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“Here we call law that which is properly articulated at the level of the signifier, in other words, the text of the law. It is not the same thing to say that a person must be there to support the authenticity of the word, as to say that there is something that authorizes the text of the law. … This is what I call the Name-of-the-Father, that is to say, the symbolic father.”
A consultation regarding a female in-patient is requested by the Department of Medicine. Her psoriasis stretches from head to toe; her body is a red, bare heap of flesh that she hides beneath the sheets. But there is not a trace of anguish. I sit next to her, and she receives me indifferently rather than calmly. She already knew I was going to interview her. The person who requested the consultation was her own father, a physician in the same hospital. I knew very little of her up to that moment: she is separated, has four children, lives with them and with her mother, and does not work. She has never requested any psychological help; there have been no attempts at treatment. Besides, everything's fine. Shutters closed, impossible to go forward.
A little later I try once more. Even worse: there is no outright refusal, but she says that she is shivering and needs to cover herself with even more blankets (it was an exceedingly hot day). The staff notes that the only one who occasionally visits her is her father. I telephone him and we arrange a time to meet.