations and/or delusions. For Lacan psychosis includes paranoia (Papin sisters), so he bases his arguments on the Schreber case (as related by Freud). He argues that Schreber's psychosis was activated by both his failure to produce a child and his election to an important position in the judiciary. These experiences confronted him with the question of paternity in the real - called the Name-of-the-Father into symbolic opposition with the subject. The Name-of the Father is the fundamental signifier which permits signification to proceed normally. It both confers identity on the subject (naming and positioning it within the symbolic order) and signifies the Oedipical prohibition. When forclosed, it is not included in the symbolic order.
+
|-
Lacan rejects the approach of limiting the analysis of psychosis to the imaginary: "nothing is to be expected from the way psychosis is explored at the level of the imaginary, since the imaginary mechanism is what gives psychotic alienation its form, but not its dynamics." Only by focusing on the symbolic are we able to point to the fundamental determining element of psychosis: the hole in the symbolic order caused by foreclosure and the consequent imprisonment of the psychotic subject in the imaginary. "The importance given to language phenomena in psychosis is for us the most fruitful lesson of all."
+
| style="width:100px;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"| 1956 - 1957
The Saussurian opposition between signifier and signified leads to the radical separation of the two chains, until they are tied through anchoring points, points de capiton. These are points at which "signifier and signified are knotted together." Despite the continual slippage of the signified under the signifier, there are nevertheless in the neurotic subject certain points of attachment between signifier and signified where the slippage is temporarily halted. A certain number of these points "are necessary for a person to be called normal" and "when they are not established or when they give way" the result is psychosis. In the psychotic experience "the signifier and the signified present themselves in a completely divided form." Thus the language phenomena most notable in psychosis are disorders of language: the presence of such disorders is a necessary condition for its diagnosis: holophrases and the extensive use of neologisms (new words or already existing ones which the psychotic redefines). These language disorders are due to the psychotic's lack of a sufficient number of anchoring points: the psychotic experience is characterized by a constant slippage of the signifier under the signified, which is a disaster for signification. Later, Lacan will posit that there is a continual "cascade of reshapings of the signifier from which the increasing disaster of the imaginary proceeds, until the level is reached at which signifier and signified are stabilized in the delusional metaphor." Thus "the nucleus of psychosis has to be linked to a rapport between the subject and the signifier in its most formal dimension, in its dimension as pure signifier. If the neurotic inhabits language, the psychotic is inhabited, possessed by language.
+
| style="width:100px;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"| [[Seminar III]]
 +
| style="width:300px;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"| ''[[Seminar III|Les psychoses]]''<BR><big>[[Seminar III|The Psychoses]]</big>
 +
|}
 +
 
 +
[[Image:Sem.III.jpg|border|300px|right]]
 +
=====Psychosis=====
 +
''[[Psychosis]]'' is one of [[three]] '''[[structure|clinical structures]]'''. The other two are '''[[neurosis]]''' and ''[[perversion]]''. Each [[structure]] is distinguished by a different operation: [[neurosis]] by the operation of [[repression]], [[perversion]] by the operation of [[disavowal]], and [[psychosis]] by the operation of '''[[foreclosure]]'''.  By way of [[foreclosure]] of the [[signifier]] of the [[Name-of-the-Father]] it is possible to [[understand]] [[psychosis]] and distinguish it from [[neurosis]].  
 +
 
 +
=====Foreclosure=====
 +
'''[[Foreclosure]]''' corresponds to [[Lacan]]'s [[translation]] of ''[[Verwerfung]]'' ([[repudiaton]]). The [[Name-of-the-Father]] is not integrated in the [[symbolic]] [[order]] of the [[psychotic]], it is [[foreclosed]]: a [[hole]] is [[left]] in the [[symbolic]] [[chain]]. In [[psychosis]] "the unconscious is [[present]] but not functioning." The [[psychotic]] [[structure]] results from a malfunction of the [[Oedipus complex]], a [[lack]] in the [[paternal function]]: the [[paternal function]] is reduced to the [[image]] of the [[father]] (the [[symbolic]] reduced to the [[imaginary]]).
 +
 
 +
== Symbolic Order ==
 +
Two [[conditions]] are required for [[psychosis]] to emerge:  
 +
# the [[subject]] has a [[psychotic]] [[structure]] (inheritance) and  
 +
# the [[Name-of-the-Father]] is called into [[symbolic]] opposition to the [[subject]].  
 +
 
 +
When both conditions are fulfilled, [[psychosis]] is actualized; the [[latent]] [[psychosis]] becomes [[manifest]] in [[hallucinations]] and/or [[delusions]]. For [[Lacan]] [[psychosis]] includes [[paranoia]] (Papin sisters), so he bases his arguments on the [[Schreber case]] (as related by [[Freud]]). He argues that [[Schreber]]'s [[psychosis]] was activated by both his failure to produce a [[child]] and his election to an important [[position]] in the judiciary. These experiences confronted him with the question of [[paternity]] in the [[real]]- called the [[Name-of-the-Father]] into [[symbolic]] opposition with the [[subject]]. The [[Name of the Father]] is the [[fundamental signifier]] which permits [[signification]] to proceed normally. It both confers [[identity]] on the [[subject]] (naming and positioning it within the [[symbolic]] [[order]]) and signifies the Oedipical [[prohibition]]. When [[foreclosed]], it is not included in the [[symbolic]] [[order]]. [[Lacan]] rejects the approach of limiting the [[analysis]] of [[psychosis]] to the [[imaginary]]: "[[nothing]] is to be expected from the way psychosis is explored at the level of [[the imaginary]], since the imaginary [[mechanism]] is what gives psychotic [[alienation]] its [[form]], but not its dynamics."   Only by focusing on the [[symbolic]] are we able to point to the fundamental determining element of [[psychosis]]: the [[hole]] in the [[symbolic]] [[order]] caused by [[foreclosure]] and the consequent imprisonment of the [[psychotic]] [[subject]] in the [[imaginary]]. "The importance given to language phenomena in psychosis is for us the most fruitful lesson of all."
 +
 
 +
== Point de Caption ==
 +
The [[Saussurian]] opposition between [[signifier]] and [[signified]] leads to the radical [[separation]] of the two [[chain]]s, until they are tied through anchoring points, ''[[points de caption]]''. These are points at which "signifier and signified are knotted together." Despite the continual [[slip]]page of the [[signified]] under the [[signifier]], there are nevertheless in the [[neurotic]] [[subject]] certain points of attachment between [[signifier]] and [[signified]] where the [[slip]]page is temporarily halted. A certain [[number]] of these points "are necessary for a person to be called normal" and "when they are not established or when they give way" the result is [[psychosis]]. In the psychotic [[experience]] "the signifier and the signified present themselves in a completely [[divided]] form."  
 +
 
 +
== Language ==
 +
Thus the phenomena most notable in [[psychosis]] are disorders of [[language]]: the [[presence]] of such disorders is a necessary condition for its diagnosis: holophrases and the extensive use of neologisms (new [[words]] or already existing ones which the [[psychotic]] redefines). These language disorders are due to the [[psychotic]]'s [[lack]] of a sufficient number of anchoring points: the psychotic experience is characterized by a constant [[slip]]page of the [[signifier]] under the [[signified]], which is a disaster for [[signification]]. Later, [[Lacan]] will posit that there is a continual "cascade of reshapings of the signifier from which the increasing disaster of the imaginary proceeds, until the level is reached at which signifier and signified are stabilized in the delusional metaphor." Thus "the nucleus of psychosis has to be linked to a rapport between the subject and the signifier in its most [[formal]] [[dimension]], in its dimension as pure signifier. If the neurotic inhabits language, the psychotic is inhabited, possessed by language."  "On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis" (‘’[[Écrits]]: A Selection’’) is a [[text]] written in 1958 and contemporary with ‘’Les [[formations]] de l'inconscient’’; it is a [[synthesis]] of ‘’Les psychoses’’ and focuses mainly on the term [[foreclosure]], ‘’forclusion’’, [[German]] ‘’Verwerfung’’.  In the [[Schema L]] "...the condition of the subject S (neurosis or psychosis) is dependent on what is [[being]] unfolded in the Other O. What is being unfolded is articulated like a [[discourse]] ([[the unconscious is the discourse of the Other]])."
  
"On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis" (Écrits: A Selection) is a text written in 1958 and contemporary with Les formations de l'inconscient; it is a synthesis of Les psychoses and focuses mainly on the term foreclosure, forclusion, German Verwerfung.
 
In the Schema L "...the condition of the subject S (neurosis or psychosis) is dependent on what is being unfolded in the Other O. What is being unfolded is articulated like a discourse (the unconscious is the discourse of the Other)."
 
 
[[Image:lacansem1a.gif|center]]
 
[[Image:lacansem1a.gif|center]]
  
 +
In the [[Schema]] R: "...I as the ego-[[ideal]], M as the signifier of the primordial [[object]], and F as the position in O of the [[Name]]-of-the-Father. One can see how the homological fastening of the signification of S under the signifier of the phallus may [[affect]] the support of the field of reality delimited by the quadrangle MieI. The two other summits, e and i, [[represent]] the two imaginary [[terms]] of the [[narcissistic]] rapport, the ego and the [[specular]] image."
 +
 +
[[Image:lacansem1a2.gif|center]]
  
In the Schema R: "...I as the ego-ideal, M as the signifier of the primordial object, and F as the position in O of the Name-of-the-Father. One can see how the homological fastening of the signification of S under the signifier of the phallus may affect the support of the field of reality delimited by the quadrangle MieI. The two other summits, e and i, represent the two imaginary terms of the narcissistic rapport, the ego and the specular image."
+
This schema articulates the [[imaginary]] [[triad]] with the [[symbolic]] triad, both of which cut the quadrangle of [[reality]].  The term '[[reality]]' is ambiguous in that it designates both our rapport to the [[world]] and our rapport to the [[Real]] as inaccessible.  [[Schema R]] is elaborated in terms of a [[particular]] form of [[psychosis]] ([[Schreber]]). Later, ‘’[[Kant avec Sade]]’’ (1962) will develop the [[perverse]] version as [[Lacan]] is concerned with creating the formal bases for his [[theory]] before addressing the problems of the [[treatment]] of [[psychosis]]. The preliminary question seems to be the one of the [[Other]], whose presence commands everything else.  It is the [[place]] from which the [[subject]] is confronted with the question of its [[existence]] ([[sexuation]] and [[death]]).  What is the [[Other]]? Is it the [[unconscious]] where "it speaks?"  Is it the place of [[memory]] that conditions the indestructibility of certain [[desire]]s?  Is it the place where the [[signifier]] of [[signifier]]s is the [[phallus]]?  Is it the place [[symbolize]]d by the [[Name-of-the-Father]] since the [[Oedipus complex]] is consubstantial with the [[unconscious]]?  When the [[paternal metaphor]] does not allow the [[subject]] to evoke the [[signification]] of the [[phallus]], when the response to the call of the [[Name-of-the-Father]] is a [[lack]] of the [[signifier]] itself, then it is a [[case]] of [[psychosis]]. "This applies to the metaphor of the Name-of-the-Father, that is, the metaphor that puts this Name in the place that was first [[symbolized]] by the operation of the [[mother]]'s [[absence]]."  It designates the [[metaphor]]ical, [[substitutive]], [[character]] of the [[Oedipus complex]].
  
[[Image:lacansem2a.gif|center]]
+
[[Image:lacansem1a3.gif|center]]
  
 +
[[Image:lacansem1a4.gif|center]]
  
This schema articulates the imaginary triad with the symbolic triad, both of which cut the quadrangle of reality. The term 'reality' is ambiguous in that it designates both our rapport to the world and our rapport to the Real as inaccessible. Schema R is elaborated in terms of a particular form of psychosis (Schreber). Later, Kant avec Sade (1962) will develop the perverse version as Lacan is concerned with creating the formal bases for his theory before addressing the problems of the treatment of psychosis.
+
It is the fundamental [[metaphor]] on which all [[signification]] depends: thus all [[signification]] is [[phallus|phallic]]. If the [[Name-of-the-Father]] is [[foreclosed]] ([[psychosis]]), there can be no [[paternal metaphor]] and no [[phallic]] [[signification]].
The preliminary question seems to be the one of the Other, whose presence commands everything else. It is the place from which the subject is confronted with the question of its existence (sexuation and death). What is the Other? Is it the unconscious where "it speaks?" Is it the place of memory that conditions the indestructibility of certain desires? Is it the place where the signifier of signifiers is the phallus? Is it the place symbolized by the Name-of-the-Father since "the Oedipus complex is consubstantial with the unconscious? When the paternal metaphor does not allow the subject to evoke the signification of the phallus, when the response to the call of the Name-of-the-Father is a lack of the signifier itself, then it is a case of psychosis.
 
"This applies to the metaphor of the Name-of-the-Father, that is, the metaphor that puts this Name in the place that was first symbolized by the operation of the mother's absence." It designates the metaphorical, substitutive, character of the Oedipus complex.
 
[[Image:lacansem3a.gif|center]]
 
[[Image:lacansem4a.gif|center]]
 
  
 +
== English ==
 +
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
 +
|Author(s)
 +
|Title
 +
|Publisher
 +
|Year
 +
|Pages
 +
|Language
 +
|Size
 +
|Extension
 +
| rowspan="1" |Mirrors
 +
|-
 +
| Jacques Lacan
 +
| Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Psychoses, 1955-56 Bk.3 [1 ed.]<BR><small>0415101832, 9780415101837, 0393034674, 9780393034677</small>
 +
| W. W. Norton & Company
 +
|1993
 +
|350
 +
|English
 +
|13 Mb
 +
|pdf
 +
|[http://library1.org/_ads/3E341C8AEC7E4E9826BA5979EF219246 1], [http://libgen.io/get.php?md5=3E341C8AEC7E4E9826BA5979EF219246 2], [http://b-ok.cc/md5/3E341C8AEC7E4E9826BA5979EF219246 3], [http://libgen.me/item/detail/id/542281 4], [http://bookfi.net/md5/3E341C8AEC7E4E9826BA5979EF219246 5]
 +
|-
 +
| Jacques Lacan
 +
| Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Psychoses, 1955-56 Bk.3 [1 ed.]<BR><small>0415101832, 9780415101837, 0393034674, 9780393034677</small>
 +
| W. W. Norton & Company
 +
|1993
 +
|352
 +
[177]
 +
|English
 +
|53 Mb
 +
|pdf
 +
|[http://library1.org/_ads/304687DD6389D4D16FF5CBF3E6BD7CF7 1], [http://libgen.io/get.php?md5=304687DD6389D4D16FF5CBF3E6BD7CF7 2], [http://b-ok.cc/md5/304687DD6389D4D16FF5CBF3E6BD7CF7 3], [http://libgen.me/item/detail/id/552803 4], [http://bookfi.net/md5/304687DD6389D4D16FF5CBF3E6BD7CF7 5]
 +
|-
 +
|Lacan, Jacques, Miller, Jacques-Alain
 +
|The Psychoses
 +
|Taylor and Francis
 +
| 1993
 +
| 352
 +
|English
 +
|554 Kb
 +
|epub
 +
|[http://library1.org/_ads/BB934763B9DA83952C4F6CF4C2C44EA8 1], [http://libgen.io/get.php?md5=BB934763B9DA83952C4F6CF4C2C44EA8 2], [http://b-ok.cc/md5/BB934763B9DA83952C4F6CF4C2C44EA8 3], [http://libgen.me/item/detail/id/1433228 4], [http://bookfi.net/md5/BB934763B9DA83952C4F6CF4C2C44EA8 5]
 +
|}
  
 +
== Related ==
 +
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
 +
|Author(s)
 +
|Title
 +
|Publisher
 +
|Year
 +
|Pages
 +
|Language
 +
|Size
 +
|Extension
 +
| rowspan="1" |Mirrors
 +
|-
 +
|Lacan, Jacques; Redmond, Jonathan
 +
|Ordinary psychosis and the body : a contemporary Lacanian approach<BR><small>9781137345318, 1137345314</small>
 +
|Palgrave Macmillan
 +
|2014
 +
|175
 +
|English
 +
|709 Kb
 +
|pdf
 +
|[http://library1.org/_ads/C6C045A7FA1FA4A80DF42D53A78FA5DA 1], [http://libgen.io/get.php?md5=C6C045A7FA1FA4A80DF42D53A78FA5DA 2], [http://b-ok.cc/md5/C6C045A7FA1FA4A80DF42D53A78FA5DA 3], [http://libgen.me/item/detail/id/1428559 4], [http://bookfi.net/md5/C6C045A7FA1FA4A80DF42D53A78FA5DA 5]
 +
|-
 +
|Jon Mills; David L. Downing
 +
|Lacan on Psychosis: From Theory to Praxis [Paperback ed.]<BR><small>1138315427, 9781138315426</small>
 +
|Routledge
 +
|2018
 +
|194
 +
[207]
 +
|English
 +
|3 Mb
 +
|pdf
 +
|[http://library1.org/_ads/8295D24E0FD7DBDB71B00F1E29215F53 1], [http://libgen.io/get.php?md5=8295D24E0FD7DBDB71B00F1E29215F53 2], [http://b-ok.cc/md5/8295D24E0FD7DBDB71B00F1E29215F53 3], [http://libgen.me/item/detail/id/2374106 4], [http://bookfi.net/md5/8295D24E0FD7DBDB71B00F1E29215F53 5]
 +
|}
  
 +
==French==
  
 +
{| class="toccolours floatright" style="float:right;margin-left:10px;"
 +
|+ style="font-size: larger; margin-left: 1em;" |
 +
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
 +
| colspan="3" style="background: #CCCCCC;" align="center" |'''Download''' [https://mega.nz/#F!nahGyIpC!upWzON4zapxDKEtcoyXbDw ALL]
 +
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
 +
|
 +
{| width="100%" style="valign:top" valign="top"
 +
|
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!CTZCQASY!HOJlbnCzDuyvHlVQcV_SmOAQb1xVmkvlzOuT4yAtMPg 16 novembre 1955]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!mGIghQoT!qD_UJ5fkg2GI8z-NmpQ309SU07o-6y1zHmokkreSaiQ 23 novembre 1955]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!bfIA1KYR!6OKn0kJc3G8O67PlKBphmK8YNulfju5OLAiZPulvlm8 30 novembre 1955]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!fLQkwIYT!lYoQpj7H9pOrD0kaRjvzs_YXVwQcNUIj3ea3BqC7AVQ 07 décembre 1955]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!HTYUwKbZ!uKPbOS1Qc8p08oTJBcf-CJ4L2wosG999HSEdz6TYoRw 14 décembre 1955]
 +
||
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!XWZQjQDB!RNHOP7y7EufM8-kW-8-wmEbzxdnAG-s9tUJalptHqG8 21 décembre 1955]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!fKRiRSpS!KRIdM9Ak0Bls2Fyv_MaK_kyxXlkAye8dajbtke8gmyY 11 janvier 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!ODIwiaJR!LfI4_Pp4-rT2JHlUCXFvzNVko98PB0qDKRAf2xAP3YE 18 janvier 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!XeQGxaQJ!QjJ3B-RuKc7kcMk8f7xgmeS5-AFShfmJSjnXctBFWtI 25 janvier 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!uSAEQYaQ!vM08-Hkw1NPfUWnwzgpcsJB-1nJfkN6O78uVRbLZifs 01 février 1956]
 +
||
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!HaJ0DYiC!nxTRidp3uz4Fac5mwHhREx_6w_hMIZyn0aw0abX10QI 08 février 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!CfAAACgJ!POEXgHQ1BBV06sVv95QDy5cJ-_hJchgIlMlxb70oumA 15 février 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!SHQSUaja!5QStQYLJGoatX20VSt4pLcIn4F-mPJlBX156wW1e08w 14 mars 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!XKRCTIiR!EsXzu4q_xhA4QCFJWr2m-_qSnXOwOr-AIViZgHEzw9E 21 mars 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!qKYkTS4K!BrijzbRVQmcfXN2Kn3_1djdCkVUJK641fzP9ZFVCmEA 11 avril 1956]
 +
||
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!LGByWYhK!i42oGPH6izYtxx3MxeByXyrrKOKGeb6txwj3uSSMX4c 18 avril 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!2KZQnIYA!L41D0RpvE131Mdp-OqbniYkdldfx-L_c5PlkGyuYehM 25 avril 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!uGRyGSpC!J14uxTEqIC86TRllvK97uXY9TPTCIDOZRW7-3uTBB2Y 02 mai 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!DKRQwCLQ!3_cr51M9decCrkMJMooIBTkSNWTg-H0LCYx8dF761bI 09 mai 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!jDY2zCYC!SfElFvnLVnsO26x1a6h1N3kF6eLd51A4cBl1wfRFTXU 31 mai 1956]
 +
||
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!PXR2hCCB!-jR7lCkb7PhYPrI9vsjH-nbiR1dUGNIRKx6S1ZmWDDM06 juin 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!XHJUTAZI!Mw1_87zphzDjiMhmedjTwJVuGOl9a-H412gSqxnXhzk 13 juin 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!yWYW2AYb!kPaxHSLBjMRPEHXFp3xwoIHYzYzr36l4ejxJ3qJqJLA 20 juin 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!fGZgnaqY!wSZP3VitHM2-zWqUkKVRWFlFZ_7wr3-pHn9HmmlaIis 27 juin 1956]
 +
* [https://mega.nz/#!SDIEzAxC!gUruX5tTetfyAETtWRy9QFWsCWHQblWCDFuLWiO0054 04 juillet 1956]
 +
|}
 +
|}
  
It is the fundamental metaphor on which all signification depends: thus all signification is phallic. If the Name-of-the-Father is foreclosed (psychosis), there can be no paternal metaphor and no phallic signification.
+
French versions of [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan's]] [[Seminars]] Source: http://ecole-lacanienne.net
 +
* [[File:Seminaire_03.pdf|Download]]
 +
<BR><pdf width="450px" height="600px">File:Seminaire_03.pdf</pdf>
 +
<!--
 +
{| style="width:100%; border:1px solid #aaa;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"
 +
|width="100%"| [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]].  ''Le Séminaire. Livre III. Les [[psychoses]], 1955-56''. Ed. [[Jacques-Alain Miller]]. [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1981 [''The [[Seminar]]. Book III. The Psychoses, 1955-56''. Trans. Russell Grigg. [[London]]: Routledge, 1993].
 +
|}
 +
{| style="width:100%; border:1px solid #aaa;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"
 +
|width="100%"| [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]].  [[Seminar I|Le séminaire, Livre II: Le moi dans la théorie de Freud et dans la technique de la psychanalyse]].  Ed. [[Jacques-Alain Miller]].  Paris: Seuil, 1977.  374 pages, Language: [[French]], ISBN: 2020047276. <small><small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr].</small></small>
 +
|}
 +
-->
 +
[[Category:Seminars]] [[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
 +
__NOTOC__  __NOEDITSECTION__ __NOAUTOLINKS__

Latest revision as of 12:10, 30 June 2019

Seminar II Seminar IV


1956 - 1957 Seminar III Les psychoses
The Psychoses
Sem.III.jpg
Psychosis

Psychosis is one of three clinical structures. The other two are neurosis and perversion. Each structure is distinguished by a different operation: neurosis by the operation of repression, perversion by the operation of disavowal, and psychosis by the operation of foreclosure. By way of foreclosure of the signifier of the Name-of-the-Father it is possible to understand psychosis and distinguish it from neurosis.

Foreclosure

Foreclosure corresponds to Lacan's translation of Verwerfung (repudiaton). The Name-of-the-Father is not integrated in the symbolic order of the psychotic, it is foreclosed: a hole is left in the symbolic chain. In psychosis "the unconscious is present but not functioning." The psychotic structure results from a malfunction of the Oedipus complex, a lack in the paternal function: the paternal function is reduced to the image of the father (the symbolic reduced to the imaginary).

Symbolic Order

Two conditions are required for psychosis to emerge:

  1. the subject has a psychotic structure (inheritance) and
  2. the Name-of-the-Father is called into symbolic opposition to the subject.

When both conditions are fulfilled, psychosis is actualized; the latent psychosis becomes manifest in hallucinations and/or delusions. For Lacan psychosis includes paranoia (Papin sisters), so he bases his arguments on the Schreber case (as related by Freud). He argues that Schreber's psychosis was activated by both his failure to produce a child and his election to an important position in the judiciary. These experiences confronted him with the question of paternity in the real- called the Name-of-the-Father into symbolic opposition with the subject. The Name of the Father is the fundamental signifier which permits signification to proceed normally. It both confers identity on the subject (naming and positioning it within the symbolic order) and signifies the Oedipical prohibition. When foreclosed, it is not included in the symbolic order. Lacan rejects the approach of limiting the analysis of psychosis to the imaginary: "nothing is to be expected from the way psychosis is explored at the level of the imaginary, since the imaginary mechanism is what gives psychotic alienation its form, but not its dynamics." Only by focusing on the symbolic are we able to point to the fundamental determining element of psychosis: the hole in the symbolic order caused by foreclosure and the consequent imprisonment of the psychotic subject in the imaginary. "The importance given to language phenomena in psychosis is for us the most fruitful lesson of all."

Point de Caption

The Saussurian opposition between signifier and signified leads to the radical separation of the two chains, until they are tied through anchoring points, points de caption. These are points at which "signifier and signified are knotted together." Despite the continual slippage of the signified under the signifier, there are nevertheless in the neurotic subject certain points of attachment between signifier and signified where the slippage is temporarily halted. A certain number of these points "are necessary for a person to be called normal" and "when they are not established or when they give way" the result is psychosis. In the psychotic experience "the signifier and the signified present themselves in a completely divided form."

Language

Thus the phenomena most notable in psychosis are disorders of language: the presence of such disorders is a necessary condition for its diagnosis: holophrases and the extensive use of neologisms (new words or already existing ones which the psychotic redefines). These language disorders are due to the psychotic's lack of a sufficient number of anchoring points: the psychotic experience is characterized by a constant slippage of the signifier under the signified, which is a disaster for signification. Later, Lacan will posit that there is a continual "cascade of reshapings of the signifier from which the increasing disaster of the imaginary proceeds, until the level is reached at which signifier and signified are stabilized in the delusional metaphor." Thus "the nucleus of psychosis has to be linked to a rapport between the subject and the signifier in its most formal dimension, in its dimension as pure signifier. If the neurotic inhabits language, the psychotic is inhabited, possessed by language." "On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis" (‘’Écrits: A Selection’’) is a text written in 1958 and contemporary with ‘’Les formations de l'inconscient’’; it is a synthesis of ‘’Les psychoses’’ and focuses mainly on the term foreclosure, ‘’forclusion’’, German ‘’Verwerfung’’. In the Schema L "...the condition of the subject S (neurosis or psychosis) is dependent on what is being unfolded in the Other O. What is being unfolded is articulated like a discourse (the unconscious is the discourse of the Other)."

Lacansem1a.gif

In the Schema R: "...I as the ego-ideal, M as the signifier of the primordial object, and F as the position in O of the Name-of-the-Father. One can see how the homological fastening of the signification of S under the signifier of the phallus may affect the support of the field of reality delimited by the quadrangle MieI. The two other summits, e and i, represent the two imaginary terms of the narcissistic rapport, the ego and the specular image."

Lacansem1a2.gif

This schema articulates the imaginary triad with the symbolic triad, both of which cut the quadrangle of reality. The term 'reality' is ambiguous in that it designates both our rapport to the world and our rapport to the Real as inaccessible. Schema R is elaborated in terms of a particular form of psychosis (Schreber). Later, ‘’Kant avec Sade’’ (1962) will develop the perverse version as Lacan is concerned with creating the formal bases for his theory before addressing the problems of the treatment of psychosis. The preliminary question seems to be the one of the Other, whose presence commands everything else. It is the place from which the subject is confronted with the question of its existence (sexuation and death). What is the Other? Is it the unconscious where "it speaks?" Is it the place of memory that conditions the indestructibility of certain desires? Is it the place where the signifier of signifiers is the phallus? Is it the place symbolized by the Name-of-the-Father since the Oedipus complex is consubstantial with the unconscious? When the paternal metaphor does not allow the subject to evoke the signification of the phallus, when the response to the call of the Name-of-the-Father is a lack of the signifier itself, then it is a case of psychosis. "This applies to the metaphor of the Name-of-the-Father, that is, the metaphor that puts this Name in the place that was first symbolized by the operation of the mother's absence." It designates the metaphorical, substitutive, character of the Oedipus complex.

Lacansem1a3.gif
Lacansem1a4.gif

It is the fundamental metaphor on which all signification depends: thus all signification is phallic. If the Name-of-the-Father is foreclosed (psychosis), there can be no paternal metaphor and no phallic signification.

English

Author(s) Title Publisher Year Pages Language Size Extension Mirrors
Jacques Lacan Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Psychoses, 1955-56 Bk.3 [1 ed.]
0415101832, 9780415101837, 0393034674, 9780393034677
W. W. Norton & Company 1993 350 English 13 Mb pdf 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Jacques Lacan Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Psychoses, 1955-56 Bk.3 [1 ed.]
0415101832, 9780415101837, 0393034674, 9780393034677
W. W. Norton & Company 1993 352

[177]

English 53 Mb pdf 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Lacan, Jacques, Miller, Jacques-Alain The Psychoses Taylor and Francis 1993 352 English 554 Kb epub 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Related

Author(s) Title Publisher Year Pages Language Size Extension Mirrors
Lacan, Jacques; Redmond, Jonathan Ordinary psychosis and the body : a contemporary Lacanian approach
9781137345318, 1137345314
Palgrave Macmillan 2014 175 English 709 Kb pdf 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Jon Mills; David L. Downing Lacan on Psychosis: From Theory to Praxis [Paperback ed.]
1138315427, 9781138315426
Routledge 2018 194

[207]

English 3 Mb pdf 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

French

Download ALL

French versions of Lacan's Seminars Source: http://ecole-lacanienne.net