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counterpart (ge√labie) The term 'counterpart' plays an important
-part in Lacan's work from the 1930s on, and designates other people in whom
-the subject perceives a likeness to himself (principally a visual likeness). The
-counterpart plays an important part in the intrusion complex and in the MIRROR
STAGE (Which are themselves closely interrelated).
The intrusion complex is one of the three 'family complexes' which Lacan
discusses in his 1938 article on the family, and arises when the child first
realises that he has siblings, that other subjects like him participate in the
family structure. The emphasis here is on likeness; the child identifies with his
siblings on the basis of the recognition of bodily similarity (which depends, of
course, on their being a relatively small age difference between the subject and
his siblings). It is this identification that gives rise to the 'imago of the
counterpart' (Lacan, 1938: 35-9).
The imago of the counterpart is interchangeable with the image of the
subject's own body, the SPECULAR IMAGE with which the subject identifies in
the mirror stage, leading to the formation of the ego. This interchangeability is
evident in such phenomena aS TRANSITIVISM, and illustrates the way that the
subject constitutes his objects on the basis of his ego. The image of another
person's body can only be identified with insofar as it is perceived as similar to
one's own body, and conversely the counterpart is only recognised as a
separate, identifiable ego by projecting one's own ego onto him.
In 1955 Lacan introduces a distinction between 'the big Other' and 'the little
other' (or 'the imaginary other'), reserving the latter term for the counterpart
and/or specular image. The counterpart is the little other because it is not truly
other at all; it is not the radical alterity represented by the Other, but the other
insofar as he is similar to the ego (hence the interchangeability of a and a' in
schema L).
-part in Lacan's work from the 1930s on, and designates other people in whom
-the subject perceives a likeness to himself (principally a visual likeness). The
-counterpart plays an important part in the intrusion complex and in the MIRROR
STAGE (Which are themselves closely interrelated).
The intrusion complex is one of the three 'family complexes' which Lacan
discusses in his 1938 article on the family, and arises when the child first
realises that he has siblings, that other subjects like him participate in the
family structure. The emphasis here is on likeness; the child identifies with his
siblings on the basis of the recognition of bodily similarity (which depends, of
course, on their being a relatively small age difference between the subject and
his siblings). It is this identification that gives rise to the 'imago of the
counterpart' (Lacan, 1938: 35-9).
The imago of the counterpart is interchangeable with the image of the
subject's own body, the SPECULAR IMAGE with which the subject identifies in
the mirror stage, leading to the formation of the ego. This interchangeability is
evident in such phenomena aS TRANSITIVISM, and illustrates the way that the
subject constitutes his objects on the basis of his ego. The image of another
person's body can only be identified with insofar as it is perceived as similar to
one's own body, and conversely the counterpart is only recognised as a
separate, identifiable ego by projecting one's own ego onto him.
In 1955 Lacan introduces a distinction between 'the big Other' and 'the little
other' (or 'the imaginary other'), reserving the latter term for the counterpart
and/or specular image. The counterpart is the little other because it is not truly
other at all; it is not the radical alterity represented by the Other, but the other
insofar as he is similar to the ego (hence the interchangeability of a and a' in
schema L).
