%0 Journal Article
%T Contemporary perspectives on Lacanian theories of psychosis
%A Jonathan D. Redmond
%J Frontiers in Psychology
%D 2013
%I Frontiers Media
%R 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00350
%X In contemporary Lacanian psychoanalysis, Verhaeghe's theory of actualpathology psychopathology in psychosis and the Millerian idea of ¡°ordinary psychosis¡± provide diverging conceptual approaches to psychosis. In this paper, the two approaches to psychosis are examined with a particular emphasis on ¡°mild psychosis¡± and compensatory mechanisms. Despite the shared focus on similar clinical phenomena, particularly body disturbances, these two theories provide different explanations of psychosis. Verhaeghe's theory of psychosis is a synthesis of Lacanian theory, Freud's idea of actual neurosis and psychoanalytic attachment concepts. Moreover, these ideas are situated in the ¡°schizophrenia/paranoia dichotomy¡± an important heuristic device utilized in clinical practice with psychosis. In contrast, the Millerian field of ordinary psychosis aims to broaden the idea of psychosis by reviving the idea of ¡°mild psychosis¡± and the different forms of stabilization possible in psychosis. Clinicians adapting the idea of ordinary psychosis aim to rethink pivotal Lacanian concepts¡ª¡°untriggered¡± psychosis and stabilization¡ªbeyond the scope of the schizophrenia/paranoia dichotomy. Although the idea of ordinary psychosis requires further development, it promise greater utility than Verhaeghe's model, as it provides a broader and more nuanced approach to the complex vicissitudes of triggering and restitution in psychosis.
%K psychosis
%K Lacan
%K Miller
%K Verhaeghe
%K actual neurosis
%K ordinary psychosis
%K stabilization
%U http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00350/abstract