24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
The term '[[complex]]' ([[French]]:''[[complexe]]'') occupies an important place in [[Lacan]]'s work before 1950, where it is closely related to the [[image]].
Whereas the ''[[imago]] '' designates an [[imaginary]] stereotype relating to one person, the [[complex]] is a whole constellation of interacting ''[[imago]]s; it is the [[internalisation]] of the [[subject]]'s earliest social [[structure]]s (i.e. the relationships between the various actors in his family environment)'.
It is the [[internalisation]] of the [[subject]]'s earliest social [[structure]]s (i.e. the relationships between the various actors in his family environment). A [[complex]] involves multiple [[identification]]s with all the interacting ''[[imago]]s'', and thus provides a script according to which the [[subject]] is led "to play out, as the sole actor, the drama of conflicts' between the members of his family."<ref>{{Ec}} p.90</ref>
In his pre-war work, [[Lacan]] argues that it is because [[human]] [[psychology]] is based on the [[complex]]es, which are entirely [[cultural]] products, rather than on [[natural]] [[instinct]]s, that human [[behaviour]] cannot be explained by reference to [[biological]] givens.
