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The term 'complex' (''{{Top}}complexe'') occupies an important place in Lacan's work before 1950, where it is closely related to the [[image]]. {{Bottom}}

Whereas the imago designates ==Complex and Imago==The term "[[complex]]" occupies an imaginary stereotype relating to one personimportant [[place]] in [[Lacan]]'s [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]] before 1950, the complex is a whole constellation of interacting imagos; where it is closely related to the internalisation of the subject's earliest social structures (i.e. the relationships between the various actors in his family nvironment)[[imago]].

A complex involves multiple identifications with all Whereas the interacting imagos[[imago]] designates an [[imaginary]] stereotype relating to one person, and thus provides the [[complex]] is a script according to which [[whole]] constellation of interacting [[imago]]s; it is the [[internalization]] of the [[subject is led ]]'to play out, as s earliest [[structure|social structure]]s (i.e. the sole actor, the drama of conflicts' relationships between the members of various actors in his [[family]] [[environment]]).<ref>Ec, 90</ref>

==Complex and Instinct==In his pre-war [[work]], [[Lacan ]] argues that it is because [[human ]] [[psychology ]] is based on the complexes[[complex]]es, which are entirely [[cultural ]] products, rather than on [[natural ]] [[instinct]]s, that [[human ]] [[behaviour ]] cannot be explained by reference to [[biological ]] givens.

Nevertheless, while drawing this [[explicit ]] contrast between complexes [[complex]]es and instincts[[instinct]]s, [[Lacan ]] also recognises recognizes that complexes [[complex]]es may be compared to instincts [[instinct]]s in that they make up for the instinctual [[instinct]]ual inadequacy (''insuffisance vitale'') of the [[human ]] [[infant]], and argues that the complexes [[complex]]es are propped on [[biological ]] functions such as [[weaning]].<ref>Lacan, {{1938: }} p.32-3</ref>

In 1938 Lacan identifies three 'family complexes', each ===Weaning Complex===The first of which these [[complex]]es is the trace of a [[weaning|weaning complex]] ('psychical crisis' which accompanies a [[complexe du sevrage]]'life crisis'). Taking up the [[idea]] of a "trauma of weaning," first developed by René Laforgue in the 1920s, [[Lacan]] argues that no matter how late [[weaning]] occurs, it is always perceived by the [[infant]] as coming too early.

The first <blockquote>"Whether [[trauma]]tic or not, [[weaning]] leaves in the [[human]] [[psyche]] a permanent trace of these complexes the [[biological]] relation which it interrupts. This life crisis is in effect accompanied by a psychical crisis, without [[doubt]] the weaning complex (complexe du sevrage)first whose solution has a [[dialectic]]al [[structure]]."<ref>{{1938}} p. 27</ref></blockquote>

Taking up the idea of a 'trauma of weaning', first developed by RenÈ Laforgue in the 1920s, Lacan argues that no matter how late weaning occurs, it is always perceived by the infant as coming too early.  Whether traumatic or not, weaning leaves in the human psyche a permanent trace of the biological relation which it interrupts.  This life crisis is in effect accompanied by a psychical crisis, without doubt the first whose solution has a dialectical structure. (Lacan, 1938: 27)===Intrusion Complex===After the [[weaning ]] [[complex ]] comes the [[intrusion complex ]] (''[[complexe de l'intrusion]]''), which represents the [[experience ]] that the [[child ]] has when he realises realizes that he has siblings.   The [[child ]] must then cope with the fact that he is no longer the exclusive [[object ]] of his parents' attention. The third and final family complex is the [[Oedipus Complexparents]]. After their appearance in the 1938 paper, the terms 'weaning complex' and 'intrusion complex' disappear almost completely from Lacan's work (there is a brief reference to them in 1950, but little else; Ec, 141).  However, the Oedipus complex remains a fundamental reference point throughout, and this is complemented by a growing interest, from 1956 on, in the [[Castration Complex]]attention.