Changes

[[Lacan]] draws a distinction between [[aggressivity ]]and [[aggression]].

[[Lacan]] argues that [[aggressivity]] is just as present in apparently loving acts as in violent ones; it "underlies the activity of the philanthropist, the idealist, the pedagogue, and even the reformer.<ref>{{E}} p.7</ref>

[[Lacan]] situates [[aggressivity]] in the [[dual relation]] between the [[ego]] and the [[counterpart]].

In the [[mirror stage]], the [[infant]] sees its [[reflection]] in the [[mirror]] as a [[wholeness]], in contrast with the uncoordination in the [[real]] [[body]]: this contrast is experienced as an aggressive tension between the [[specular image]] and the [[real]] [[body]], since the [[wholeness]] of the [[image]] seems to threaten the [[body]] with disintegration and [[fragmentation]] (see [[fragmented body]]).

This 'erotic aggression' continues as a fundamental [[ambivalence]] underlying all future forms of [[identification]], and is an essential characteristic of [[narcissism]].

By linking [[aggressivity]] to the [[imaginary]] [[order]] of [[eros]], [[Lacan]] seems to diverge significantly from [[Freud]], since [[Freud]] sees [[aggressivity]] as an outward manifestation of the [[death drive]] (which is, in [[Lacan]]ian terms, situated not in the imaginary but in the symbolic order).

==References==

<references/>

[[Category:Imaginary]]