Abstract

ARAGAO E RAMIREZ, Heloísa Helena. On the paternal metaphor and the foreclosure of the name-of-the-father: an introduction. Mental [online]. 2004, vol.2, n.3, pp. 89-105. ISSN 1679-4427.

This study aims at presenting a preliminary reading of the lacanian concepts of paternal metaphor and foreclosure of the name-of-the-father. Lacan believes the Edipus complex is the minimum signifier armor allowing the subject to enter in the symbolic world. Since it is symbolical, the paternal function may operate as a metaphor. Thus, the name-of-the-father replaces the phallus as the object of the mother's desire. When producing the name-of-the-father, children will be metaphorically naming the fundamental object of their desire, even though they know it since the original signifier was repressed. Nevertheless, this process is subject to flaws in the symbolical structure, which imply the foreclosure of the name-of-the-father. Such accidents have an impact on the imaginary structure, which they dissolve and turn into an elementary structure, provoking the paradigmatic, imaginary deconstruction of psychoses.

Keywords : Paternal metaphor; Name-of-the-father; Foreclosure.

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