Concept
Aphanisis
The total and permanent loss of the capacity, and of the opportunity, for sexual enjoyment. The term, from the Greek for disappearance, names the dread that in this view underlies neurosis in both sexes, castration fear being only one special form of it. Lacan later took the word over for the fading of the subject behind the signifier.
Read more- Introduced by
- Ernest Jones
- Key works
- 2
- Related
- Castration complex
introduced by
- Ernest Jones 1927 Proposed in his paper at the Innsbruck Congress of 1927.
diverges from
- Castration complex 1927 Aphanisis was framed against castration: the loss of sexual capacity as a whole, common to both sexes, rather than the threat to a single organ.
reworked by
- Jacques Lacan 1964 Lacan took Jones's word but turned it from the loss of desire into the 'fading' of the subject, who disappears under the signifier that represents it.