The Melancholic Subject Differentiated from Mourning in the Psychoanalytic Theories of Freud and Lacan
Aylin Özkan, Sinem BaltacıMourning is one of the two concepts that emerged from Freud's article Mourning and Melancholia and is frequently subjected to research. However the concept of melancholia is studied less. Furthermore, melancholia remains in an ambiguous position: sometimes it is attributed to a person's personality pattern and sometimes to a depressive mood or even sometimes to a psychotic structure. From this point of view, in this article, the work of Freud and Lacan (who recontextualized Freud’s literature), on mourning and melancholia are examined comparatively. Accordingly, Freud expressed that mourning and melancholia are similar in the loss of a loved object and while mourning is an ordinary response to loss melancholia is an extraordinary position. Faced with Freud's view that mourning and melancholia are similar in terms of lost object, but differ in terms of their functioning, Lacan reconsidered these two concepts through the topological structure of Symbolic, Imaginary and Real. In Lacan's conceptualization, mourning as a process connects the subject to the symbolic order through rituals or ceremonies. The subject who does not/cannot pass beyond this process is stuck in jouissance staying alone with Real in melancholia. In this recent article, several clinical practice and research examples are included following the theoretical examination. Based on this, it is thought that in a state of melancholia, the person is in pain while maintaining a position that one takes as a move from castration to escape and that the way out of this pain is only possible with a symbolic study. However, it is important to study the appearance of melancholia in different subject formations together with today's changing cultural background. As a result, it is thought that how melancholia is expressed in language and its relationship with the defense mechanism related to subject formation of the individual determines the central point in an analytical study.
Freud ve Lacan’ın Psikanalitik Kuramlarında Yastan Ayrışan Melankolik Özne
Aylin Özkan, Sinem BaltacıFreud’un Yas ve Melankoli isimli yazısı ile ortaya çıkan iki kavramdan biri olarak yas (mourning) sıklıkla araştırmalara konu olmuşken melankoli (melancholia) kavramı pek çalışılmamıştır. Alan yazında bu konuya az değinilmesinin yanı sıra melankoli kimi zaman bir kişilik örüntüsü, kimi zaman depresif bir duygu durum, kimi zaman ise psikotik bir yapı olarak belirsiz bir tanımlamada kalmıştır. Buradan yola çıkılarak bu çalışmada Freud’un ve onun yazını üzerine yeniden çalışan Lacan’ın yas ve melankoli hakkındaki çalışmaları karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmiştir. Buna göre, Freud yas ve melankoliyi yatırım yapılan nesnenin kaybı üzerinden benzeştirmekte iken; yasın kayba verilen olağan bir tepki, melankolinin ise olağandışı bir pozisyon olduğundan söz etmektedir. Freud’un yas ve melankolinin kayıp nesne açısından benzer ancak işleyiş süreçleri açısından farklılaştığı görüşünün üzerine Lacan bu iki kavramı Sembolik, İmgesel ve Gerçek‘i içeren üçlü model kapsamında ele almaktadır. Lacan’ın bu kavramsallaştırmasında yas bir süreç olarak ritüeller ya da merasimler aracılığıyla özneyi simgesel düzene bağlamaktadır. Bu simgeselleştirme sürecinden geç(e)meyen özne ise Gerçek ile baş başa kalarak jouissance içinde kalan bir melankoli halindedir. Bu yazıda, bahsedilen teorik incelemenin ardından bazı klinik uygulama ve araştırma örneklerine yer verilmiştir. Buradan yola çıkarak melankoli halinde kişinin kastrasyondan kaçışa doğru hamle olarak aldığı bir konumu sürdürürken acı içinde olduğu ve bu acıdan çıkmanın yolunun ise ancak simgesel bir çalışma ile mümkün olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bununla beraber, melankolinin farklı özne yapılanmalarındaki görünümlerinin günümüz değişen kültürel yapısı ile beraber çalışılması önemlidir. Sonuç olarak, melankolinin dil aracılığı ile nasıl ifade edildiğinin ve kişinin özne yapılanmasındaki temel defans mekanizması ile ilişkisinin analitik bir çalışma içinde merkezi noktayı belirlediği düşünülmektedir.
In this recent article, the history of the concept of melancholia is reviewed comparatively with the concept of mourning. Afterwards, the difference of melancholia from mourning was examined within Freud’s and Lacan’s theoretical framework. Moreover, the psychic structure of the melancholic subject was evaluated through the concepts of lost object and anxiety in Lacanian theory. In this regard, this article incorporates a theoretical comparison in a psychoanalytical context. Furthermore, examples of clinical practice and research are given. Therefore, the study aims to contribute to the determination of significant points on the topics of mourning, melancholia, depression, mood and personality patterns in clinical practice and psychotherapy processes.
Melancholia was associated with physiological states of human beings and its cause was attributed to an increase in black bile (Ergür, 2017). After the physiological explanations, Karl Abraham (1988) examined melancholia within a psychotic framework by separating melancholia in manic-depressive disorder from depression in neurosis. Following Abraham, in Freud’s description, both mourning and melancholia have similar psychic mechanisms which could be associated with loss (Freud, 1917). While mourning is a process in which libido is separated from the lost object and from the whole experience in the process after loss, melancholia is the state where one experiences the loss of object as a loss in self (Freud,1917). He argues that in melancholia, the subject, who insists on not separating from the lost object, directs the negative feelings towards the self. Unlike Freud explaining melancholia with a sense of loss directed to self, Lacan says that melancholia occurs as a result of the confusion of loss and lack (Salecl, 2004, p. 19). Lacan examined the melancholic subject in relation to the object of desire (Lacan, 1962/2014).
In Lacanian theory, desire is the desire of the Other, and the subject is always in pursuit of the desire of Other (and knowledge of what Other wants from me; Lacan, 1964/2004). In this case, the object an emerges as the object of desire (Lacan, 1964/2004). Although the objects that are thought to complete this lack will never complete it (Fink, 1996; Lacan 1956/1957), the subject will still continue to be associated with the lack in Other, which is the basis of his own subjective formation (Fink, 1997). Within the framework of Lacan’s theory of desire, melancholic subject is confronted with this lack, which also functions in his/her own formation. But the melancholic subject, rather than considering it as a constitutive lack, is mistaken that s/he has found this lacking object once and then lost it. In other words, the melancholic subject, experiences this loss as a loss at Real. In this context, according to Lacan, while mourning is a situation of encountering a part of the Real and carrying it to symbolic after a while, in melancholia, whole of the Real of the object is there (Grigg, 2016).
According to Lacan, anxiety is a stimulating function for the subject to maintain an inevitable relationship with Real to prevent ‘lack of lack’ (Melman, 2009). In other words, melancholia appears to be one of the situations that can occur if the object is placed to eliminate lack and does not allow for desirability. The neurotic subject manages the experience of an inevitable closeness with the Real through fantasy, while melancholia happens to be another form of solution to this inevitability. In other words, in case of anxiety, the subject escapes from pain either by the aid of phantasy (Fink, 1997), or melancholia appears to be a solution by identifying with the object a. Although melancholia, which is used to eliminate anxiety that occurs at the time of confrontation with Real, may seem protective for the subject, it can eventually reach to a point which leads to the opposite of protection: jouissance (enjoyment beyond the pleasure principle) and death.
Moreover, the similarity between melancholia and foreclosure of the Name-ofthe-Father in psychotic structure (Lacan, 2006, p. 465) takes place in psychoanalytical literature (Redmond, 2013). Cultural changes in today’s reality, social life and differences in intersubjective relations which bring about changes in the formation of the subject (Gürsel, 2017) and perversion has an ordinary form (Lebrun, 2015) should also be taken into consideration.
Discussion
As a clinical conclusion, although it is possible to establish a direct relationship between melancholia and the psychotic structure of the subject, the fact that melancholia might also be seen in other structures should be taken into consideration. Therefore, paying attention to how the symptom is expressed in the discourse of the subject and its association to the main defense mechanisms (repression for neurotic, disavowal for perversion and foreclosure for psychosis; Fink,1997) should be considered within the clinical practice.
