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Ego
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{{Top}}moi]]''; [[German]]: ''[[Ich{{Bottom}}
=====TranslationJacques Lacan=====
=====''Moi'' and ''Je''=====
From [[Works of Jacques Lacan|very early on in his work]], [[Lacan]] plays on the fact that the [[German]] term which [[Freud]] uses (''[[Ego|Ich]]'') can be translated into [[French]] by two words: ''[[ego|moi]]'' (the usual term which [[French]] [[psychoanalyst]]s use for [[Freud]]'s ''[[ego|Ich]]'') and ''[[ego|je]]''.
Thus, for example, in his paper on the [[mirror stage]], [[Lacan]] oscillates between the two terms.<ref>{{L}} "[[The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience|Le stade du miroir comme formateur de la fonction du Je]]," in {{Ec}} pp. 93-100 ["[[The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience]]", trans. [[Alan Sheridan]], in {{E}} pp. 1-7].</ref>
It was the publication of [[Jakobson]]'s paper on [[shifter]]s in 1957 that allowed [[Lacan]] to theorise the distinction more clearly; thus, in 1960, [[Lacan]] refers to the ''[[ego|je]]'' as a [[shifter]], which designates but does not [[signify]] the [[subject]] of the [[enunciation]].<ref>{{E}} p. 298</ref>
=====Translation=====
Most English translations make [[Lacan]]'s usage clear by rendering ''[[ego|moi]]'' as "[[ego]]" and ''[[ego|je]]'' as "[[ego|I]]".
When [[Lacan]] uses the Latin term [[ego]] (the term used to translate [[Freud]]'s ''[[ego|Ich]]'' in the [[Standard Edition]]), he uses it in the same sense as the term ''[[moi]]'', but also means it to imply a more direct reference to Anglo-American [[school]]s of [[psychoanalysis]], especially [[ego-psychology]].
=====Sigmund Freud=====[[Freud]]'s use of the term ''[[ego|Ich]]'' ([[ego]]) is extremely complex and went through many developments throughout the course of his [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work ]] before coming to denote one of the three agencies of the so-called "[[ego|structural model]]" (the others being the [[id]] and the [[superego]]).
=====Freud's Two Approaches to the Ego=====
Despite the complexity of [[Freud]]'s formulations on the [[ego]], [[Lacan]] discerns two main approaches to the [[ego]] in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]], and points out that they are apparently contradictory.
The former approach places the [[ego]] firmly in the [[libido|libidinal economy]] and links it with the [[pleasure principle]], whereas the latter approach links the [[ego]] to the perception-consciousness system and opposes it to the [[pleasure principle]].
[[Lacan ]] claims too that the apparent contradiction between these two accounts "disappears when we free ourselves from a naive conception of the reality-principle."<ref>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Some Reflections on the Ego]]," ''Int. J. Psycho-Anal.'', vol. 34, 1953: p. 11</ref>
Thus the [[reality]] that the [[ego]] mediates with, in the latter account, is in fact made out of the [[pleasure principle]] which the [[ego]] represents in the former account.
However, it is arguable whether this argument really resolves the contradiction or whether it does not, in effect, simply privilege the former account at the expense of the latter.
=====Central PositionCenter of the Subject=====
[[Lacan]] argues that [[Freud]]'s discovery of the [[unconscious]] removed the [[ego]] from the central position to which [[philosophy|western philosophy]], at least since [[Descartes]], had traditionally assigned it.
[[Lacan]] also argues that the proponents of [[ego-psychology]] betrayed [[Freud]]'s radical discovery by relocating the [[ego]] as the centre center of the [[subject]].
In opposition to this [[school|school of thought]] of thought, [[Lacan]] maintains that the [[ego]] is not at the centrecenter, that the [[ego]] is in fact an [[object]]. '
=====Identification=====
The [[ego]] is a [[formation|construction ]] which is formed by [[identification]] with the [[specular image]] in the [[Mirror stage]].
=====Alienation=====
The [[ego]] is also the source of [[resistance]] to [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]], and thus to strengthen it would only increase those [[resistance]]s.
Because of its [[imaginary]] fixity, the [[ego]] is [[resistance|resistant ]] to all subjective growth and change, and to the [[dialectic|dialectical movement]] of [[desire]].
By undermining the fixity of the [[ego]], [[psychoanalytic treatment]] aims to restore the [[dialectic]] of [[desire]] and reinitiate the [[being|coming-into-being]] of the [[subject]].
=====See Also=====
{{See}}
* [[Adaptation]]
* [[Alienation]]
* [[Counterpart]]
||
* [[Ego-psychology]]
* [[Enunciation]]
* [[Identification]]
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* [[Imaginary]]
* [[Mirror stage]]
* [[Paranoia]]
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* [[Resistance]]
* [[Shifter]]
* [[Specular image]]
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* [[Structure]]
* [[Subject]]
* [[TreatmentSymptom]]{{Also}}
=====References=====
