The Latency Period as Logical Time

The author proposes to consider the period known as the child’s latency phase, in the metaphor of a structural conception of the subject and his genesis, as “logical time” within which, on the one hand, the repression of the Oedipus Complex and the renunciation of the parents of infancy are ratified, and on the other, the advent of the adolescent processes is anticipated. This latency period is then considered in its three logical moments: firstly, the child’s disappointment in his parents, as the “instant of the glance” opening onto the entry into latency; secondly, the interrogation of the place of the Other, as the “time for comprehending” specific to the structuring operation of latency; thirdly, discrediting of the parents who are unable to embody the Other, as the logical conclusion objectified in the retroaction of the latency by the advent of adolescence.