Ebook: In the Traces of our Name: The Influence of Given Names in Life (IPA: Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications)

In the choice of a child's name—the first symbolic inscription of a human being—the parents' desire appears in filigree. When children are born, they are not a tabula rasa, virgin of inscription. A pre-text precedes them, which is also a parental inter-text. The name becomes the written trace of the intersection of the parents' desires. Over this pre-text children write their own text and take possession of that name for themselves because of the singularity of its signs. The writing of the name remains as the indelible sign of a symbolic family history, a group palimpsest to which several generations often add contributions. Therefore, it is well worth going through this family book, following its movements, revealing its characters, recognizing this manuscript in cursive letters linked by bonds that run through several generations so that children may take possession of their first name.