Symptom or sinthome.

Are you slave to your symptom or artist of your sinthome? The difference is radical: suffering vs creation.

Symptom or sinthome.

The symptom is the spoiled child of the unconscious: it screams, demands attention, promises revelations if we coddle it enough. We come to analysis believing the symptom is our enemy to eliminate, never suspecting it can transform into our most intimate companion. The difference between suffering the symptom and inhabiting the sinthome marks the boundary between neurotic complaint and the assumption of desire.

To identify with the symptom is to live as its hostage: "I am depressive, I am anxious, I am addicted." The subject reduces itself to its ailment, turning failure into total identity. Paradoxically, the sinthome operates in the opposite way: we are not our symptom, but we include it as part of our irreducible singularity. It's the difference between being possessed by a demon and domesticating it to work in our favor.

Contemporary clinic doesn't seek symptom elimination but its transformation into sinthome. The analysand learns to take distance from what determines them, to choose how to relate to it. It's not about curing but creating: making the symptom a personal work of art that sustains desire without crushing it.

Psychotherapy

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