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 This [[notion]] of the "[[counterpart|specular ego]]" was first developed in the essay, "[[The Mirror Stage]]".  The term "[[counterpart]]" plays an important part in [[Lacan]]'s [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]] from the 1930s on, and designates other [[people ]] in whom the [[subject]] perceives a likeness to himself (principally a [[visual ]] likeness).

The [[intrusion complex]] is one of the [[three ]] "[[family]] [[complex|complexes]]" which [[Lacan]] discusses in his 1938 article on the [[family]], and arises when the [[child]] first realizes that he has siblings, that other [[subject]]s ''like him'' participate in the [[family]] [[structure]].

The emphasis here is on likeness; the [[child]] [[identification|identifies]] with his siblings on the basis of the [[recognition ]] of [[bodily ]] similarity (which depends, of course, on their [[being ]] a relatively small age [[difference ]] between the [[subject]] and his siblings).

It is this [[identification]] that gives rise to the "[[counterpart|imago of the counterpart]]."<ref>{{L}} ''[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Les complexes familiaux dans la formation de l'individu. Essai d'analyse d'une fonction en psychologie]]'', [[Paris]]: Navarin, 1984. p. 35-9</ref>

The [[image]] of [[another ]] person's [[body]] can only be [[identified]] with insofar as it is perceived as similar to one's own [[body]], and conversely the [[counterpart]] is only recognised as a [[separate]], [[identifiable]] [[ego]] by [[projection|projecting]] one's own [[ego]] onto him.

In 1955 [[Lacan]] introduces a [[distinction ]] between the "[[big Other]]" and the "[[little other]]" -- or the "[[imaginary other]]" -- reserving the latter term for the [[counterpart]] and/or [[specular image]].

The [[counterpart]] is the [[little other]] because it is not truly [[other]] at all; it is not the radical [[alterity]] represented by the [[Other]], but the [[other]] insofar as he is similar to the [[ego]] (hence the interchangeability of ''a'' and ''a''' in [[schema L]]).