ABSTRACT
Freud supposes the child capable of consenting to life, of opposing non-being, from the start. But, Réfabert asserts, for this to be so, the mother must register an objection to death, consent to take death upon herself, so that she gives the child a shadow, providing him with a limit. Thanks to her active intervention, her objection to the limitless, the child can invent his image—an image that represents him. While choosing the phallus as the primal signifier indicates that the child is considered equipped to turn away, alone, from the path shown by his primal desire, choosing the trace of death takes into account the need for the active donation made by a Nebenmensch, a reliable helpful other.
Réfabert disagrees with the concept of the fetish as Freud and Lacan saw it. In his view, the fetish is not a substitute for “the mother’s missing penis”, but rather the symbol of attempted murder and of the child left for dead after soul murder.
