Table Of ContentThe Law of The MoTher
The law of the mother is made up of words charged with pleasure and suf-
fering that leave their mark on us in early childhood. In this groundbreaking
book, Geneviève Morel explores whether it is possible for the child to escape
subjection from this maternal law and develop their own sexual identity.
Through clinical examples and critical commentary, the book illustrates the
range and power of maternal influence on the child, and how this can gener-
ate different forms of sexual ambiguity. Using a Lacanian framework which
revises the classical idea of the Oedipus complex, the book is not only a ma-
jor contribution to gender studies but also an invaluable aid to the clinician
dealing with questions of sexual identity. The book avoids many of the moral
and political prejudices that paralyse twenty-first century society, be they re-
lated to legislation on marriage, parentage or adoption, the status of “mental
health”, or the limits to the supposed ownership of the human body.
Insightful and revealing, The Law of the Mother will be of great interest to
Lacanian psychoanalysts, as well as to researchers in the fields of gender stud-
ies and sexuality.
Geneviève Morel is a psychoanalyst practicing in Paris and Lille. She is a
member of the Association Lilloise pour la Psychanalyse et son Histoire and of
the group Savoirs et Clinique. Her previous books include Sexual Ambiguities
(Routledge).
THE CENTRE FOR FREUDIAN ANALYSIS AND
RESEARCH LIBRARY
Series editors:
anouchka Grose, Darian Leader, alan rowan
CFAR was founded in 1985 with the aim of developing Freudian and Lacanian
psychoanalysis in the UK. Lacan’s rereading and rethinking of Freud had been
neglected in the Anglophone world, despite its important implications for the the-
ory and practice of psychoanalysis. Today, this situation is changing, with a lively
culture of training groups, seminars, conferences, and publications.
CFAR offers both introductory and advanced courses in psychoanalysis, as well
as a clinical training programme in Lacanian psychoanalysis. It can provide ac-
cess to Lacanian psychoanalysts working in the UK, and has links with Lacanian
groups across the world. The CFAR Library aims to make classic Lacanian texts
available in English for the first time, as well as publishing original research in the
Lacanian field.
oTher TITLeS IN The SerIeS
The Marks of a Psychoanalysis
Luis Izcovich
Obsessional Neurosis
edited by astrid Gessert
Lacan Reading Joyce
Colette Soler
The Law of the Mother: An Essay on the Sexual Sinthome
Geneviève Morel
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https://www.routledge.com/The-Centre-for-Freudian-Analysis-and-Research-
Library/book-series/KARNACCFARL
The Law of The MoTher
an essay on the Sexual
Sinthome
Geneviève Morel
Translated by Lindsay Watson
Additional notes by Ben Hooson
First published in English 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
English edition © 2019 Geneviève Morel
Translated by Lindsay Watson
Additional notes by Ben Hooson
Geneviève Morel, La loi de la mère. Essai sur le sinthome sexuel © Economica
Anthropos, Paris, 2008
The right of Geneviève Morel to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Morel, Geneviève, author.
Title: The law of the mother: an essay on the sexual sinthome / Geneviève Morel.
Other titles: Loi de la máere. English
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2019. | Originally
published in French as: La loi de la máere: Essai sur le sinthome sexuel. |
Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018030869 (print) | LCCN 2018032477 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429435447 (Master eBook) | ISBN 9781138351189 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138351196 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Mother and child. | Gender identity—Psychological aspects. |
Psychoanalysis.
Classification: LCC BF723.M55 (ebook) | LCC BF723.M55 M6313 2019 (print) |
DDC 155.4/182—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030869
ISBN: 978-1-138-35118-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-35119-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-43544-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Optima and Palatino
by codeMantra
CONTENTS
ACknowLEDGEMEnTS vii
InTRoDuCTIon 1
PART ONE
SYMPTOM, FANTASY AND PATHOLOGIES OF
THE LAW 9
CHAPTER I
The law of the mother and the symptom that separates 11
CHAPTER II
A critique of the fundamental fantasy 37
PART TWO
LACAN AND THE SINTHOME 51
CHAPTER III
Freudian constructions and Lacanian reductions 53
v
vi CoNTeNTS
CHAPTER IV
The symptom abolishes the symbol 77
CHAPTER V
The young man without an ego 107
PART THREE
THE SINTHOME AND THE RELATION TO THE
OTHER – FILIATION, TRANSMISSION, SEXUATION 141
CHAPTER VI
Extensions of the symptom 143
CHAPTER VII
Psychoanalytic uses of the sinthome 187
CHAPTER VIII
Sinthome and sexual ambiguity 203
PART FOUR
THE AMBIGUOUS MAN, HIS MOTHER AND HIS
SINTHOME 217
CHAPTER IX
Gide: masks and sinthome 219
CHAPTER X
Three cases of sexual ambiguity in men 265
ConCLuSIon
The sinthome is sexual 301
REFEREnCES 315
InDEX 321
ACkNOWLEdGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my colleagues, and to
the participants from Paris and Lille who attended “Savoirs et clinique”
and ALEPH (Association Lilloise pour l’Étude de la Psychanalyse et de
son Histoire), all of whom listened patiently to me in research seminars
and in private. Over a long period of time, I discussed the themes of this
book with Franz Kaltenbeck, Brigitte Lemonnier, Lucille Charliac, Darian
Leader, Emmanuel Fleury, Carine Decool, Jean-Paul Kornobis, Marie-Ange
Baudot, Monique David-Ménard, Daisuke Fukuda, Sadi Lakhdari, S ophie
Mendelssohn, Érik Porge and many others. I learnt a great deal from
working in Dr. Lavoisy’s service at Armentières Hospital, and this book
bears the stamp of that clinical experience.
My warmest thanks to Professor Paul-Laurent Assoun, of Paris VII, who
most elegantly guided the thesis which forms the basis of this work, as
well as to Professors Marie-Jean Sauret, Christian Hoffmann and Markos
Zafiropoulos, members of the panel, who read the work, and whose com-
ments, critiques and questions challenged me to think anew.
Pierre-Henri Castel read and re-read the text, offering his comments
and corrections with great generosity, and Lucile Charliac spared no
time or effort in asking probing and pertinent questions and helping
vii
viii aCkNowLeDGeMeNTS
me to re-write some of the more delicate passages of this book. Franz
Kaltenbeck energetically encouraged me to finish the work.
Discussions with Professors Jean Bollack and Jacques Aubert opened
up new and unexpected horizons for me.
Michel Gardaz kindly chose to include me once again in his series of
psychoanalytic books at Anthropos, and I am grateful to him for this and
for his careful advice regarding my text.
Finally, a sincere thank you to Diane Watteau, Parveen Adams and es-
pecially Régis Michel who inspired me in my choice of the cover image.
INTROduCTION
I was dreaming that our old priest was about to pull me by my curls; this
had been absolute terror, the harsh Law of my childhood. The fall of Kronos,
Prometheus’s discovery, the birth of Christ, none of these had raised the
heavens so high above humanity, which until then had been crushed, as
did the cutting-off of my curls, which brought in its wake the most awful
apprehension. In truth, other sufferings and other fears had perhaps replaced
it, but the world’s axis had been shifted. I could go back quite easily into
this world of the old law when I was asleep, and would wake only at the
moment when, having tried in vain to escape from the poor priest, who had
been dead for years, I had the intense feeling of my curls being pulled from
behind my head. And before going back to sleep, as I remembered that the
priest was dead and I had short hair, I was nevertheless at pains to cement
myself into a protective nest made from the pillow, the coverlet, my hand-
kerchief and the wall, before returning to this bizarre world in which after all
the priest was alive, and I had my curls.
Marcel Proust1
What an ambiguous world it is that the narrator of “In Search of Lost
Time” aspires to find again in his disturbed sleep! Certainly, the dreamer
1
