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PCAS 4(2):299-306 (1999)

A Triadic Drama Beyond the Family: Freudian Metapsychology in Light of Lacan's Object a

Author: Adrian Johnston

Introduction

The Oedipus complex … is one of sublimation, which designates precisely an identificatory reshaping of the subject.
(Lacan, Ecrits 22)

You have, on one side, the theory of the Oedipus complex and, on the other side, you have the theory of metapsychology. On the one side we speak of Oedipus, the complex of Oedipus, the complex of castration. There we speak of the mother, the father and the child. We speak of the mother as primary object and the father as interdiction. There we speak of castration. On the other side, we speak of the psychic structure of function. We speak of thought, reality, pleasure. And those two parts remain fairly separate. What I saw … is that what Lacan has done—and we must realize what he has done is based very precisely on Freud—is to realize a unification of analytic theory which as such is the basis of psychoanalytic thinking.
(Miller 44-5)

The majority of criticisms leveled against the Freudian Oedipus complex derive both their strength and their often high degree of moral indignation from this complex's apparent grounding in historically contingent, gender-determined, and biologically tinged factors. Freud seems to be saying that a female mother and a male father are necessary presences for the generation of a properly human psychical organization. Such a simplistic conception of individual development, if Freud is truly being this straightforward, is obviously open to criticisms to the extent that the nuclear family is a relatively recent historical phenomenon specific to certain societies.

What's more, at this level of initial impressions, the mother is implicitly denigrated as smothering, anti-social, and the potential inculcator of psychosis. The father is raised to the position of being the agency of rationality, normalization, and socialization. Whether it's as a result of his own overall portrayal of this analytic concept or of the unfolding interpretive receptions and adaptations of it by his readers, Freud's version of the

PCAS 4(2):299-306 (1999)

A Triadic Drama Beyond the Family: Freudian Metapsychology in Light of Lacan's Object a

Author: Adrian Johnston

Introduction

The Oedipus complex … is one of sublimation, which designates precisely an identificatory reshaping of the subject.
(Lacan, Ecrits 22)

You have, on one side, the theory of the Oedipus complex and, on the other side, you have the theory of metapsychology. On the one side we speak of Oedipus, the complex of Oedipus, the complex of castration. There we speak of the mother, the father and the child. We speak of the mother as primary object and the father as interdiction. There we speak of castration. On the other side, we speak of the psychic structure of function. We speak of thought, reality, pleasure. And those two parts remain fairly separate. What I saw … is that what Lacan has done—and we must realize what he has done is based very precisely on Freud—is to realize a unification of analytic theory which as such is the basis of psychoanalytic thinking.
(Miller 44-5)