The received message: where to lead it? (Notes on the issue of transmission in psychoanalysis)

Abstract

This paper introduces the specificity of the concept of transmission in Psychoanalysis, especially from Jacques Lacan's proposition that "the unconscious is structured as a language". It develops the idea introduced by this author in the 50's which considers human subjective constitution a result of the symbolic law transmission mediated by the father, further developed in the concepts of "father metaphor" and "Name of the Father". It analyses the theoretical-clinical consequences to the issue of transmission promoted by the object "a" concept, especially in regard to the jouissance external to language and the fantasy construction. It also highlights the significant advances of the Psychoanalysis Upside-Down seminar related to what is transmitted beyond the symbolic, from the articulation between the conceptual notion of the discourse without words and the inability of knowledge to apprehend the whole truth. Finally, it proposes that the idea of "creative spark" replaces the "paternal metaphor" of the 50's, revealing clinical developments for the analysis termination debate