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It should be mentioned that on two occasions Lacan made Freud's use of the term frustration unnecessarily problematic. He asserted that it was of marginal importance in Freud's thought, whereas in fact it is central to his thought and Lacan himself deploys it as such (1994 [1956-1957]). Ten years later, far from correcting this viewpoint, he went so far as to assert that there was not the slightest trace of the term frustration to be found in Freud's works (1966). Lacan's persistent slip suggests that the expansion of the concept of frustration in psychoanalysis is the result of a misunderstanding or a translation error not only among German and English and the romance languages but above all between psychoanalysis and psychology, which at the time essentially based its observations, experiments, and theories on the conflict between frustration and gratification.
==More==
[[Frustration]] is generally understood as the [[act]] whereby the [[mother]] denies the [[child]] the [[object]] which would [[satisfy]] its [[biological]] [[need]]s.
[[Freud]] attributes to [[frustration]] an important place in the aetiology of [[symptom]]s, stating that "it was a ''[[frustration]]'' that made the [[patient]] ill."<ref>Freud. 1919a. SE XVII. p.162</ref>
LACAN AND FRUSTRATION
[[Lacan]] classifies [[frustration]] as one of three types of "[[lack]] of [[object]]," distinct from both [[castration]] and [[privation]].
[[Lacan]] argues that [[frustration]] is at the heart of the [[dual relation]] between the [[mother]] ad [[child]].<ref>{{S4}} p.66</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that [[frustration]] does not concern [[biological]] [[need]]s but the [[demand]] for [[love]].
The function of an [[object]] (to [[satisfy]] a [[need]], such as hunger) (e.g. a [[breast]]) is soon completely overshadowed by its [[symbolic]] function, namely, the fact that it functions as a [[symbol]] of the [[mother]]'s [[love]].<ref>{{S4}} p.180-2</ref>
The [[object]] is thus valued more for being a [[symbolic]] [[gift]] than for its capacity to [[satisfy]] a [[need]].
As a [[gift]], it is inscribed in the [[symbolic[[[ [[network]] of [[law]]s which regulate the circulate of exchanges, and thus seen as something to which the [[subject]] has a legitimate claim.<ref>{{S4}} p.101</ref>
[[Frustration]], properly speaking, can only occur in the context of this legal order, and thus whne the [[object]] which the [[infant]] [[demand]]s is not provided, one can only speak of [[frustration]] when the [[infant]] senses that it has been wronged.<ref>{{S4}} p.101</ref>
In such a case, when the [[object]] is eventually provided, the sense of wrong persists in the [[child]], who then consoles himself for this by [[enjoying]] the sensations which follow the [[satisfaction]] of the original [[need]].
(Thus, far from [[frustration]] involving the failure to [[satisfy]] a [[biological]] [[need]], it often involves precisely the opposite; a [[biological]] [[need]] is [[satisfied]] as a vain attempt to compensate for the true [[frustration]], which is the refusal of [[love]].)
FRUSTRATION AND PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT
[[Frustration]] plays an important role in [[psychoanalytic treatment]].
[[Freud]] noted that, to the extent that distressing [[symptom]]s disappear as the [[treatment]] [[progress]]es, the [[patient]]'s motivation to continue the [[treatment]] tends to diminish accordingly.
In order, therefore, to avoid the risk of the [[patient]] losing motivation altogether and breaking off the [[treatment]] prematurely, [[Freud]] recommended that the [[analyst]] must "re-instate [the [[patient]]'s [[suffering]]] elsewhere in the form of some appreciable [[privation]]."<ref>Freud. 1919a. SE XVI. p.163</ref>
==See Also==
