The infantile in the constitution of the psyche: Remains, inscription and narrative

Abstract

This article describes the ways of the constitution process of the psyche as an inscription process of traits and the creation of a record. Some fundamental aspects of Lacan’s theory were used to that end, such as the lack of object, the trait, the letter, the significant, the repetition, and the jouissance. Our main goal was to demonstrate that in the field of the letter, i.e., the zone between the significant and the jouissance, one may delimit the real status of the term ‘infantile’ more precisely, in terms of both the theory and the psychoanalytic clinic, thereby distinguishing it from the term ‘childhood’.