Changing
Minds
.org

How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

 

Disciplines

 

Techniques

 

Principles

 

Explanations

 

Theories

 

 

Home

 

Blog!

 

Quotes

 

Guest articles

 

Analysis

 

Books

 

Guestbook

 

Links

 

 

Now, you can buy
the real book!

Add/share/save
this page:

Add to Google

 

 


Save the rain


 

 

 

The Chora

 

Disciplines > Psychoanalysis > Concepts > The Chora

Description | Discussion | See also

 

Description

The Chora is the initial state in a child's life where, between zero and about six months, it is driven by a chaotic mix of perceptions, feelings, and needs.

The self is not recognized as the child sense of being is blended into its world and mother in something close to a continuation of being in womb. There is no recognition of boundaries.

This stage is is closest to the Real, where basic life and death drives are the prime motivators.

Discussion

Kristeva's description of this early stage is similar to other descriptions such as the first part of Lacan's neonatal phase and Winnicott's undifferentiated unity.

French feminists use the chora to reject Lacan's claim that gender is defined through language and the symbolic register, highlighting it as a pre-Oedipal position from which identity can be spoken. The Chora is .experienced differently by males and females, thus creating gender difference.

The term 'semiotic' is often used either in tandem with 'chora' or sometimes as a replacement. It in particular forms an opposite to the 'symbolic' of the later symbolic register.

See also

Kristeva, The neonatal phase, Winnicott's development stages

 

 

Contact Caveat About Students Webmasters Awards Guestbook Feedback Sitemap Changes

 

 

  © Syque 2002-2010

TOP

Massive Content -- Maximum Speed