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"[[father]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[père]]'')
From very early on in his [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]], [[Lacan]] lays great importance on the role of the [[father]] in [[psychic structure]].
In hi 1938 article on the family, he attributes the importance of the [[Oedipus complex]] to the fact that it combines in the figure of the [[father]] two almost conflicting functions: the protective function and the prohibitive function.
He also points to the contemporary social decline in the paternal [[imago]] as the [[cause]] of current psychopathological peculiarities.<ref>Lacan. 1938. p.73.</ref>
The father continues to be a constant theme of [[Lacan]]'s work thereafter.
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[[Lacan]]'s emphasis on the imporance of the [[father]] can be seen as a reaction against the tendency of [[Kleinian psychoanalysis]] and [[object-relations theory]] to place the [[mother]]-[[child]] [[dual relation|relation]] at the heart of [[psychoanalytic theory]].
The [[father]] is thus more than a mere rival with whom the [[subject]] competes for for the [[mother]]'s [[love]]; he is the representative of the social ordeer as such, and only by identifying with the [[father]] in the [[Oedipus complex]] can the [[subject]] gain entry into this order.
The [[absence]] of the [[father]] is therefore an important factor in the aetiology of all psychopathological [[structures]]. --
[[Lacan]] argues that the question "What is a father?" forms the central theme which runs throughout [[Freud]]'s entire work.<ref>{{S4}} p.204-5</ref>
