ABSTRACT
Symptom formation starts as early as the age of 4 or 5 and has a repressed infantile sexuality as its main motivating force. Freud puts the Oedipus complex at the core of symptom formation as well as being the cause of neurosis. In neurosis, the symptom is the result of repression formed in order to avoid anxiety. In neurosis, a subject's division is somewhat repaired through symptom formation. Although Lacan starts his conceptualisation of the symptom as a signifier and signification, the clinic of neurotics challenged him to the extent that he was led to come up with another dimension to the concept of symptom formation, which offers a subject a mode of jouissance. As Lacan moves away from structuralism and linguistics, topological representation shows how symptom formation was calling out for a further interpretation in his later teaching.
