The Name-of-the-Father (2 of 3): A desire radar

What is enabled by being anchored in the symbolic by the Name-of-the-Father? Lacan throws us a curve-ball. Mythically, he says, the father can only be an animal. What!? The father, moreover, must be associated with a name. Huh?! We revisit the British TV Show ’How to Look Good Naked’, and we try and differentiate the big Other and the Name-of-the-Father. In psychosis, the relationship to the big Other is not adequately mediated; the Other is not ’kept at a comfortable distance’. In paranoia, the Other intrudes, is too close, and is controlling. In other states of psychosis - as in catatonic schizophrenia, for example - the Other seems virtually inoperative. Link to board: