Time in Practice by Mary Lynne Ellis

Author:Mary Lynne Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Repetition

For Lacan “repetition” is one of the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis, together with the unconscious, transference and the drive. He conceptualises repetition as “the insistence of speech” (Lacan, 1956, p. 242). It occurs in the transference, as its “historicizing temporality” (Lacan, 1966b, p. 103), but it must be distinguished from the concept of transference. Central to it is the notion of missing something. An example might be the missing of a session by a patient owing to an unforeseen obstacle. It is the repetition of the discourse or circuit in which the subject is embedded and which dates back to his/her past.

Lacan stresses that repetition is not “reproduction” or a “making present” (Lacan, 1964, p. 50). The reel thrown by the child does not represent his mother, who is physically absent. It is aimed at the mother, symbolizing her departure as causing a split in the subject (a small part of a thread). In Lacan’s view, if the aim is mastery, as Freud claims, endless repetition does not offer empowerment; instead, it “reveals the radical vacillation of the subject” (Lacan, 1964, p. 239) and its alienation through the split.

The problem with Lacan’s (and Freud’s) interpretation of the child’s play is the limited knowledge we have of the child’s life and relationships, and, in particular, with his mother, whose absence gives rise to his play with the reel, as well as with the observer of the game. It seems premature to speculate on and inappropriate to generalize about the meanings of this particular game for this particular child without access to such material. As I argue in Chapter One, it is crucial that, for example, a patient’s actions such as cancelling a session, are interpreted within the particular context of the psychoanalytic relationship at that moment; they may or may not be instances of repetition.

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