Transgenerational Phenomena : A Psychological Heritage* Jaime Delgadillo Miranda
Transgenerational phenomena concern the transmission and exchange
of cultural affaires, wherein the individual psychological experience
is intimately related to and influenced by the complex web of
relationships within the family/social structure. This cultural
inheritance, which comprises the mobility of values, ideals,
interdictions, mandates, and such aspects from previous generations
to the latter, immerses the human biological subject
within an orderly dimension of exchanges and relations.
Psychoanalytical theory and investigation has made an unyielding
effort to account for the humanization of biological individuals,
striving to comprehend the psychological through the symbolic, in
accordance with the principle that the structure of thought cannot be
measured but it can be formalized. An evidence of this is
the freudo-lacanian perspective, which conducts our studies from myth
to structural linguistics. The present article is an attempt to approach transgenerational
phenomena through the three dimensional topic proposed by Jacques
Lacan (Real Symbolic Imaginary), in combination with a
mathematical blueprint to serve as a means of explanation through
analogy. I am persuaded that the use of elaborated metaphors is very
useful for psychoanalytical study, thus we are confronted in clinical
practice with the most sophisticated riddle-machine: the unconscious.
Condensation and displacement the work of the unconscious
are never very evident to the naked eye; so to speak, the latent
content never comes clean. THE DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT I shall briefly recall the basic principles of a mathematical
operation known as division; operation which indeed poses certain
learning difficulties in the early educative years, perhaps not
casually. The numbers inserted in the previous chart were chosen randomly,
in order to illustrate that the operation works regardless of the
input, but yet, leaves us with a steady set of places and
functions. We start with a given number, the dividend, which will
be divided and split into smaller sets of numbers that have a common
measure: the quotient. The agent of this operation is the divisor,
that is to say, the divisor requires that an original number
(dividend) must be divided, and thus produce a standard result, in
benefit of the agent. Where there was once a completeness,
we are left with a standard result. However, as our example shows, we
have not a well-defined quotient, but a result that is split into two
parts: a whole number, and an infinite series of decimals. If we
express the result as 150 + 7/23,
we could say that the result is comprised of a whole number
(150) and a real number (7/23).
In fact, the remainder (7) expresses a residue of the original
dividend, which cannot be exactly divided into a whole number; it
produces an infinite array of digits. So to speak, the remainder is a
bothersome part of the origin that cannot be fully digested,
it refuses to give an even result, but it indulges in its everlasting
displacement. Moreover, we have an area of the chart which
illustrates the development of the operation (area underneath the
dividend, which includes the digits in italics); area
which I propose to call the display. Note that in the previous paragraph we did not explain the
particular example (the development of the display), but
rather focused on the functions and places. This approach is an
illustration of the Symbolic order, wherein we deal with
certain elements that relate to one another and are channeled through
an operation which produces results based on functions and laws.
If we emptied out the numbers in the chart, we would have
a pure structure: the matrix of a symbolical operation. The
numbers used in the example are an illustration of the
Imaginary order; we could have any possible random combination
of numbers which would produce a particular display, but the
structure still does its work, it operates. Furthermore, we
could use the element 7/23,
a real number, to illustrate the Real order: it has an
imaginary component (the actual digits-numbers) and a symbolic
component (the relation between these numbers), which express the
uncanny the impossibility of concluding the operation, the
perennial processing, the incompatibility, the failure to achieve an
even result, etc. In other words, the Real is some-thing
that cannot be fully assimilated by the operation. The original -not
yet divided- dividend (3457) can also serve as to exemplify the real,
as its original state is forever lost by action of the
operation: converted, altered and discomposed to its very atomic
particle (a) throughout the display. Let us take this analogy a step further. In the beginning there was the word, the symbol starting from
which we can account for a history, a chronology, un savoir.
This we know through religion, myth, linguistics, philosophy, etc. In
fact, an initial period of psychoanalytical theory accounts for
Freuds effort to re-articulate the broken symbols, to
re-memorate the word in the beginning which could clarify
the sense of mysterious symptoms; all of which we encounter in the
theory of repression, free association and catharsis. However, we
also know that Freud was confronted with a tremendous difficulty that
he identified as a compulsion to repeat, a true derangement of
adaptation to reality, a strange phenomenon which -in the threshold
of masochism-, never ceases to show itself as a yearning for the
arcane. From sexual libido to the death drive, from the Other
to the One, from the varied misunderstandings of love to the
monotonous stupidity of addiction we can see that the human being
fluctuates in a space where the particular and the general collide
and intertwine. The question arises: In the beginning, was there the
word? Or some-thing else?
Let us move now to our second graph, where in the place of the
dividend we find the corps. I present you the living thing,
the pre-verbal body belonging to an infant in lack of the
code, a body marked by the cares, desires and acts of
the Other (i.e. mother), all of which constitute an original
inscription with no signification. Initially, these inscriptions are
like simple letters that make up no particular word, but as far as
their factual component (i.e. the act of the mother upon the child)
concerns erogenous zones of the body, they ascribe the libido
in rapport to a biological entity at the mercy of an Other1.
These primordial experiences and inscriptions are incorporated,
that is, abruptly thrown into repression2.
This dividend figure represents the infant at a pre-narcissistic
stage, that is, the plain and vulnerable biology, a body in
jouissance of its own naïveté. We could also
situate -in fact to be more theoretically precise- in this place the
pre-oedipal infant; however, we shall leave this theme to the
following chapter. The divisor -in a human world- is always the Other (Autre),
who from an imaginary point of view can be incarnated by a variety of
figures (mother, father, teacher, elder, hero, punisher, etc.), yet
from a symbolic point of view exercises a particular function:
requires of the body to abandon its original state and to be
subdued by a social order. The corps must abandon the
jouissance of itself, and aim the libido towards the
exterior3. The bodily
functions, necessities and tendencies are ordered and restricted. A
biological entity becomes a human, by virtue of the Other, and in
detriment of the bodys primitiveness. The Otherness of
which Freud spoke of leads us to the comprehension of the Other as a
radical exterior entity, which in a general sense can be considered
as the place of the code, the order of society, language itself. The
function that the Other accomplishes is a determinant aspect of
humanization, regardless of the particular being who occupies the
divisor slot (the imaginary number 23 in our first graph is as good
as any other number, as long as it caries out its task). In the area that we have called the display, we find a
series of elements listed as identifications, ideals, demands,
transference and fantasmes4.
Note that these words are all pluralized in order to stress their
imaginary character, that is, the miscellaneous value that they can
acquire. The display represents a group of elements that
support the particular story of an individual the
family novel in Freudian terms, or individual myth of the
neurotic in lacanian terms. A subject can wish to become a
politician, a scientist, a soldier, a priest, etc. All of these
present an imaginary array of ideals. However, the ideal can also be
considered in its symbolic value in that it is closely related to the
Super Ego, the function of the father, and is a result of the
castration complex. Likewise, a person can demand a promotion or
salary augmentation, can demand endless amounts of food, can demand
to be spoken to with caring words, can demand to be seen or to watch,
etc. All of these are imaginary values of multiple demands, which can
as well be studied from a symbolic perspective in the sense that they
are articulated with desire, with the drive, and with the
object that acquires its value in the field of the
exchanges with the Other. The values of love/hate,
admiration/repulsion, that transference can attain dwell in the
imaginary dimension, while transference can be considered from a
symbolic perspective as far as its relation to a suspenseful
knowledge about the unconscious5.
In this direction, and wishing not to extend too much in examples, we
perceive that the display presents us with the imaginary
numbers of our psychological experience, elements which form a
group, and in relation to one another within the matrix or structure,
can be deciphered in their symbolical value. We can also refer to the
display as the Realm of the Other, thus it
presents the elements of the reality in which we live our
everyday - conscious life. Nevertheless, we find the remainder at the base of the display,
the object a, as an uneasy evidence of the incomplete
dissolution of the thing. It is a part of the corps
that refuses in a way, to be processed thoroughly, not fully merged
into the symbolic/imaginary alliance. Moreover, because the remainder
is at the base of the display, we perceive the idea that in
the end, in the bottom of all the identifications, ideals, fantasmes,
etc., what lies is the object a as the ultimate source of
desire. It is the symbolic property thrown into the realm of
exchanges which makes everything else valuable. In an entirely mathematical realm, we find that division can be
accomplished exactly when the dividend is a multiple of the divisor,
in other words when the numbers are fully compatible. Otherwise, as
in our example, we are left with a quotient that carries the burden
of a remainder. In fact, I would go as far as to say that an entirely
mathematical realm in which operations are always exact is a fiction
constructed to pacify or negate the imminent imperfections of
mankind. Thus, psychoanalytical theory is very bold in the sense that
it does not hide the incompatibility of nature and culture, of the
biologic and the social, and so far as weve made efforts to
compromise these dimensions, we have not been able to eliminate the
decimals6. Therefore, what we
argue is that the division of the subject is an un-even
operation, the real corps is not a multiple of the symbolic
order. As a result of the submission of biology to patriarcal
culture7 we have a quotient (a
standard result): The Ego, followed by the remainder or production of
decimals. While the Ego is nice and square, entirely recognizable in
the Realm of the Other, we have the remainder that
is not fully recognizable and it is unsteady. It forever insists in
producing decimals that are an incessant -yet distorted- allusion to
the original dividend. This enduring gamma of (decimals) imaginary
numbers processed by a symbolic operation, insists and attempts to
allude to the impossible: the real is the impossible, thus it
is forever lost by the action of the operation. In plain words, the
remainder or production of decimals is the unconscious. A fair
example of this are dreams: we incessantly produce dreams which often
are absurd and nonsensical (incompatible with common-sense),
although we recognize a strange familiarity about them: images and
symbolic relations. The imaginary/symbolic alliance expresses the
unconscious desire related to the object in the realm
of the Other, as a yearning -but also a terror- for the original
state of the dividend. Lacan pointed out that when in a dream
we approach the real, we wake up in fright, so as
to remain dreaming while we are awake. The decimals
represent the products of the unconscious (dreams, lapsus, mistakes,
etc.); also the signifying chain, in which the unconscious
produces signifiers incessantly as an indirect allusion to
desire. We could say that the result of the division of the subject
is the Ego + the unconscious8:
me and my flaws. And if we consider that the unconscious
products -as related to the object- yearn for the lost body
which they strive to recuperate elsewhere, we could say that the
result of the operation is a divided subject, in other words, a
subject divided between him and himself9.
There are several other ways in which we could profit from this
mathematical blueprint by ordering different elements. For instance,
we could place the Ego within the arrangement of the display
elements (and in fact Lacans Mirror Stage theory helps
us understand how the Ego is made up of imaginary identifications)
and instead of it, arrange the barred subject ($)10
along with the object a in the quotient
($, a). In doing so, we have a quotient that reminds us of the
formula of the Fantasme as proposed by Lacan: ($ <> a).
Concluding, the division of the subject not only produces the
binary-partition of conscious/unconscious, but primarily the
subjects relationship(s) to the object: the fantome. The whole purpose of the construction of this analogy is to
illustrate A FIRST LEVEL of transgenerational phenomena;
resuming, the transmission of the unconscious apparatus from a first
generation to a second, through the incorporation of the
fantome archaic matrix of the process of thought.
Perhaps we shall revisit this mathematical chart in another occasion,
for now however, we shall leave it with its current
signification, in order to embark in the theme that concerns us. THE SYMBOLIC MATTER From a proverbial aphorism, In the
beginning was the word, we have arrived at a pre-verbal
implication: In the beginning was the letter. However,
let us set our steps back into the realm of symbolization. So far as psychoanalytic theory has been studied,
debated and formulated in several ways, we never fail to return once
and again to Freuds Oedipus Complex and recognize it as
a fundamental operation in the process of humanization. We will not
develop an extended explanation of this operation, thus it can be
found in almost every author concerned with psychoanalysis, but
merely employ a summary of related elements which will aid us in
approaching our proposition. We have already pointed out that infancy is
characterized by a marking process, an inscription of
signs on the body which -although enigmatic for the child- has a
fundamental impact: the charging of libido in the body (erogenous
zones) in a dialectic process of interaction with an Other. This
period also displays a strong curiosity on behalf of the child, an
exploration through game-play and formulating questions, and an
adherence to the wishes and demands of the mother. We can consider
that, the child is in the search of symbolization: he/she strives to
confer a signification to that which he/she experiences in his/her
relationship with the Other (the other who touches, prohibits, takes
away, gives, watches, leaves, etc.). The child doesnt quite
understand why the Other does all this to him/her and especially,
what the Other wants Lobscur désir de lAutre.
The obscure desire of the Other is tainted by a dreadful aura,
insofar as it remains enigmatic and it conveys the division of the
subject, the loss of the object as pertaining to ones
own body. These primary experiences fall under repression,
un-symbolized, they are incorporated.This original relationship of complete dependence is promptly
superceded by the Oedipus Complex, which confers a phallic
signification to the early inscriptions. Returning to our
previous metaphor, the marks can be considered as
separate letters; thus the Oedipus Complex would arrange them into a
word which has a particular significance: phallus. What does
the Other want?
the phallus [Lacan, 1977; Brodsky, 2000; Miller, 1984,1996]. At the same time, the
phallus is the signifier of absolute prohibition, by virtue of
the interdiction of incest. The castration complex not only
re-signifies infancy as related to The Freudian Thing, but
also proposes the phallus as the only means of recuperating
jouissance through language -the symbolic-.
We are aware of the consequences and the metaphorical development of
this issue in culture, history and sexuality. However, we must also state that the phallic
signification by no means is flawless or normalizing.
The Oedipus Complex supervenes and grants a custom phallic
signification to early inscriptions, which far from being
definite, is but a symbolic crutch in many cases (i.e. psychoses).
The subject is confronted in his life by events that stir up the
repressed content and in many cases precipitate him into a frenzy of
signification search, if not a compulsive disorder, a
hysteric symptom, a phobic distress, or the more complex and bizarre
psychotic phenomena. The super ego is a fundamental
instance to keep in mind as we approach the issues of the symptom and
compulsive behavior. It is the psychic representation of paternal law
(it can often show itself as an irrational law) which leaves us with
the sole possibility of metaphorical discharge, or discharge
by approximation (condensation and displacement). Therefore,
we perceive the paradoxical value of the human psyche: to search a
forbidden thing through symbolic means. The Oedipus Complex brings
about a basis through which the original inscriptions are signified,
and launches the subject into the dilemma of unconscious desire,
whence he is constrained as an Ego pressed in between the Id and the
Super ego [Freud, 1923]. In somewhat boarding the topics of the Oedipus
Complex and the phallic signification, and even though we
have not developed them to a large extent, I am content with the
reference, thus it conducts us to identify A SECOND LEVEL of transgenerational phenomena: the child, in relationship with a family structure,
inherits through the Oedipus Complex (and all its implications) the
basis and foundation of his/her psychological symbolical life.
The Oedipus Complex is a privileged medium of transmission of
psychological elements: a desire, a super ego, the Ideal, a
basis for sexual rapport, etc. It is fair to say that the symbolic matter is at the nodule of
psychological experience, conducting individuals in their journey to
realization. A disturbance in the process of symbolization can
trigger a disorder, yet seldom cases show that the enigma factor can
propel an individual in a quest for knowledge or creative pursuit. To extend this article in presenting the
relationships between the transmission of cultural elements and the
concepts of Identification, Ideal, Super Ego, phallus, etc., would be
redundant in sight of the vast bibliography in this respect.
Likewise, several anthropological, psychological, and sociological
studies manifest the effects of popular myth, and the institutions of
education and labor in the continuation of cultural patrimony.
However, we shall pay special attention to a particular condition of
psychological transmission, which has an exceptional impact in the
psychological life of subjects within a family structure. Several authors have reflected on the issue of
non-conscious transmission of psychological material,
such as the presence of family secrets, silenced occurrences, hidden
shameful or hurtful events, etc. Hints, clues and references of these
non-dits almost always slip to a level of subtle communication
[N. Abraham, G. Ausloos, N. Canault, T. Gaillard, P-C. Racamier, S.
Tisseron, M. Torok, and many others]. The impact of these elements
rests in their incomplete character of symbolization, that is, their
enigmatic value. Human communication is a permanent process of interpretation,
where messages are never close captioned into a singular
in-equivocal meaning. Messages can always be re-formulated and
interpreted in a variety of ways. Distinctively, each particular
receptor interprets the message in resonance with his own
subjective history. We have already mentioned that the Other
is -in its most abstract presentation- the place of the code itself.
Each individual appropriates the signifiers and signs of the code in
a different and particular manner; signs which are diversely managed
in each family and educational setting. The child is bathed in
language since conception, where communicative signs make up the code
through which the biological subject expresses its experience. We can
summarize this by recalling Freuds first topic, whence
he explained the passage of the Unconscious material to Conscience
through word representations
-signifiers- pertaining to the Pre-conscious order [Freud,
1923]. Almost anything, not only words, can be a signifier (gestual
signs, acts, a picture, a murmur, etc.) when we are embarked in a
communicative process, hence even the insignificant can
be subjected to signification. Therefore, the family transmits
privileged signifiers that are situated in between the conscious mind
and the unconscious, serving as a link between these two. The return of the repressed manifested in a flaw
lapsus omission or any other unconscious production,
testifies of the inefficacy of repression as a defensive strategy to
occult the disturbing. Likewise, a dreadful family secret -for
instance- is always accused by the same person who silences it,
through his own subtle communication signs, mistakes, omissions,
prohibitions, etc. À la maison
du pendu, on ne parle pas de corde. These signs, detached from a
clear signification or meaning, are forcefully included by the
receptor, who is left with the ominous effort to
symbolize [Racamier, 1992]11.
This secondhand effort to symbolize a broken
communication, often distorts and deranges the original meaning, or
even sometimes succeeds in expressing the hidden truth
through a symptomatic behavior which almost always carries a great
deal of pain for both the subject and the family.
Nicholas Abraham and Maria Torok [1961 - 1975] propose the term
Inclusion to refer to the appropriation by a subject of an
event that is characterized by a failure or lack of proper
psychological elaboration or symbolization (i.e. a shocking /
traumatic event, a loved ones death, etc.). Another concept of
these same authors, which can aid our comprehension of this
phenomenon, is the term Introjection. Briefly, introjection
refers to the process of symbolization in 3 stages: a) A new event
arrives from the outside, or is experienced internally. b) The
appropriation of the event through a variety of
unconscious or semi-conscious processes, such as game-play,
fantasmes, projection, etc. c) The conscious individual gains
familiarity with the event as a whole, and is capable of
quoting it as a rightful intellectual property [Rand, 1993]. It is
fundamental to add to this a comment that Serge Tisseron makes
concerning inclusion: Le siège de celle-ci est le
Moi; the burden of inclusion rests with the Ego. Abraham and Torok -as explained by Serge Tisseron- have also
utilized the term Crypte to refer to a particular modality of
the process of inclusion, where the psychic symbol is
broken into two fragments. This author proposes that the
fantome is the result of the effects of the crypte of an other
over the unconscious of the subject, in other words his
in-confessable secret [Tisseron, 1995]. In this respect, we
could enounce two propositions to clarify our comprehension: a) The
crypte, being closely related to incorporation as its
process of transmission, produces -as a consequence- the fantome.
This would be closer to what we have enounced as the division of
the subject: the transmission of the unconscious apparatus
through the incorporation of the fantome. Voilà, le
travail du fantôme entre les générations.
b) The event that succumbs to inclusion as a
failure or absence of introjection, is left in the middle
stage of the symbolization process, hence it insists in re-appearing
and tormenting the Ego. It is the Ego that carries the onus task of
attempting to symbolize, which presents itself as a
symptomatic struggle. Moreover, we could propose The event
of inclusion as the second time of the trauma,
which bounces upon the crypte in retrospective
(après-coup).The event is indigestible,
thus it is a reference (by metaphor or proximity) that touches
closely upon a crypte12.
As a consequence, the Ego strives to close the re-opened
wound, to find out the truth, to pay the debt,
etc. The Ego arranges a series of elements that he extracts from his
personal history to form a means of facing his dilemma of
symbolization, making up an imaginary story, which becomes his
battlefield or purgatory. This point refers to a relationship between
the symbolic and the potent presence of the imaginary. The stirring up of a crypte can be a true disturbance, thus
it is reminiscent of an original state of the subject -the dividend-,
where a fragmented body consisting of dis-articulated drives
menaces the always fragile strength of the Ego and
reveals its merely imaginary wholeness. Further, it is
also reminiscent of the subjects arcane fragility: being at the
mercy of the obscure Desire of the (m)Other13,
an Other always guilty of marking the infants body,
and also an Other who divides -castrates-, robs
the body of its own jouissance. This latter criteria helps
understand the preponderance of the debt factor within
the transgenerational heritage. A sin, guilt or debt is always an
element ready for inheritance, thus the individual struggles to
eliminate the traces of the Others guilt the Others
obscure desire which touches every subject in the level of his
crypte. This theme can dress itself with as many different
stories, characters and scenarios as we can possibly imagine,
retrieving the elements found in ones own culture and lineage. Consequently, the family is enthroned as a primary source of
information, as it is within its nucleus that the subject receives
the privileged material that makes up his psychological
life: a) The pre-conscious signifiers -word representations-
that make up the subjects treasure of the signifiers;
his own appropriation of the code. b) The subjects imaginary
storyline, the family novel, the individual
myth of the neurotic, the familys debts faults
sins and aspirations of redemption and dignity. This is the display
in the diagram of the division of the subject, the realm
of the Other. As psychoanalysts, what we encounter in the first and most evident
plane is precisely the story that the subject brings as a
suffering or enigma: the numbers of his display. It is
our ability to read behind the imaginary elements (images,
names, events, identifications, etc.) that we hear in the discourse,
which conducts us to interpretation in the symbolic dimension.
This first plane that we speak of leads us to arrive at A
THIRD LEVEL of transgenerational phenomena: The subject
inherits a myth, that is, a particular family tale in which he is
placed as a component, as the link of a historical chain. We observe
that the imaginary is at the forefront of our experience. AN ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIND Throughout our exposition, we have systematically arrived at THREE
LEVELS of transgenerational phenomena. At this point, I shall
enounce what the attentive reader already suspects: Three
levels as to three dimensions of experience. Diagram 3
LEVEL
DIMENSION
OPERATION
RESULT First
Real
Incorporation
Fantome Second
Symbolic
Introjection
Symbolization Third
Imaginary
Inclusion
Ego distress, story By presenting this chart I incur in a risk of misinterpretation.
It is thus of capital importance to stress that it is merely intended
as a reminder of the path that we have followed to arrive at our
final proposition. We have already seen that any given phenomenon is
liable to be studied from all three dimensions, and precisely the
introduction of the division of the subject aims at
highlighting the richness of this topical approach. However, I hope
that it will prove itself useful, as it assists us in the effort to
order the complex gamma of elements that concern our practice.
Keeping in mind that the chart is not a categorical caption of the
concepts utilized, we perceive that psychoanalytic clinical practice
conducts our comprehension of experience from the third level to the
first, from the imaginary story to the symbolic matter
which conveys the real as lost and impossible. Referring to
our mathematical analogy: we conduct the patient from the display
that he communicates to the structure of the operation, which
can reveal the myth in which the dividend is lost by action of
the divisor, leaving a remainder that is at the root of
our fantasies and moral dilemmas. We confront a true challenge as we
strive to approach the real through the construction of the
ever-singular, ever-original, personal myth14.
Observe that the middle row of the chart is emphasized with bold
text; the intention is to accent that the symbolic is
precisely our area of action as clinicians. Not wishing to extend
this article into a discussion about the direction of the cure, I
merely remark the clinicians effort to conduct the case into
symbolic grounds, being careful not to contaminate the process of
introjection and symbolization with his own subjectiveness.
Psychoanalysts must always be aware of the effects of transference,
not to turn a therapeutic process into a mere hypnotical suggestion. Once again appealing to the analysts passion for the
metaphorical, we might regard him as one who appreciates the
architecture of the mind. Behind the curtains, underneath the
painting of the walls, the hung pictures and lamps, the style of the
furniture and the particular effects of the lighting, even behind the
concrete, glass, plastic and metal, the analyst perceives a
structural design that makes sense of all this material. He can
perceive that the construction is layed out in virtue of a particular
functionality about it, even if merely
representational. It shows patterns, repetitive elements such as
doorways and portals, which permit encounters and channel the
possibility of exchange among one and anOther. And finally, if
truly attentive, the analyst can perceive that the structure itself
is layed out in respect to an invisible -mythical- body, such as The
Modulator in the architecture of Le Corbusier. Bibliography and Sources of Information MILLER, J.A. : Drive is Parole - LOrientation Lacanienne, article in www.lacan.com/drive.htm, Paris 1995 1996. MILLER, J.A. : Recorrido de Lacan ocho conferencias, Buenos Aires: Ediciones Manantial, 1984. RACAMIER, P-C. : Le génie des origines, Payot 1992. RAND, N. : Quelle psychanalyse pour demain?, Érès, Paris 2001. TISSERON, S. : Chaque famille a son secret, (interview/article : 2 février 2000) Coopération No. 5, Genève. TISSERON, S. : Le psychisme à lépreuve des générations: clinique du fantôme, (ouvrage collectif), Dunod, Paris 1995. * This article was written in February of 2003, as a contribution to a course in Transgenerational Theory held in Genève Suisse by Mr. Thierry Gaillard at the Centre Logos. 1. Source that drives both children and adults to design a series of fantasies. In the present article we shall utilize the concepts fantome and fantasme (conserving their French designations), as differentiated by Nina Canault [1998]: the Fantome related to an absence of representation concerning sexuality and death, and the Fantasme related to a varied display of fantasies. 2. At this point we can benefit from the utilization of the concept incorporation, attributed to N. Abraham & M. Torok, and brought to my knowledge through T. Gaillard, S. Tisseron. It not only refers to an abrupt repression of an un-symbolized experience, but also the merging of this within the psyche as a fantome. It is considered in transgenerational theory as an inheritance (i.e. transmitted from a parent to a child). 3. Understood that this is not always the case, and even if so, the transposition of libido to the exterior is not a "complete" operation. 4. To these elements we could add a good number of others, such as values, attitudes, beliefs, restrictions, etc. I have listed just a few for practical reasons. 5. Here I merely intend to allude to Lacans SSS theory of transference. 6. Maybe so, and precisely because of this, human beings are not biological machines, despite the illusions of our contemporary science. 7. Understanding "patriarcal culture" as a culture based on the phallic norm as the basis of order. 8. Note the allusion to Freuds conscious/unconscious elements of the first topic. 9. What is love if not the search for that lost part of ones self in anOther? 10. One connotation of Lacans matheme $ is the illustration of a de-centered subject, severed by repression into a conscious / unconscious partition. 11. Ainsi lexclusion exercée par lexpulseur hors de sa propre psyché va devenir un inclusion forcée à lintérieur de la psyché du «portefaix». We refer to the concept of Inclusion, explained in the following paragraph. 12. Freuds famous case of the Man of the rats [Freud, 1909] illustrates this complex configuration of neurotic frenzy: The tale of the rat-torture scene (The Event) is merged into the psyche by inclusion; it cannot be symbolized because it has touched (après-coup) closely upon a crypte related to a fantome whos object concerns the anal-drive. The Ego of the patient is tormented and driven into a neurotic outburst of conducts and symptoms. The puzzling theme of the glasses which must be paid in a particular fashion, to a certain cashier, through a particular character, etc., is all a clear illustration of the imaginary display of elements and arguments through which the subject tries to resolve a symbolic affaire that concerns debt and desire as opposites. Moreover, the subject retrieves this array of imaginary elements from his family history (fathers debt, fathers old love for the poor woman, etc.). 13. Allusion to the theory of the DM, Desire of the Mother. 14. And the myth speaks of the funneling of the real into the symbolic realm: Im trying to evince the degree of the total assimilation of drive to a signifying chain. There is the chain, the treasure of the signifiers, the point de capiton, and the signified. It is all there, a full service. Drive is altogether equipped as an unconscious message [J.A. Miller, 1995 1996].
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