Law on the Other Side of Oedipus: Freud and Lacan on Law and Self-Formation

Article

Hourigan, Daniel. 2024. "Law on the Other Side of Oedipus: Freud and Lacan on Law and Self-Formation." Law, Culture and the Humanities. https://doi.org/10.1177/17438721241234195

Article Title	Law on the Other Side of Oedipus: Freud and Lacan on Law and Self-Formation
ERA Journal ID	33569
Article Category	Article
Authors	Hourigan, Daniel
Journal Title	Law, Culture and the Humanities
Number of Pages	18
Year	2024
Publisher	SAGE Publications Ltd
Place of Publication	United Kingdom
ISSN	1743-8721
	1743-9752
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.1177/17438721241234195
Web Address (URL)	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17438721241234195
Abstract	This article investigates the place of law in the Oedipus complex set out by Sigmund Freud and its later revision by Jacques Lacan. Few accounts of self-formation have been as widely recognised and discussed as the Oedipus complex. Yet the tensions that Freud recovered from Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex were a persistent feature of the theories of schools of psychoanalysis that broke away as much as those who followed Freud. In this article, I outline the Freudian position on the complex and its connection to the law before then examining the two phases of Lacan’s return to Freud’s Oedipus complex in Seminar VII and Seminar XVII.
Keywords	Law; Psychoanalysis; Oedipus Complex; Jacques Lacan; Sigmund Freud
Contains Sensitive Content	Does not contain sensitive content
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020	470207. Cultural theory
	480403. Law and humanities
Byline Affiliations	University of Southern Queensland

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