The father: An ever-present matter for psychoanalysis

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the paternal function, inquiring in the lacanian literature, fundamental formulations about the father and its relationship with the subject of the unconscious, for the purpose of situate the difference of this function with the father situational presentation in the social reality. It stands up for that the father social role and the paternal function, as proposed by psychoanalysis and worked by Lacan, are different fields of constitution of the problem, although may be related, do not determine each other. We can state that confusing these different modes of analysis leads to misleading conclusions about the subject of psychoanalysis and the clinic, as Lebrun indicates in his proposal of "neo-subjects".