ANti LaW?The [[notion]] of transgression entered [[psychoanalysis]] only gradually. In fact, the [[word]] already had a well-established [[meaning]] in ethnology, a [[science]] from which Sigmund [[Freud]] drew inspiration. Its definition was to some extent a [[negative]] one, in opposition to taboo (a term that was itself borrowed from the Polynesian [[language]]), [[prohibition]], and law. Transgression is anything that involves the contravention of [[explicit]] or implicit rules, both in the course of the [[treatment]] and in conflictual [[unconscious]] functioning, not to mention within the [[psychoanalytic]] [[process]] itself. Thus, [[real]] and fantasized transgression is at the heart of all [[psychological]] mechanisms, as the result, or source, of a [[conflict]]. We also [[encounter]] it, during a [[psychoanalytic treatment]], in everything that goes against the framework imposed by the [[fundamental rule]]. But it is also found, and this [[time]] positively, in the [[wish]] of Freud and [[other]] [[psychoanalysts]] to get to the bottom of secrets that seem to be [[self]]-evident. This is what [[drives]] all [[scientific]] research—the longing to [[understand]] and [[master]] the laws of [[human]] functioning, especially when they are obscure. Thus it is difficult to date the first [[appearance]] of the notion, because only a posteriori can its implicit [[presence]] can be discerned in Freud's first writings and in his wish to become an extraordinary hero. As early as The [[Interpretation]] of [[Dreams]] (1900a, ch. 3), the [[idea]] of transgression is contrasted with that of an [[unsatisfied]] [[desire]] able to reach [[satisfaction]] in spite of everything that might restrain and [[prohibit]] it, via the detour of the [[dream]]. Like sociologists, psychoanalysts find that every law is accompanied by criminal infractions of that law—infractions which the law highlights and describes. Like ethnologists, psychoanalysts also find that the strictest laws are always accompanied by [[rituals]]. It was perfectly [[natural]] that, in a [[dialectical]] movement, the interest shown in everything that can prevent a desire from [[being]] fulfilled—and in [[particular]] the formalized, absolute, and non-negotiable limits represented by laws and taboos—should shift to what can corrupt [[them]], deviate them, or violate them, in other [[words]], to the mechanisms of transgression. It is obvious that, given our [[need]] for an [[order]] in which [[ethics]] would have its proper [[place]], transgression should at first have been experienced and presented in its negative or pathological aspects—even though Freud insisted [[right]] from the start on the inescapable complementarity of desire and law, of law and transgression. [[Clinical]] discussions of [[perversion]], as a pathological manifestation or as a [[neurotic]] outlet, all turn on the [[moral]] status of transgression, just as the current socio-[[cultural]] malaise gets to be played out in various disciplines, including within the [[psychoanalytical]] [[community]], with the focus on [[ethical]] debates. The conflictual [[model]] that lies at the basis of psychoanalytical [[thought]] can be observed from different points of view. One can focus on the place, whether this be the unconscious [[scene]], the framework of the psychoanalytical [[session]], or the huge wealth of psychoanalytical [[theory]]. One can focus on the model of [[representation]] chosen, essentially the [[oedipal]] model or that of the [[father]]'s [[murder]]. Or one can focus on a given level—on the oscillation between the [[individual]] intrapsychic level and the more or less specific collective level that makes the performance of [[forbidden]] actions possible within certain defined areas, of which carnivel is one example. [[Myths]] have the same [[role]] as dreams with [[regard]] to [[internal]] prohibitive laws. "The legend of [[Oedipus]] sprang from some primaeval dream-[[material]]" (1900a, p. 263). Finally, we can focus on the model of functioning chosen: [[pleasure]] [[principle]] against [[reality]] principle, [[life]] [[instinct]] against [[death]] [[drive]], or the relative potency of the [[superego]]. Transgression can be found everywhere in the milieu of the unconscious. Psychological functioning is based on the way conflicts between different [[agencies]] are dealt with. One's [[character]] is formed by rules of [[behavior]] that are based on authorizations and prohibitions. Over the course of each individual's evolution, certain critical moments or moments of transition favor the temptation of transgression. These are the critical periods of one's [[development]]; at these [[times]], evolution is rapid, and behavior is particularly [[active]]. During early [[childhood]], the [[anal]] period, the "age of no," is a [[stage]] at which the [[child]] is forever defying parental law. During adolescence, or more precisely at certain moments during the slow evolution of adolescence, the [[sense]] of expansion, of new [[power]], and the desire for discovery, can lead to provocative behavior and the deliberate violation of moral and [[social]] rules. During every session of psychoanalysis, a conflict is set up and staged between the law of [[repression]] on one hand, armed with the [[patient]]'s [[resistances]] and defenses and the law of [[silence]] which they entail, and on the other the desire shared by the [[psychoanalyst]] and the patient to break through that law. Thus the internal conflict is projected and embodied in the transferential relation. It can be said that all psychoanalytical [[thinking]] is built on a [[transgressive]] [[epistemological]] curiosity. Psychoanalysis as a scientific corpus comes up against the laws of inner repression, but also against the [[universal]] or western [[ethic]] of [[sexual]] repression, the [[rejection]] of [[aggressive]] desires and, finally, the norms of a rudimentary and reductive scientific [[logic]]. The oedipal model is the summit of psychoanalytic [[construction]]. The child's violent desire for the parent of the opposite sex implies the aggressive wish to take the place of the parent of the same sex. This wish is in its turn strongly [[repressed]], due to the [[love]] and [[fear]] felt by the child for this same parent. To get beyond this conflict requires a means of transgressing the [[dual]] prohibition of [[incest]] and rejection. The aggressive [[violence]] repressed at the time of the oedipal conflict doubtless has an earlier and more archaic origin: it comes from the wish for the father's murder by the [[horde]] of brothers, a wish that aims at possessing, interiorizing, and questioning authoritarian paternal powers, however vague and [[imaginary]] they may be. It goes without saying that the manifestations of transgression in the psychoanalytical sense essentially lie on the individual and intrapsychic level. But Freud saw how important this sector of the [[structural]] conflict of human thought is for collective phenomena. From [[Totem]] and Taboo (1912-13a) to The [[Future]] of an [[Illusion]] (1927c) or [[Civilization]] and Its Discontents (1930a [1929]), he shows that there is a constant oscillation between repressive cultural forces and "the dangerous attribute [. . .] the quality of exciting men's [[ambivalence]] and tempting them to [[transgress]] the prohibition" (1912-13a, p. 32). The more authoritarian [[society]] is, the more organized repression impels one to interiorize transgressive yearnings—and Freud remarks that so-called [[primitive]] societies make more room for transgressive possibilities, even when these might [[affect]] an apparently immutable order, if necessary by organizing festivals at which [[people]] can shed their inhibitions. If the [[pleasure principle]] leads to the (potentially repeated) satisfaction of desires, the [[reality principle]] opposes it as an obstacle on the path to these satisfactions. From this conflict between the two [[structures]] is [[born]] a sense of unease: unsatisfied desires seek an outlet. This may be found in dreams, of course, and transgression is there a sort of compromise; these desires may also try to realize themselves to a greater or lesser degree in criminal and [[perverse]] acts—at the cost of incurring [[guilt]]. In one way, there is transgression whenever there is a [[refusal]] to compromise. The idea of conquering reality is a dream of omnipotence which can degenerate into delirium, this in turn explains both the fanatical dedication of scientists and the [[fascination]] for taboos. The same [[duality]] (the same intrapsychic duality) is found in the opposition proposed by some theorists between the life [[instincts]] and the [[death drive]]. Conflict shifts from the need to fulfill desires when faced with obstacles to the need to fulfill contradictory objectives. Ambivalence rules. These two approaches, however, are still dualistic, and they describe a conflict against an [[authority]] such that, whatever the result, a [[sense of guilt]] is generated. "Thus we [[know]] of two origins of the sense of guilt: one arising from fear of an authority, and the other, later on, arising from fear of the superego" (1930a, p. 127), wrote Freud. In fact, it is with the advent of the superego that the problem of transgression reaches its apogee, even if it was perceptible beforehand. As Freud put it, "[[Conscience]] is the internal [[perception]] of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us" (1912-13a, p. 68). Forbidden desires are at the center of neurotic patterns of behavior, and the prohibitions against these are all the stronger as they are more powerfully interiorized, inter alia under the influence of [[culture]], and bolstered by [[family]] habits and rules. Whether limits to the emergence of desires impose themselves subtly (as taboos) or whether they are explicit and socially recognized, transgression or the temptation to transgress are part and parcel of the same trend, against which the superego takes shape as an inner law. To see the [[truth]] of this, one [[needs]] only to [[recall]] that the rules of taboos always anticipate a [[punishment]] for transgression, and thus anticipate the transgression itself. Much has been said [[about]] the [[revolution]] in thought which led to, or accompanied, psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has also been associated—either to support it or to denigrate it—with the so-called sexual revolution, which enabled people to [[think]] and say things that, until that period, had been kept in silence or suppressed. [[Another]] revolution, less spectacular but just as important, lay in accepting and even giving a positive evaluation to drives that had hitherto been considered as sins, pathological [[symptoms]], or antisocial types of behavior: violence, [[aggression]], and the [[whole]] [[list]] of transgressions that go with them. This revolution questions, through the unconscious forces it reveals, the ethical norms of the majority in any given society. Transgression is no longer a residue or a deplorable side effect of psychological functioning. It is an inescapable part of it and, what is more, by favoring inventiveness and complexity of thought, it becomes something positive. ==See Also==* [[Megalomania]]* [[Moral masochism]]* [[Neurosis]]* [[]]* [[Primitive horde]]* [[Taboo]]* [["'Uncanny,' The"]] ==References==<references/># [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1900a). The [[interpretation of dreams]]. Part I, SE, 4: 1-338]]* [[Part II, SE, 5: 339-625.# ——. (1912-13a). Totem and taboo. SE, 13: 1-161.# ——. (1927c). The future of an illusion. SE, 21: 1-56.# ——. (1930a [1929]). Civilization and its discontents. SE, 21: 57-145. [[Category:New]] [[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Terms]][[Category:Concepts]][[Category:Sigmund Freud]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
