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<BR><BR><span style="line-height:21.0em5em;font-size:1.1em">[[Lacan]] deliberates on the [[distinction]] made in his [[Seminar I|first seminar]] between [[discourse]] [[analysis]] and the [[analysis]] of the [[ego]], both in relation to [[psychoanalytical theory]] and [[practice]]. He claims that "[[analysis]] deals with [[resistance]]s." He reviews [[three]] works by [[Freud]]: <i>[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]</i>, on the [[death instinct]]; <i>[[Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego]]</i>; and <i>[[The Ego and the Id]]</i>.</span>

<span style="line-height:21.0em5em;font-size:1.1em">[[Consciousness]] is [[transparent]] to itself, whereas the [[I]] (<i>[[je]]</i>) is not. The [[I]] is [[outside]] the field of [[consciousness]] and its [[certainties]] (where we [[represent]] ourselves as [[ego]], where something [[exist]]s and is expressed by the [[I]]). But it is not enough to say that "the [[I]] of the [[unconscious]] is not the [[ego]]" since we tend to [[think]] this [[I]] as the [[true]] [[ego]]. [[Lacan]] proceeds to re-assert the locus of the [[ego]] and reinstate the [[excentricity]] of the [[subject]] vis-à-vis the [[ego]].</span>

<span style="line-height:21.0em5em;font-size:1.1em">The [[ego]] is a [[particular]] [[object]] within the [[experience]] of the [[subject]], with a certain function: an [[imaginary]] one. When in the [[specular image]] the [[ego]] is recognized as such by the [[subject]], this [[image]] becomes [[self-conscious]]. "The [[mirror stage]] is based on the rapport between, on one hand, a certain level of tendencies which are experienced as [[disconnected]] and, on the other, a [[unity]] with which it is merged and paired. In this [[unity]] the [[subject]] knows itself as [[unity]], but as an [[alienated]], [[virtual]] one."</span>

<span style="line-height:21.0em5em;font-size:1.1em">However, for a [[consciousness]] to perceive [[another]] [[consciousness]], the [[symbolic order]] must intervene on the [[system]] determined by the [[image]] of the [[ego]], as a [[dimension]] of <i>[[re-connaissance]]</i>.</span>

<span style="line-height:21.0em5em;font-size:1.1em">In "[[The Dream of Irma's Injection]]" the most [[tragic]] [[moment]] occurs in the confrontation with the [[Real]]. The ultimate [[Real]], "something in front of which [[word]]s stop." "In the [[dream]] the [[unconscious]] is what is [[outside]] all of the [[subject]]s. The [[structure]] of the [[dream]] shows that the [[unconscious]] is not the [[ego]] of the [[dream]]er." "This [[subject]] [[outside]] the [[subject]] designates the [[whole]] [[structure]] of the [[dream]]." "What is at stake in the function of the [[dream]] is beyond the [[ego]], what in the [[subject]] is of the [[subject]] and not of the [[subject]], that is the [[unconscious]]."</span>

<span style="line-height:21.0em5em;font-size:1.1em">In his analysis of [[Poe]]'s <i>[[Purloined Letter]]</i>, [[Lacan]] speaks of "an other beyond all subjectivity." The question concerns the "confrontation of [[The Subject|the subject]] beyond the ego with the <i>Id</i>, the <i>quod</i> (what-is-it?) which seeks to come into [[being]] in analysis."</span>

<span style="line-height:21.0em5em;font-size:1.1em">"The purloined [[letter]] is synonymous with the original, radical [[subject of the unconscious]]. The [[symbol]] is being [[displaced]] in its pure [[state]]: one cannot come into contact with without being caught in its play. There is [[nothing]] in destiny, or casualty, which can be defined as a function of [[existence]]. When the characters get hold of this letter, something gets hold of [[them]] and carries them along. At each [[stage]] of [[the symbolic]] transformation of [[The Letter|the letter]], they will be defined by their [[position]] in relation to this radical object. This position is not fixed. As they enter into the [[necessity]] peculiar to [[The Letter|the letter]], they each become functionally different to the essential [[reality]] of the letter. For each of them the letter is the unconscious, with all its consequences, namely that at each point of [[The Symbolic|the symbolic]] circuit, each of them becomes someone else."</span>