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This [[psychotic]] disassociation may sometimes however be avoided by a [[sinthome|symptomatic formation]] which acts as a fourth ring holding the other three together.
===Psychosis and the Classical Method of Psychoanalytic Treament===
[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]] in arguing that -- while [[psychosis]] is of great interest for [[psychoanalytic theory]] -- it is outside the field of the classical method of [[psychoanalytic treatment]], which is only appropriate for [[neurosis]].
Only when the [[analyst]] is reasonably sure that the [[patient]] is not [[psychotic]] will the [[patient]] be asked to lie down on the couch and [[free association|free associate]].
===Psychosis and the Lacanian Method of Psychoanalytic Treament===
This does not mean that [[Lacan]]ian [[analyst]]s do not work with [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s.
On the contrary, much work has been done by [[Lacanian]] [[analyst]]s in the [[treatment]] of [[psychosis]].
However, the method of [[treatment]] differs substantially from that used with [[neurotic]] and [[perverse]] [[patient]]s.
[[Lacan]] himself works with [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s but left very few comments on the technique he employed; rather than setting out a technical procedure for working with [[psychosis]], he limited himself to discussing the questions preliminary to any such work.<ref>{{L}} p.1957-8b</ref>
===Psychosis and the Imaginary===
Lacan rejects the approach of those who limit their analysis of psychosis to the imaginary order; "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."<ref>{{S3}} p.146</ref>
It is only by focusing on the symbolic order that Lacan is able to point to the fundamental determining element of psychosis, namely ,the hole in the symbolic order caused by foreclosure and the consequent "imprisonment" of the psychotic subject in the imaginary.
It is also this emphasis on the symbolic order which leads Lacan to value above all the linguistic phenomena in [[psychosis]]: "the importance given to language phenomena in psychosis is for us the msot fruitful lesson of all."<ref>{{S3}} p.144</ref>
