Mediation

The Oedipus complex is for the child the first major transition to the realm of social relations. It installs the intrapsychic principles for relating to others (the law). For Freud, there are unconscious desires and fantasies before the end of the Oedipus complex. From a Lacanian point of view, desire proper does not exist before the introduction of the law, the fundamental principles underlying all social relations. For Lacan, desire is the result of the ‘prohibition’ demanded by the ‘Father’ in the Oedipus complex. ‘Castration means that jouissance has to be refused in order to be attained on the inverse scale of the Law of desire’ (Lacan 2006: 700). For Lacan, castration is the term that implies for both the boy and the girl the exit from the Oedipus complex. ¹