Lacan’s theory involves the critique of psychogenetic approaches to the Oedipus complex. Lacan’s focus on the Father and castration further accentuates Freud’s favoring of a phylogenetic approach. Adolescence is a time of disappointment of Oedipal aspirations, when it turns out that genitality does not provide a relationship to the Other. This illustrates the lesser importance for Lacan of the Oedipus complex as a means to analyze adolescent processes.

Adolescence, 2016, 34, 2, 261-270.