Within the depth-psychology corpus, 'Lack' operates across at least three distinct registers that rarely communicate with one another, yet collectively illuminate the centrality of absence to psychological life. In the Lacanian tradition, Lack is a structural, constitutive feature of subjectivity itself: the phallus as the object petit a figures a necessary minus, a subtraction from the Other that inaugurates desire rather than merely frustrating it. This ontological deployment of Lack is categorically different from the developmental-clinical sense employed by Bowlby, where lack refers to deficits in empathic presence, mourning opportunity, or environmental support whose consequences are measurable and remediable. Between these poles sits a third register—the virtue-ethical and characterological sense found in Nussbaum, Cairns, and the Philokalia—where lack denotes the privation of specific excellences (aidos, phrenes, relational virtue) that renders a person less than fully human. The Fordham-Samuels tradition bridges clinical and ontological concerns by placing lack of empathic 'fit' between infant and caregiver at the origin of self-pathology and defences of the self. What unifies these divergent treatments is the recognition that Lack is never merely negative: it is generative of symptom, desire, mourning, and compensatory structure alike.
the little o is the 0 - J> minus phi, o = 0 . In others words it is from this angle that the © (phi) comes to symbolise what is lacking to the 0 in order to be the noetic 0
Lacan formalises Lack as a structural subtraction inscribed in the very field of the Other, with the phallus symbolising what the Other necessarily lacks in order to function as a complete signifying system.
, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VIII: Transference, 2015thesis
defences of the self. Fordham (1974a) expanded his idea of primary self to include the notion that the self, just as much as the ego, has mechanisms of defence. These come into play when there is a lack of a sufficiently empathic 'fit' between baby and mother
Fordham locates the triggering condition for self-defences in a lack of empathic fit between infant and caregiver, giving lack a precise clinical-developmental function within analytical psychology.
, Jung and the Post-Jungians, 1985thesis
without making political and other-related concerns ends in themselves, one will lack not only justice but also true courage, true moderation, true generosity, greatness of soul
Nussbaum, reading Aristotle, argues that lack of relational orientation entails not a single deficit but the privation of every excellence, because virtue is constitutively interpersonal.
, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, 1986thesis
the lack of azdos against which Apollo threatens memeszs (24. 53) is not only a lack of compunction for Hector, but a lack of regard for the normal limits of human conduct
Cairns demonstrates that in Homer, lack of aidos is not a mere emotional deficit but a transgression of the ontological limits separating human from bestial conduct, drawing divine nemesis.
, Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature, 1993supporting
lack of sense may coexist with lack of aids, as in Odyssey 17 (454), where Antinous, who has shown a flagrant lack of aos in his words to the beggar, is charged with lack of phrenes
Cairns traces a systematic co-occurrence of moral and cognitive lack in Homeric ethics, where deficiency in aidos is structurally linked to deficiency in practical reason.
, Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature, 1993supporting
her prolonged inability to cry or to experience any longing for her mother her inappropriate bouts of euphoria her subsequent depression, totally disconnected in her mind from the bereavement she had suffered
Bowlby presents pathological mourning as the symptomatic consequence of prohibited grief: the lack of permission to mourn transforms natural sorrow into disconnected depression and self-reproach.
, Loss: Sadness and Depression (Attachment and Loss, Volume III), 1980supporting
the Sophia who dwells above, compelled by necessity, departed with suffering from the Pleroma into the darkness and empty spaces of the void. Separated from the light of the Pleroma, she was without form or figure, like an untimely birth, because s
Jung invokes the Gnostic Sophia-Achamoth as an archetypal image of primordial lack—separation from the fullness of the Pleroma as the mythological origin of psychic suffering and formlessness.
, Alchemical Studies, 1967supporting
No longer is he allowed to communicate his sorrows or his hopes. As a result he retreats into himself standing alone in a corner, still attempting to reassure himself by the flickering movements of his hands and lips
Bowlby shows how the enforced lack of any expressive or communicative outlet transforms acute grief into the isolated, self-soothing posture characteristic of pathological mourning.
, Loss: Sadness and Depression (Attachment and Loss, Volume III), 1980supporting
the lack of definitive answers on brain/mind matters is not a cause for despair, however, and is not to be seen as a sign of failure of the scientific fields now engaged in the effort
Damasio reframes epistemic lack in neuroscience not as deficit but as the productive open horizon of an accelerating research enterprise, distinguishing absence of explanation from impasse.
, Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, 1994aside
lack of anxiety about all things, forbearance, lack of self-esteem, disinterest in glory, simplicity of soul
The Philokalia inverts secular usage by presenting certain lacks—of anxiety, self-esteem, and desire for glory—as positive spiritual attainments constitutive of the contemplative life.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995aside