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The child identifies with his image on the basis of term '[[counterpart]]' ([[French]]:''[[semblable]]'') denotes other people in whom the recognition of bodily similarity. It is this identification that gives rise [[subject]] perceives a (visual) likeness to the "imago of the counterpartitelf."<ref>Lacan, 1938: 35-9</ref>
The imago of the counterpart is interchangeable with the image of the subject's own body, the [[specular imagecounterpart]] with which the plays an important part in [[subjectLacan]] identifies 's work from the 1930s on, in the [[mirror stage]], leading to the formation of and in the [[egointrusion complex]].
It is this [[identification]] that gives rise to the "imago of the counterpart."<ref>Lacan, 1938: 35-9</ref>
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 [[object]]s 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 [[projection|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]]).
==See Also==
==References==
<references/>
counterpart 278 [[Seminar XI]]
[[Category:Imaginary]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
