ABSTRACT
The law of the mother is based on the fact that the mother is a speaking being, and that is sufficient to legitimise we calling it the law of the mother. This chapter introduces a number of functions of the symptom that are connected with the law of separation from the mother, while making an initial clinical approach to the knot of sexual ambiguity and the symptom. It shows how a mother's neurosis can affect the subject very early on, and may have the force of law where the future is concerned. The symptom may even prevent the subject from "going mad" in the sense of triggering the psychosis. According to this new conception, the symptom, even if the subject complains about it, becomes a necessary support for him/her to separate from the mother's jouissance. A comparison of Lacan's theories of 1958 and 1975 led to favour the latter when describing the situation in cases of psychosis.
