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[[biology]] (''[[{{Topp}}biologie]]'') {{Bottom}}

==Sigmund Freud and Biology==[[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|work]] is [[full]] of references to [[biology]]. [[Freud]] regarded [[biology]] as a [[model]] of [[scientific]] rigor on which to base the new [[science]] of [[psychoanalysis]].

==Jacques Lacan==[[FreudLacan]]'s work , however, is full strongly opposed to any attempt to [[construct]] [[psychoanalysis]] upon a [[biology|biological model]], arguing that the direct application of references [[biological]] (or [[nature|ethological]]/[[psychology|psychological]]) [[:category:concepts|concepts]] (such as [[adaptation]]) to [[biologypsychoanalysis]] will inevitably be misleading and will obliterate the essential [[distinction]] between [[nature]] and [[culture]].

Such [[Freudbiology|biologizing explanations]] of [[human|human behavior]] ignore, according to [[Lacan]] regarded , the ''primacy'' of the [[biologysymbolic order]] in [[human]] [[existence]] as a . [[scientificLacan]]sees this "[[biology|biologism] model on which to base ]" in the new [[sciencework]] of those [[psychoanalyst]]s who have confused [[desire]] with [[need]], and [[psychoanalysisdrives]]with [[instinct]]s, [[:category:concepts|concepts]] which he insists on distinguishing.

===History===These arguments are evident from the very earliest of [[Lacan]]'s [[psychoanalytic]] [[Works of Jacques Lacan|writings]]. In his [[{{Y}}|1938]] [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]] on the [[family]], for example, he rejects any attempt to explain [[Biologyfamily]] was at [[structure]]s on the basis of purely [[science|biological data]], and argues that time a model of [[scientifichuman]] [[psychology]] is regulated by [[complex]]es rather than by [[instinct]] rigour in generals.<ref>{{1938}} pp. 23-4</ref>

====Science====[[Lacan]] expresses argues that his point with [[refusal]] of [[science|biological reductionism]] is not a ''[[contradiction]]'' of [[Freud]] but a ''[[return]]'' to the [[essence]] of [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]].When [[paradoxFreud]]: "Freudian used [[biology has nothing to do with |biological models]], he did so because [[biology]] was at that [[time]] a model of [[science|scientific rigor]] in general, and because the [[science|conjectural science]]s had not then achieved the same degree of rigor."<ref>{{S2}} p.75</ref>

[[Freud]] certainly did not confuse [[psychoanalysis]] with [[biology]] or any [[other]] exact [[science]], and when he borrowed [[:category:concepts|concepts ]] from [[biology]] (such as the [[:category:concepts|concept ]] of the [[drive]]) but he reworked [[them ]] in such a radical way that they become totally new [[:category:concepts|concepts]]. For example, the [[:category:concepts|concept]] of the [[death instinct]] "is not a question of biology."<ref>{{E}} p. 102</ref> [[Lacan]] expresses this point with a [[paradox]]:<blockquote>"[[Freudian]] biology has [[nothing]] to do with biology."<ref>{{S2}} p. 75</ref></blockquote>

=====Phallus=====[[Lacan]], like [[Freud]], uses [[:category:concepts|concepts ]] borrowed from [[biology]](i.e. [[imago]], dehiscence), and then reworks them in an entirely [[symbolic]] framework. Perhaps the most significant example of this is [[Lacan]]'s [[concept]] of the [[phallus]], which he conceives as a [[signifier]] and not as a [[body|bodily organ]]. Thus while [[Freud]] conceives of the [[castration complex]] and [[sexual difference]] in [[terms]] of the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[penis]], [[Lacan]] theorizes them in [[biology|non-biological]], [[biology|non-anatomical]] terms -- the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phallus]]. This has been one of the main attractions of [[Lacan]]ian [[theory]] for certain [[feminist]] writers who have seen it as a way of constructing a [[biology|non-essentialist]] account of gendered [[subjectivity]].

For example, the concept of the [[death instinct]] "is not a question of biology."<ref>{{E}} p.102</ref>  ==Biological Reduction===Culture=====However, while [[Lacan]] consistently rejects all forms of [[science|biological]] reductionism. [[Lacan]] opposed the application of [[biological]] (or ethological/[[psychological]]) concepts (such as [[adaptation]], [[biological]] explanations of [[human]] [[behavior]]) to [[psychoanalysis]]. [[Lacan]] rejects the reduction of psychic phenomena to crude biological determination. [[Lacan]] he also rejects any attempt to explain psychic phenomena on the basis of purely [[biological]] data. [[Lacan]] draws distinctions between [[need]] and [[desire]], [[drives]] and [[instinct]]s. [[Lacan]] stresses the distinction between [[nature]] and [[:category:culture|cultureculturalist]].  [[Lacanposition]] stresses which completely ignores the primacy relevance of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] in [[human]] [[existencebiology]].  ==Penis and Phallus== If "[[Freudbiology|biologizing]] conceives of the " is [[castration complexunderstood]] and [[sexual difference]] in terms of correctly (that is, not as the [[presence]] and [[absence]] reduction of the [[penispsychic]]. phenomena to crude [[Lacanbiology|biological determination]] reformulates , but as discerning the [[castration complex]] and [[sexual difference]] precise way in non-which biological, non-anatomical terms (data impact on the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phalluspsychical]]field). , then [[Lacan]] conceives is all in favor of the [[phallus]] as a [[signifier]] rather than as a [[bodily]] [[organbiology|biologizing thought]]. Many <ref>{{Ec}} p. 723</ref> The clearest examples of this are [[:category:feminist theory|FeministLacan]] theories have drawn 's appeals to examples from [[Lacananimal]] in constructing a [[essentialismnature|non-essentialistethology]] account of gendered [[subjectivity]]. ==Culturalism== [[Lacan]] also rejects to demonstrate the [[culturalistpower]] position which ignores the relevance of [[biologyimage]]. [[Lacan]] is in favor of attempts s to discern the precise way in which [[biology]] has an impact on the [[psychic]] field.<ref>{{Ec}} p.723</ref> act as releasing mechanisms; hence [[Lacan]]'s refers references to pigeons and locusts in his account of the [[mirror stage]],<ref>{{E}} p.3</ref>, and to crustaceans in his account of [[mimicry]].<ref>{{S11}} p.99</ref>  Thus in his account of [[sexual difference]], [[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]]'s [[rejection ]] of the [[false ]] dichotomy between "anatomy or convention"."<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis]]'', 1933a: [[SE ]] XXII, 1933a. p. 114</ref>  [[Lacan]]'s concern is not to privilege either term but to show how both interact in complex ways in the process of assuming a sexual position.

* [[NatureSexual difference]]{{Also}}

[[Category:Terms]]{{OK}}[[Category:ConceptsFreudian psychology]]