A Lacanian Perspective on the Case of Colette

A Lacanian perspective privileges speech as the motor of cure in the treatment of this borderline patient. In assuming such an ethical position, the clinician fostered a symbolic transference marked by an outburst of rage that signified a rupture of her entanglement with her mother. In this way, the clinician's promotion of "full speech" breached the patient's defensive need for "invisibility" and led her to produce a socially useful project.