According to Élisabeth Roudinesco, the term was originally introduced into psychology 'in 1928, when Édouard Pichon published, in Pierre Janet's review, his article on "The Psychological Significance of Negation in French": "...[and] borrowed the legal term forclusif to indicate facts that the speaker no longer sees as part of reality'.[3]
According to Christophe Laudou, the term was introduced by Damourette and Pichon.[4]
Freud vs Laforgue
The publication took part against the background of the Twenties dispute between Freud and René Laforgue over scotomization. 'If I am not mistaken', Freud wrote in 1927, 'Laforgue would say in this case that the boy "scotomizes" his perception of the woman's lack of a penis. A new technical term is justified when it describes a new fact or emphasizes it. This is not the case here'.[5] Freud went on to suggest that if one wanted to 'reserve the word "Verdrängung" ["repression"] for the affect, then the correct German word for the vicissitude of the idea would be "Verleugnung" ["disavowal"]'.[6]
Lacan's introduction of foreclosure
In 1938 Lacan relates the origin of psychosis to an exclusion of the father from the family structure thereby reducing this structure to a mother-child relationship.[7] Later on, when working on the distinctions between the real, imaginary and symbolic father, he specifies that it is the absence of the symbolic father which is linked to psychosis.
Lacan uses the Freudian term, Verwerfung,[1] which the "Standard Edition" translates as "repudiation",[1] as a specific defence mechanism different from repression, "Verdrängung", in which "the ego rejects the incompatible idea together with its affect and behaves as if the idea has never occurred to the ego at all."[8] In 1954 basing himself on a reading of the "Wolf Man"[9] Lacan identifies Verwerfung as the specific mechanism of psychosis where an element is rejected outside the symbolic order as if it has never existed.[10] In 1956 in his Seminar on Psychoses he translates Verwerfung as forclusion, that is foreclosure.[11] "Let us extract from several of Freud's texts a term that is sufficiently articulated in them to designate in them a function of the unconscious that is distinct from the repressed. Let us take as demonstrated the essence of my Seminar on the Psychoses, namely, that this term refers to psychosis: this term is Verwerfung (foreclosure)".[12]
Lacan and psychosis
The problem Lacan sought to address with the twin tools of foreclosure and the signifier was that of the difference between psychosis and neurosis, as manifested in and indicated by language usage. It was common analytic ground that "when psychotics speak they always have some meanings that are too fixed, and some that are far too loose, they have a different relation to language, and a different way of speaking from neurotics."[13] Freud, following Bleuler and Jung had pointed to 'a number of changes in speech...in schizophrenics...words are subjected to the same process as that which makes the dream'.[14] Lacan used foreclosure to explain why.
When Lacan first uses the Freudian concept of Verwerfung (repudiation) in his search for a specific mechanism for psychosis, it is not clear what is repudiated (castration, speech). In 1957 in his article "On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis"[15] that he advances the notion that it is the Name-of-the-Father (a fundamental signifier) that is the object of foreclosure. In this way Lacan combines two of his main themes on the causality of psychosis: the absence of the father and the concept of Verwerfung. This ideas remains central to Lacan's thinking on psychosis throughout the rest of his work.
Lacan considered the father to play a vital role in breaking the initial mother/child duality and introducing the child to the wider world of culture, language, institutions and social reality — the Symbolic world — the father being "the human being who stands for the law and order that the mother plants in the life of the child...widens the child's view of the world."[16] The result in normal development is "proper separation from the mother, as marked out by the Names-of-the-father."[17] Thus Lacan postulates the existence of a paternal function (the "Name of the Father" or "primordial signifier") which allows the realm of the Symbolic to be bound to the realms of the Imaginary and the Real. This function prevents the developing child from being engulfed by its mother and allows him/her to emerge as a separate entity in his/her own right. It is a symbol of parental authority (a general symbol that represents the power of father of the Oedipus complex) that brings the child into the realm of the Symbolic by forcing him/her to act and to verbalise as an adult. As a result, the three realms are integrated in a way that is conducive to the creation of meaning and successful communication by means of what Lacan calls a Borromean knot.
When the Name-of-the-Father is foreclosed for a particular subject, it leaves a hole in the Symbolic order which can never be filled. The subject can then be said to have a psychotic structure, even if he shows none of the classical signs of psychosis. When the foreclosed Name-of-the-Father re-appears in the Real, the subject is unable to assimilate it and the result of this collision between the subject and the inassimilable signifier of the Name-of-the-father is the entry into psychosis proper characterized by the onset of hallucinations and/or delusions.[18] In other words, when the paternal function is "foreclosed" from the Symbolic order, the realm of the Symbolic is insufficiently bound to the realm of the Imaginary and failures in meaning may occur (the Borromean knot becomes undone and the three realms completely disconnected), with "a disorder caused at the most personal juncture between the subject and his sense of being alive."[19] Psychosis is experienced after some environmental sign in the form of a signifier which the individual cannot assimilate is triggered, and this entails that "the Name-of-the-Father, is foreclosed, verworfen, is called into symbolic opposition to the subject."[19] The fabric of the individual's reality is ripped apart and no meaningful Symbolic sense can be made of experience. "Absence of transcendence of the Oedipus places the subject under the regime of foreclosure or non-distinction between the symbolic and the real';[20] and psychotic delusions or hallucinations are the consequent result of the individual's striving to account for what he/she experiences.
^Estelle Ferrarese. "« À propos de Judith Butler. », Mouvements 6/2004 (no 36), p. 158-164, DOI : 10.3917/mouv.036.0158". Mouvements. 36 (6). doi:10.3917/mouv.036.0158.
^Sigmund Freud, "Fetishism", On Sexuality (PFL 7) p. 352
Lacan, Jacques (1993). The Seminar. Book III. The Psychoses, 1955-56, translated by Russell Grigg, New York Norton.
Fink, Bruce (1997). A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Theory and Technique. HUP. London
Evans, Dylan (1996). Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, London Routledge.
External links
Look up Verwerfung or foreclosure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Lacan Dot Com
The Seminars of Jacques Lacan
January 06, 2023
foreclosure, psychoanalysis, psychoanalysis, foreclosure, also, known, foreclusion, french, forclusion, specific, psychical, cause, psychosis, according, french, psychoanalyst, jacques, lacan, contents, history, freud, laforgue, lacan, introduction, foreclosur. In psychoanalysis foreclosure also known as foreclusion French forclusion 1 is a specific psychical cause for psychosis 2 according to French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan Contents 1 History 1 1 Freud vs Laforgue 2 Lacan s introduction of foreclosure 3 Lacan and psychosis 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External linksHistory EditAccording to Elisabeth Roudinesco the term was originally introduced into psychology in 1928 when Edouard Pichon published in Pierre Janet s review his article on The Psychological Significance of Negation in French and borrowed the legal term forclusif to indicate facts that the speaker no longer sees as part of reality 3 According to Christophe Laudou the term was introduced by Damourette and Pichon 4 Freud vs Laforgue Edit The publication took part against the background of the Twenties dispute between Freud and Rene Laforgue over scotomization If I am not mistaken Freud wrote in 1927 Laforgue would say in this case that the boy scotomizes his perception of the woman s lack of a penis A new technical term is justified when it describes a new fact or emphasizes it This is not the case here 5 Freud went on to suggest that if one wanted to reserve the word Verdrangung repression for the affect then the correct German word for the vicissitude of the idea would be Verleugnung disavowal 6 Lacan s introduction of foreclosure EditIn 1938 Lacan relates the origin of psychosis to an exclusion of the father from the family structure thereby reducing this structure to a mother child relationship 7 Later on when working on the distinctions between the real imaginary and symbolic father he specifies that it is the absence of the symbolic father which is linked to psychosis Lacan uses the Freudian term Verwerfung 1 which the Standard Edition translates as repudiation 1 as a specific defence mechanism different from repression Verdrangung in which the ego rejects the incompatible idea together with its affect and behaves as if the idea has never occurred to the ego at all 8 In 1954 basing himself on a reading of the Wolf Man 9 Lacan identifies Verwerfung as the specific mechanism of psychosis where an element is rejected outside the symbolic order as if it has never existed 10 In 1956 in his Seminar on Psychoses he translates Verwerfung as forclusion that is foreclosure 11 Let us extract from several of Freud s texts a term that is sufficiently articulated in them to designate in them a function of the unconscious that is distinct from the repressed Let us take as demonstrated the essence of my Seminar on the Psychoses namely that this term refers to psychosis this term is Verwerfung foreclosure 12 Lacan and psychosis EditThe problem Lacan sought to address with the twin tools of foreclosure and the signifier was that of the difference between psychosis and neurosis as manifested in and indicated by language usage It was common analytic ground that when psychotics speak they always have some meanings that are too fixed and some that are far too loose they have a different relation to language and a different way of speaking from neurotics 13 Freud following Bleuler and Jung had pointed to a number of changes in speech in schizophrenics words are subjected to the same process as that which makes the dream 14 Lacan used foreclosure to explain why When Lacan first uses the Freudian concept of Verwerfung repudiation in his search for a specific mechanism for psychosis it is not clear what is repudiated castration speech In 1957 in his article On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis 15 that he advances the notion that it is the Name of the Father a fundamental signifier that is the object of foreclosure In this way Lacan combines two of his main themes on the causality of psychosis the absence of the father and the concept of Verwerfung This ideas remains central to Lacan s thinking on psychosis throughout the rest of his work Lacan considered the father to play a vital role in breaking the initial mother child duality and introducing the child to the wider world of culture language institutions and social reality the Symbolic world the father being the human being who stands for the law and order that the mother plants in the life of the child widens the child s view of the world 16 The result in normal development is proper separation from the mother as marked out by the Names of the father 17 Thus Lacan postulates the existence of a paternal function the Name of the Father or primordial signifier which allows the realm of the Symbolic to be bound to the realms of the Imaginary and the Real This function prevents the developing child from being engulfed by its mother and allows him her to emerge as a separate entity in his her own right It is a symbol of parental authority a general symbol that represents the power of father of the Oedipus complex that brings the child into the realm of the Symbolic by forcing him her to act and to verbalise as an adult As a result the three realms are integrated in a way that is conducive to the creation of meaning and successful communication by means of what Lacan calls a Borromean knot When the Name of the Father is foreclosed for a particular subject it leaves a hole in the Symbolic order which can never be filled The subject can then be said to have a psychotic structure even if he shows none of the classical signs of psychosis When the foreclosed Name of the Father re appears in the Real the subject is unable to assimilate it and the result of this collision between the subject and the inassimilable signifier of the Name of the father is the entry into psychosis proper characterized by the onset of hallucinations and or delusions 18 In other words when the paternal function is foreclosed from the Symbolic order the realm of the Symbolic is insufficiently bound to the realm of the Imaginary and failures in meaning may occur the Borromean knot becomes undone and the three realms completely disconnected with a disorder caused at the most personal juncture between the subject and his sense of being alive 19 Psychosis is experienced after some environmental sign in the form of a signifier which the individual cannot assimilate is triggered and this entails that the Name of the Father is foreclosed verworfen is called into symbolic opposition to the subject 19 The fabric of the individual s reality is ripped apart and no meaningful Symbolic sense can be made of experience Absence of transcendence of the Oedipus places the subject under the regime of foreclosure or non distinction between the symbolic and the real 20 and psychotic delusions or hallucinations are the consequent result of the individual s striving to account for what he she experiences References Edit a b c Laplanche Jean Pontalis Jean Bertrand 2018 1973 Foreclosure Repudiation The Language of Psychoanalysis Abingdon on Thames Routledge ISBN 978 0 429 92124 7 Dylan Evans Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis Routledge 1996 p 65 Roudinesco p 282 Estelle Ferrarese A propos de Judith Butler Mouvements 6 2004 no 36 p 158 164 DOI 10 3917 mouv 036 0158 Mouvements 36 6 doi 10 3917 mouv 036 0158 Sigmund Freud Fetishism On Sexuality PFL 7 p 352 Freud Fetishism pp 352 3 Jacques Lacan Les complexes familiaux dans la formation de l individu Paris Navarin 1983 Freud the Neuro Psychoses of Defence SE III Freud From the History of an Infantile Neurosis SE XVII Lacan Ecrits Reply to Jean Hyppolite s commentary on Freud s Negation Lacan The Seminar Book III The Psychoses 1955 56 trans Russell Grigg New York Norton 1993 Jacques Lacan Ecrits A Selection London 1997 p 200 Philip Hill Lacan for Beginners London 1997 pp 113 and 122 Sigmund Freud On Metapsychology PFL 11 pp 202 4 Jacques Lacan Ecrits A Selection New York Norton 1977 D W Winnicott The Child the Family and the Outside World Penguin 1973 pp 115 6 Hill p 122 Lacan Seminar III ibid a b Lacan Ecrits ibid Anika Lemaire Jacques Lacan 1979 p 246Further reading EditLacan Jacques 1993 The Seminar Book III The Psychoses 1955 56 translated by Russell Grigg New York Norton Fink Bruce 1997 A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis Theory and Technique HUP London Evans Dylan 1996 Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis London Routledge External links Edit Look up Verwerfung or foreclosure in Wiktionary the free dictionary Lacan Dot Com The Seminars of Jacques Lacan Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Foreclosure psychoanalysis amp oldid 1114894021, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
