ABSTRACT
Lacan argues that psychotic hallucinations are a consequence of the operation of FORECLOSURE. Foreclosure refers to the absence of the NAME-OF-THE-FATHER from the symbolic universe of the psychotic subject. A hallucination is the return of this foreclosed signifier in the dimension of the real; ‘that which has not emerged into the light of the symbolic appears in the real’ (Ec, 388). This is not to be confused with PROJECTION, which Lacan regards as a mechanism proper to neurosis rather than psychosis. In this distinction, Lacan follows Freud’s analysis of Schreber’s hallucinations; ‘It was incorrect to say that the perception which suppressed internally is projected outwards; the truth is rather, as we now see, that what was abolished internally returns from without’ (Freud, 1911c: SE XII, 71).
