Necessity of Formalising Psychoanalysis
Prior to the development of the Four Discourses, the primary guideline for clinical psychoanalysis was the Oedipus Complex. In Lacan's Seminar of 1969-70, he discovers a major problem with the Oedipus complex, namely that the father is already castrated at the point of intervention, rendering the orthodox Freudian reading, where the father becomes a terrifying figure, a neurotic fantasy. Lacan's solution to the tendency of analysts to invoke their own imaginary readings and neurotic fantasies was to begin to formalise psychoanalytic theory, and express it in mathematical functions. This would ensure not only that a minimum of the teaching is lost when communicated, but also limit the associations of the analyst with the concepts employed.
Read more about this topic: Four Discourses
Famous quotes containing the words necessity of and/or necessity:
“This, indeed, has always been the fate of the few that have professed scepticism, that, when they have done what they can to discredit their senses, they find themselves, after all, under a necessity of trusting to them. Mr. Hume has been so candid as to acknowledge this; and it is no less true of those who have shewn the same candour; for I never heard that any sceptic runs his head against a post, or stepped into a kennel, because he did not believe his eyes.”
—Thomas Reid (1710–1796)
“Our good schools today are much better than the best schools of yesterday. When I was your age and a pupil in school, our teachers were our enemies.
Can any thing ... be more painful to a friendly mind, than a necessity of communicating disagreeable intelligence? Indeed it is sometimes difficult to determine, whether the relator or the receiver of evil tidings is most to be pitied.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)