The paternal metaphor is a psychoanalytical concept that introduces the question of the father in the Oedipus complex idea. The paternal concept addresses this question by presenting the father as the symbolic authority, the symbolic unification, and the desire principle. As described by Lacan, the Name-of-the-Father concept has three functions that portray the distinctions between the imaginary, symbolic and real father. The imaginary father is a function that illustrates the constructing mental subjects that are fantasies of the ideal father or bad father. The symbolic father demonstrates the paternal functions of creating a symbolic order by imposing the law (Bonnigal-Katz, 2020). The symbolic father also personifies the regulation of desire between the child and the mother in the Oedipus complex by establishing a relevant distance. The real father conceptualizes the Name-of-the-Father from the symbolic and imaginary into a signifier.
The Lacanian concept of paternal metaphor describes language acquisition as the unification of three correlated orders (Aghamohammadi, 2017). The first is the attachment of sounds to words, also known as the symbolic order. The second is the identification of the sounds in the physical mind. The final order refers to effects that are encountered in the mind as the sounds are expressed. According to Lacan, language is partly responsible for the experience of subjectivity. The operations of language are a template to illustrate the equivalent of the fundamental operations of sexual differentiation. The fundamental operations of language, therefore, function as rules. The first fundamental operation of language is the relation of difference that refers to the child's identification of the difference between father and mother as signifiers in the language system. Another operation is the relation of substitution, where for language to work, a child must replace the mother as its object of desire. These operations must be acquired within the language domain for proper communication.
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In paternal metaphor, the Name-of-the-Father signifies the imposition of the law in prohibiting the child's desire of the mother. Lack and desire force humans into the symbolic in Lacan's psychoanalysis. Lack represents the identification of an object that is lost, and we are attempting to find. Human desire operates similarly in these continuous replacements and substitutions. Language's substitution and replacement operation is a prerequisite condition for operations of desire (Bonnigal-Katz, 2020). The language process starts at the same time as the Name-of-the-Father imposes law on a child. Both processes contribute to the creation of desire as the human condition. With the exclusion of the mother as an object of desire by the imposition of the law, a child makes steps towards substituting to another object of desire in future. As language excludes us from our mothers as the objects of our desire, it also brings new desire as we search for a perfect match between language and our fantasy.
The relationship between the mother and child is not exclusively limited to the two parties since a third element of the phallus exists. The phallus is the mother's imaginary object of desire that the child cannot conceptualize or materialize into reality (Rae, 2019). The imaginary phallus is always a mystery to the child but understands it to be the mothers greatest desire that signifies intense pleasure. This object of desire could be the father or a romantic partner, but it is generally something the infant cannot ideally compete with (Aragão Oliveira, 2020). This comparison triggers the child's curiosity. The infant discovers that though it is important to the mother, it would never be her object of greatest desire. This experience ignites a lack in the child after realizing it does not identify as the object of the phallus.
On the other hand, the mother also experiences a lack since she desires but does not completely acquire the phallus. The child will attempt to become the phallus because it recognizes the mother lacks that object of desire. This attempt to acquire that form manifests in various unique scenarios that would please the mother the most in the mind of a child. A general perception of the phallus is that it signifies the mother's desire and signifies lack. It refers to something everyone wishes to have, but nobody can have. Phallus exists both in the imaginary and symbolic domains with different orders of existence. In the symbolic, phallus refers to anything that can convey meaning as a substitute for the desire of the mother. The child soon realizes that the phallus is not necessarily attributed to an individual but a symbol or concept that signifies the desire.
According to Lacan, the Freudian Oedipus complex can be subdivided into three phases of logical order. In the first phase, the child recognizes that the mother has a greater desire for an object other than itself. This desire is conceptualized as an imaginary phallus which the child tries to embody. The second phase represents the introduction of the father's presence, whose role is to prohibit the child from embodying the desire of the mother (Rae, 2019). In this second phase, the father's interventions distance the mother from the phallus. The third phase of the Oedipus complex reflects the castration complex being imposed upon the child. The child discovers that the father has the signifier for the phallus, and this realization dissolves the Oedipus complex since it cannot manifest the mother's phallus.
In line with the concept of Saussurean linguistics that describes signifiers as acquiring value due to their distinction from other signifiers, Lacan describes a phallus as a signifier that is greater than all others. Notable scholars have perceived that this theoretical linguistic dimension focuses on the phallus as a signifier since it acts as a signifier of lack, desire and imaginary object of desire. It appears phallus controls accessibility to language and the symbolic.
References
Aghamohammadi, M. (2017). A Desire for the Marsupial Space: A Lacanian Reading of Lacan. Advances in Language and Literary Studies , 8 (1), 111. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.1p.111
Aragão Oliveira, R. (2020). The father and the paternal function in the psychoanalytical process: theoretical and clinical issues*. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , 80 (3), 309–330. https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-020-09262-y
Bonnigal-Katz, D. (2020). From Medusa to Kronos: The fragile illusion of the maternal phallus. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society , 25 (1), 114–121. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-019-00156-2
Rae, G. (2019). Maternal and paternal functions in the formation of subjectivity: Kristeva and Lacan. Philosophy & Social Criticism , 46 (4), 412–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453719856653
