# Scotomization

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{{Short description|Term for mental blocking of unwanted perceptions}}
'''Scotomization''' is a psychological term for the mental blocking of unwanted perceptions, analogous to the visual blindness of an actual [scotoma](/source/scotoma).

==Controversies==
This term initially was used by [Charcot](/source/Jean-Martin_Charcot) in connection with [hysteria](/source/hysteria).<ref>A. Goulet, ''Optiques'' (2013) p. 208</ref> 

=== Psychoanalysis ===
Reviving in the 1920s this term, [Rene Laforgue](/source/Rene_Laforgue) and [Edouard Pichon](/source/Edouard_Pichon) introduced the idea of scotomization into [psychoanalysis](/source/psychoanalysis)&nbsp;– a move initially welcomed by Freud in 1926 as a useful description of the hysterical avoidance of distressing perceptions.<ref>S. Freud, ''On Psychopathology'' (PFL 10) pp. 317–8</ref> The following year, however, he attacked the term for suggesting that the perception was wholly blotted out (as with [a retina's blind spot](/source/Blind_spot_(vision))), whereas his clinical experience showed that on the contrary intense psychic measures had to be taken to keep the unwanted perception out of consciousness.<ref>S. Freud, ''On Sexuality'' (PFL 7) pp. 352–3</ref>  A debate followed between Freud and Laforgue, further illuminated by Pichon's 1928 article on 'The Psychological Significance of Negation in French', where he argued that "The French language expresses the desire for ''scotomisation'' through the [''forclusif''](/source/Foreclosure_(psychoanalysis))."<ref>Quoted in [Elisabeth Roudinesco](/source/Elisabeth_Roudinesco), ''Jacques Lacan'' (2005) p. 282</ref>

====Lacan====
Decades later in the 1950s, the question of scotomization re-emerged in a [phenomological](/source/Phenomenology_(psychology)) context under the influence of [Jacques Lacan](/source/Jacques_Lacan).<ref>G. Waite, ''Nietzsche's Corpse'' (1996) p. 291</ref>  Lacan used scotomization to represent the [ego](/source/Id%2C_ego_and_superego)'s relationship to the unconscious&nbsp;– speaking of "everything that the ego, neglects, scotomizes, misconstrues in...reality"<ref>J. Lacan, ''Ecrits'' (1977) p. 22</ref>&nbsp;– as well as to challenge [Sartre](/source/Sartre)'s concept of the [gaze](/source/gaze).<ref>J. Lacan, ''The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis'' (1994) pp. 83–4</ref>  Most significantly of all, however, he developed it into his influential update of Pichon's concept of foreclosure, thus endowing that idea with a conflation of visual and verbal elements.<ref>M. Jay, ''Downcast Eyes'' (1993) p. 356</ref>

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
*[Disavowal](/source/Disavowal)
*[Fetishism](/source/Fetishism)
*[Hallucination](/source/Hallucination)
*[Scopophilia](/source/Scopophilia)
*[Splitting](/source/Splitting_(psychology))
}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2|}}

==External links==

[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3435301317.html Scotomization]

<!--- Categories --->

Category:Abnormal psychology
Category:Defence mechanisms

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Scotomization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotomization) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotomization?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.