IPA on Paternal Function

Rosine Jozef Perelberg

Freud’s work progressively elaborates the role of the father. In Studies on Hysteria
(1895), he emphasises the importance of a real seduction of his female patients by their
father; in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) unconscious phantasies are discovered;
Totem and Taboo introduces the notion of the distinction between the murdered father
and the dead father; and in Moses and Monotheism (1939) Freud puts forward his notion
of a more abstract, paternal function (Stoloff, 2007).

Lacan was the first psychoanalyst who gave conceptual status to the term dead father,
utilised by Freud in Totem and Taboo, establishing the equation between the symbolic
father and the dead father. This line of thinking was further developed by Rosolato
(1969) in his distinction between the idealised father and the dead father. In my own
work I have elaborated the distinction between the murdered father and the dead father
and its crucial presence in the clinic (Perelberg, 2009, 2011, 2013b). If the Oedipus story
represents the former – the story of the murdered father, and patricide as a universal,
infantile phantasy – the Oedipus complex represents the latter – the dead father as the
symbolic third.

These ideas are crucially linked to the progressive centrality of the Oedipus complex in
Freud's formulations. According to Green, the Oedipus complex constitutes the first,
basic symbolic structure and includes a network of concepts such as the murder of the
father, the setting up of the ego ideal, identification, superego, loss, castration,
desexualisation and sublimation (Green, 1992, also Kohon, 2005b). The Oedipus
complex retrospectively retranslates earlier experiences in terms of après-coup (Perelberg,
2006). For Freud, the father is crucial as a presence in the mother’s mind, but essentially
as the third element that institutes the prohibition of incest in the relationship with the
mother (see also Britton, 1989). The dead father is a “requirement” for the foundation of
culture and individual history; it inaugurates thirdness, open time and genealogy.

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This distinction between the murdered (narcissistic) father and the dead father is central
to the understanding of configurations in clinical practice and differing
psychopathologies. It is also relevant to the understanding of works of literature, religious
stories, anthropological writings and historical events.

Are these ideas still relevant today? How have they been challenged in psychoanalysis
and other disciplines?

In this post-modernist era, when realities are seen as plural and relative, how can there be
such a disjunction between new forms of political structures, of families, sexualities and
filiation, on the one hand, and the stability of the universal unconscious phantasies, on the
other. If there are new social forms that challenge traditional representations of sexuality,
of the couple, of the sexual order and kinship systems, how can the unconscious not be
transformed? To my mind, the critique made of Freud about his neglect of the role of
women in his mythical account of Totem and Taboo is misleading. Freud is capturing
myths of the foundation of the western world, using as evidence literary works, myths of
different cultures, and his patients’ accounts of their own personal myths. As Juliet
Mitchell stated forty years ago: “Psychoanalysis is not a recommendation for a
patriarchal society, but an analysis of one” (1971, p. xv). The psychoanalyst in the
consulting room listens to what is presented by her patients. Their accounts don’t indicate
a one-to-one relationship with the historical or political realities in which they are
inserted.

One should not, nevertheless, confuse the symbolic, dead father, with the biological
reality of the father. Moreover, we should be able to conceptualise the paternal function
exercised by the mother. In several of his texts, Freud himself alternates between
emphasizing the father as the representative of the law, on the one hand, and emphasizing
both parents, on the other.

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I hope that our colleagues will be interested in addressing some questions derived from
these formulations:
 What do we mean by the notion of the paternal function?
 What configurations does it take in clinical practice?
 Can one identify the paternal function in the mother?
 What are the outcomes in the different psychopathologies of a failure of this function?

Throughout the forthcoming two months we will look forward to reading your
contributions to the debates on these and other questions.

L Breuer, J., and Freud, S. (1893-1895). Studies on Hysteria. S.E., 2.

Britton, R. (1989). The Missing Link: Parental Sexuality in the Oedipus Complex. In
Britton, R., Feldman, M., O'Shaughnessy, E., (Eds.) The Oedipus Complex Today:
Clinical Implications. London: Karnac, pp. 83-102.

Freud, S. (1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. S.E. Volumes IV and V.

Freud, S. (1913). Totem and Taboo. SE XIII (1913-1914): Totem and Taboo and Other
Works, vii-162

Freud, S. (1939). Moses and Monotheism. The Standard Edition of the Complete
Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXIII (1937-1939): Moses and
Monotheism, An Outline of Psycho-Analysis and Other Works, 1-138

Godelier, M et Hassoun, J (Eds) (1996) Meurtre du Père, Sacrifice de la sexualité :

approches anthropologiques et psychanalytiques Paris : Arcanes
Green, A. (1992). La Déliaison. Paris: Belles Lettres.

Kohon, G. (2005b). The Oedipus Complex. In Budd, S., Rusbridger, R., (Eds.)
Introducing Psychoanalysis: Essential Themes and Topics. London: Routledge.

Lacan, J (1966) Ecrits Paris: Editions du Seuil

Mitchell, J. (1974). Psychoanalysis and Feminism. Harmondsworth: Penguin, Reprinted
1979.
Perelberg, R.J. (2006). Controversial Discussions and Après-Coup. International Journal
of Psycho-Analysis, 87: 1199-1220. Also in Perelberg, R.J. Time, Space and Phantasy.
London: Routledge, 2008, pp. 106-30.

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Perelberg, R.J. (2009). Murdered Father, Dead Father: Revisiting the Oedipus Complex.
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 90: 713-732.

Perelberg, R.J. (2011). A Father is Being Beaten: Constructions in the Analysis of Some
Male Patients. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 92: 97-116.

Perelberg, R.J. (2013a). Review of the Revue Française de Psychanalyse, 2011, Vols. 1-
5: On Some of the Current Themes in French Psychoanalysis. International Journal of
Psycho-Analysis, 94: 589-617.

Perelberg, R.J. (2013b). Paternal Function and Thirdness in Psychoanalysis and Legend:
Has the Future been Foretold? Psychoanalytic Quarterly, July

Perelberg, R J (2015) (forthcoming) Murdered Father Dead Father: revisiting the

Oedipus Complex London: Routledge and The new Library of Psychoanalysis

Rosolato, G (1969) Essais sur le symbolique Paris: Gallimard

Stoloff J.-C. (2007). La Fonction Paternelle. Paris: In Press Editions.

ONDON, 23 September 2014