英：regression; 法：regression; 德：Regression

弗洛伊德为了说明梦境的视觉化特征而在《释梦》中引入了退行的概念。弗洛伊德根据一种地形学模型把精神在其中构想为一系列差异系统，他由此指出，在睡眠期间，运动活动的进行性通路遭到阻滞，因而便迫使思维经由这些系统而退行性地朝向知觉系统行进 (Freud, 1900a: SEV, 538-55)。后来，他又给这一节文章增加了一段话，在此种地形学的退行与他所谓的时间上的（当主体返回至先前的发展阶段）退行以及形式上的退行（在表达方式的运用上不如其他退行那么复杂）之间做出了区分（Freud, 1900a: SEV, 548[1914年增段]).

拉康认为，退行的概念向来都是在精神分析理论中遭到最多误解的概念之一。特别是，他批评那种“魔法式”的退行观，根据此种观点，退行被看作一种真实的现象，成年人在其中会“实际退行且返回至小孩子的状态，并开始啼哭”。就该术语的此种意义而言，“退行并不存在”(S2,103)。为了替代此种错误观念，拉康指出退行必须首先从地形学的意义上来理解，也就是按照弗洛伊德在1900年引入该术语时对其理解的方式，而非是从时间性的意义上来理解 (见：时间[TME])。换句话说，“退行存在于意指的层面而非现实的层面”(S2,103)。因而，退行应当“既非是在本能的意义上，也非是在某种先前事物的再现的意义上”，而是要在“象征界被化约至想象界”的意义上来理解 (S4,335).

就退行可以被说成是具有某种时间性的意义而言，它并不涉及“在时间上倒退”的主体，而是涉及对于某些要求 (DEMANDS)的重新链接：“退行所展现的无非是在那些有其规定的要求中所使用的能指回到了现在。”(E, 255)例如，向口腔阶段的退行，便要根据各种口腔要求的链接来理解 (那种被喂养的要求，便明显存在于要分析家提供解释的要求之中)。拉康在此种意义上来理解退行的时候，又重申了退行在精神分析治疗中的重要性：例如，他指出，向肛门阶段的退行是如此重要，以至于并未遭遇此种退行的分析便不能被称作完整的分析 (S8,242)。

(regression) Freud introduced the concept of regression in The Interpretation of Dreamsin order to explain the visual nature of dreams. Basing himself on a topographical modelin which the psyche is conceived of as a series of distinct systems, Freud argued thatduring sleep progressive access to motor activity is blocked, thus forcing thoughts totravel regressively through these systems towards the system of perception (Freud, 1900a: SE V, 538-55). He later added a passage to this section distinguishing betweenthis topographical kind of regression and what he called temporal regression (when thesubject reverts to previous phases of development) and formal regression (the use ofmodes of expression which are less complex than others)(Freud, 1900a: SE V, 548[passage added in 1914]).

Lacan argues that the concept of regression has been one of the most misunderstoodconcepts in psychoanalytic theory. In particular, he criticises the 'magical'view ofregression, according to which regression is seen as a real phenomenon, in which adultsactually regress, return to the state of a small child, and start wailing'. In this sense of theterm,'regression does not exist' (S2,103). In place of this misconception, Lacan arguesthat regression must be understood first and foremost in a topographical sense, which isthe way Freud understood the term when he introduced it in 1900, and not in a temporalsense (see TIME). In other words,'there is regression on the plane of signification andnot on the plane of reality' (S2,103). Thus regression is to be understood 'not in theinstinctual sense, nor in the sense of the resurgence of something anterior', but in thesense of 'the reduction of the symbolic to the imaginary' (S4,355).

Insofar as regression can be said to have a temporal sense, it does not involve thesubject going back in time', but rather a rearticulation of certain DEMANDS: regression shows nothing other than a return to the present of signifiers used in demandsfor which there is a prescription' (E, 255). Regression to the oral stage, for example, is to