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[[biology]] (''[[biologie]]'')
==Biological Reduction==
[[Lacan]] opposed [[biological reductionism, that is, the application of [[biological]] (or ethological/[[psychological]]) concepts (such as [[adaptation]], [[biological]] explanations of [[human]] [[behavior]]) to [[psychoanalysis]].
[[Lacan]] rejects any attempt to explain [[psychic]] phenomena in terms of crude [[biological]] [[determinism]].
[[Lacan]] draws distinctions between [[need]] and [[desire]], [[drives]] and [[instinct]]s.
[[Lacan]] stresses the primacy of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] in [[human]] [[existence]].
==Penis and Phallus==
[[Freud]] conceives of the [[castration complex]] and [[sexual difference]] in terms of the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[penis]].
[[Lacan]] reformulates the [[castration complex]] and [[sexual difference]] in non-[[biological]], non-[[anatomical]] terms (the [[presence]] and [[absence]] of the [[phallus]]).
[[Lacan]] conceives of the [[phallus]] as a [[signifier]] rather than as a [[bodily]] [[organ]].
Many [[:category:feminist theory|Feminist]] theories have drawn from [[Lacan]] in constructing a [[essentialism|non-essentialist]] account of gendered [[subjectivity]].
==Culturalism==
[[Lacan]] also rejects the [[culturalist]] position which ignores the relevance of [[biology]].
[[Lacan]] is in favor of attempts to discern the precise way in which [[biology]] has an impact on the [[psychic]] field.<ref>{{Ec}} p.723</ref>
[[Lacan]], like [[Freud]], uses concepts borrowed from [[biology]], and then reworks them in an entirely [[symbolic]] framework.
Thus in his account of [[sexual difference]], [[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]]'s rejection of the false dichotomy between "anatomy or convention."<ref>Freud, 1933a: SE XXII, 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.
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==Freud and Biology==
