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==Dictionary==
Originally introduced into psychoanalytic theory by Jung in 19111, the Latin term ''imago'' had already become standard in psychoanalytic terminology by the time LAcna began training as a psychoanalyst in the 1930s.
The term is clearly related to the term 'image', but it is meant to emphasize the subjective determination of the image; in other words, it includes feelings as well as a visual representation.
Imagos are specifically images of other people.
However, they are not the product of purely personal experience but universal prototypes which may be actualized in anyone's psyche.
Imagos act as sterotypes influencing the way the subject relates to other pople, who are perceived through the lens of these various iamgos.
The term 'imago' occupies a centrla role in Lacan's pre-1950 writings, where it is closely related to the term [[complex]].
In 1938, Lacan links each of the three family complexes to a specific imago: the weaning complex is liked to the iamgo of the maternal breast, the intrusion complex to the imago of the counterpart, and the Oedipus complex to the imago of the father.<ref>Lacan. 1938.</ref>
In 1946, Lacna argues that in formulating the concept of the imago, psychoanalysis has provided psychology with a proper object of study and thus set psychology on a truly scientific footing.
"It is possible.. to designate int eh iamgo the proper object of psychology, exactly to the same extent that Galileo's notion of the inert matieral poitn formed the basis of phsyics."<ref>{{Ec}}. p.188</ref>
Whereas for Jung and Klein imagos have equally positive and negative effects, In LAcan's work they are wighted firmly towards the negative, ebing funamentally deceptive and disruptive elements.
Lacan speaks of the iamgo of the fragmented body, and even unified imagos such as the specular image are mere illusions of wholeness which introduce an underlyign aggressivity.
"The first effect of the imago which appears in the human being is an effect of subjective ''alienation''.<ref>{{Ec}} p.181</ref>
After 1950 the term 'imago' disappears almost entirely from Lacan's theoretical vocabulary.
However, the basis ideas developed aroudn the term in Lacan's pre-1950 writings continue to play an important part in his thinking, being articualted around other terms , principally the term 'image.'
==Definition==
The Latin word imago simply means "image", but it has acquired a number of powerful connotations over time. Christian theology refers to the "imago Dei", the image of God in which human beings were created and with which they should strive to conform. [[Carl Jung | Carl Gustav Jung]] introduced the term into psychology; for Jung, the individual forms a personality by identifying with imagos that emerge from the collective unconscious, a shared reservoir of mythical figures and scenarios. Lacan takes up the term to refer to the image the infant sees in the mirror (or the image of the caregiver) and with which the infant identifies. In the ah-ha experience that characterizes the mirror stage, the infant grasps the connection between the image and its own existence. The infant experiences the imago as a [[Gestalt]], a meaningful form.
