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[[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>.

[[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]].

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."

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>.

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]]."

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 beyond the ego with the <i>Id</i>, the <i>quod</i> (what-is-it?) which seeks to come into [[being ]] in analysis."

"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, 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, 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 circuit, each of them becomes someone else."

When [[Jean Hyppolite]] asks: "What use does the [[Symbolic]] have?" [[Lacan]] answers: "The [[Symbolic]], the [[Imaginary]] and the [[Real]] are useful in giving its [[meaning ]] to a particularly pure [[symbolic]] experience, that of [[analysis]]." Since the [[symbolic|symbolic dimension]] is the only dimension that [[cure]]s, "The [[symbolic]] [[order]] is simultaneously non-being and insisting to be, that is what [[Freud]] has in [[mind ]] when he talks [[about ]] the [[death]] [[instinct]] as being what is most fundamental: a [[symbolic order]] in travail, in the [[process ]] of coming, insisting in being realized."

The <i>[[Schema L]]</i>, systematized in <i>La [[lettre ]] volée</i> ([[Écrits]], 1966), is elaborated in this [[seminar]]. A four-term [[structure]] maps the [[Real]], the [[Imaginary]] and the [[Symbolic]] as replacing the second [[Freud]]ian [[topography]]: [[ego]] / <i>[[id]]</i> / [[superego]]. Two diagonals intersect, while the [[imaginary]] rapport [[links ]] <i>[[a]]</i> (the [[ego]]) to <i>[[a']]</i> (the [[other]]), the line going from <i>[[S]]</i> (the [[subject]], the [[Freud]]ian <i>[[id]]</i>) to <i>[[A]]</i> (the [[Other]]) is interrupted by the first one. The [[Other]] is difficult to define: it is the [[place ]] of [[language]] where [[subjectivity]] is constituted; it is the place of [[primal]] [[speech]] linked to the [[Father]]; it is the place of the absolute [[Other]], the [[mother]] in the [[demand]]. The [[Other]] makes the [[subject]] without him [[knowing]] it. With [[Lacan]] in [[Freud]]'s <i>[[Wo Es war, soll Ich werden]]</i>, <i>[[Es]]</i> is the [[subject]]. It [[knows]] him or doesn't. The further, more exacting insight, is [[It]] speaks or doesn't. At the [[end of analysis]], it is [[It]] who must be called on to [[speak]], and to enter in relation with real [[Others]]. Where <i>[[S]]</i> was, there the <i>[[Ich]]</i> should be.

|width="100%"| [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]]. [[Seminar I|The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book II : The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis 1954-1955 (Seminar of Jacques Lacan)]]. Ed. [[Jacques-Alain Miller]]. Trans. [[Sylvana Tomaselli]]. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991. Paperback, Language: [[English]], ISBN: 0393307093. <small><small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393307093/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr].</small></small>

|width="100%"| [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]]. [[Seminar I|Le séminaire, Livre II: Le moi dans la théorie de Freud et dans la technique de la psychanalyse]]. Ed. [[Jacques-Alain Miller]]. [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1977. 374 pages, Language: [[French]], ISBN: 2020047276. <small><small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2020047276/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr].</small></small>

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