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==Jacques Lacan==
===Role in the Oedipus ComplexHistory===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 metaphor|paternal]] [[imago]] as the [[cause]] of current [[treatment|psychopathological ]] peculiarities.<ref>{{1938}} p.73.</ref> The [[father]] continues to be a constant theme of [[Lacan]]'s work thereafter.
===Father as Third Term===
[[Lacan]]'s emphasis on the importance 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]]. In opposition to this tendency, [[Lacan]] continually stresses the role of the [[father]] as a third term who, by mediating the [[imaginary]] [[dual relation]] between the [[mother]] and the [[child]], saves the [[child]] from [[psychosis]] and makes possible an entry into [[social ]] [[existence]]. 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 order 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 [[treatment|psychopathological ]] [[structures]].
===Symbolic, Imaginary and Real===
However, the [[father]] is not a simple concept but a complex one, one which begs the question of what exactly is meant by the term "[[father]]." [[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>
It is in order to answer this question that, from 1953 on, [[Lacan]] stresses the importance of distinguishing between the [[symbolic]] [[father]], the [[imaginary]] [[father]] and the [[real]] [[father]].
<!-- [[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> -->
==The Symbolic Father==
<blockquote>"The true function of the Father... is fundamentally to unite (and not to set in opposition) a desire and the Law."<ref>{{E}} p.321</ref></blockquote>
<!-- Although the [[symbolic]] [[father]] is not an actual [[subject]] but a position in the [[symbolic order]], a [[subject]] may nevertheless come to occupy this position, by virtue of exercising the [[paternal function]]. Nobody can ever occupy this position completely.<ref>{{S4}} p.205, 210, 219</ref> However, the [[symbolic]] [[father]] does not usually intervene by virtue of someone incarnating this function, but in a veiled fashion, for example by being mediated by the discourse of the [[mother]]. -->
==The Imaginary Father==
[[Psychosis]] and [[perversion]] both involve, in different ways, a reduction of the [[father|symbolic father]] to the [[father|imaginary father]].
==The Real Father==
===Agent of Castration===
While [[Lacan]] is quite clear in defining what he means by the [[father|imaginary father]] and the [[father|symbolic father]], his remarks on the [[father|real father]] are quite obscure.<ref>{{S4}} p.220</ref> [[Lacan]]'s only unequivocal formulation is that the [[father|real father]] is the agent of [[castration]], the one who performs the operation of [[symbolic]] [[castration]].<ref>{{S17}} p.149; </ref><ref> {{S7}} p.307</ref> <!-- ===Biological Father===Apart from this, [[Lacan]] gives few other clues about what he means by the phrase. In 1960, he describes the [[father|real father]] as the one who 'effectively occupies' the [[mother]], the "Great Fucker",<ref>{{S7}} p.307</ref> and even goes on to say, in 1970, that the [[father|real father]] is the spermatozoon, though he immediately qualifies this statement with the remark that nobody has ever thought of himself as the son of a spermatozoon.<ref>{{S17}} p.148</ref> On the basis of these comments, it seems possible to argue that the [[father|real father]] is the [[biological]] [[father]] of the [[subject]]. However, since a degree of uncertainty always surrounds the question of who the [[biological]] [[father]] really is ('"pater semper incertus est", while the [[mother]] is "certissima"'; <ref>{{F}} 1909c. [[SE]] IX, 239<ref> it would be more precise to say that the [[subject|real father]] is the man who is said to be the [[subject]]'s [[biological]] [[father]]. The [[father|real father]] is thus an effect of [[language]], and it is in this sense that the adjective [[real]] is to be understood here: the [[real]] of [[language]], rather than the [[real]] of [[biology]].<ref>{{S17}} p.147-8</ref> -->
===Intervention in the Oedipus Complex===
The [[father|real father]] plays a crucial role in the [[Oedipus complex]]; it is he who intervenes in the third 'time' of the [[Oedipus complex]] as the one who [[castrate]]s the child (see [[castration complex]]). This intervention saves the child from the preceding [[anxiety]]; without it, the child requires a [[phobia|phobic]] [[object]] as a [[symbolic]] substitute for the [[absent]] [[father|real father]]. The intervention of the [[father|real father]] as agent of [[castration]] is not simply equivalent to his physical presence in the family. As the case of [[Little Hans]] indicates,<ref>{{F}} 1909c. [[SE]] IX, 239<ref> the [[father|real father]] may be physically present and yet fail to intervene as agent of [[castration]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 212, 221</ref>
<!-- The intervention of the [[father|real father]] as agent of [[castration]] is not simply equivalent to his physical presence in the [[family]]. As the case of [[Little Hans]] indicates,<ref>{{F}} 1909c. [[SE]] IX, 239<ref> the [[father|real father]] may be physically present and yet fail to intervene as agent of [[castration]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 212, 221</ref> Conversely, the intervention of the [[father|real father]] may well be felt by the [[child ]] even when the [[father]] is physically [[absent]].-->
==See Also==
* [[Castration complex]]
* [[Dual relation]]
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* [[Foreclosure]]
* [[Name-of-the-Father]]
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* [[Phallus]]
* [[Superego]]
{{Also}}
==References==
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