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{{Top}}relation [[duelle]]{{Bottom}}

The paradigmatic [[dual relation]] is the relation between the [[ego]] and the [[specular image]] (''a'' ''a''') which [[Lacan]] analyzes in his [[concept ]] of the [[mirror stage]].

In the [[symbolic]] [[order]] all relations involve not two but [[three ]] [[terms]]; the [[third ]] term is the [[big Other]], which mediates all [[imaginary]] [[dual relation]]s.

The opposition between [[imaginary]] [[dyad]]s and [[symbolic]] [[triad]]s is complicated by [[Lacan]]'s [[discussion ]] of the "[[imaginary triad]]."<ref>{{E}} p. 197; {{S4}} p. 29</ref>

The [[imaginary]] [[triad]] is [[Lacan]]'s attempt to theorize the [[preoedipal stage]] in terms other than those of a merely [[dual relation]]ship, and refers to the [[moment ]] preceding the [[Oedipus complex]], when a third element (the [[imaginary phallus]]) circulates between the [[mother]] and [[infant]].

It is for this [[reason ]] that [[Lacan]] writes that in the [[Oedipus complex]] "it is not a question of a father-mother-child [[triangle]], but of a triangle (father)-phallus-mother-child."<ref>{{S3}} p.319</ref>

One of [[Lacan]]'s most frequent criticisms of the [[psychoanalytic theory]] of his day is that it constantly fails to theorise the [[role ]] of the [[symbolic]], and thus reduces the [[psychoanalytic]] [[encounter ]] to an [[imaginary]] [[dual relation]]ship between [[analyst]] and [[analysand]].

In [[particular]], it reduces [[analytic]] [[treatment]] to an [[ego]]-to-[[ego]] encounter which, because of the [[aggressivity]] inherent in all [[imaginary]] [[dual relation]]s, often degenerates into a "[[fight to the death]]" between [[analyst]] and [[analysand]], a [[power ]] [[struggle ]] in which they are "at daggers drawn."

Against such a misconception, [[Lacan]] insists on the function of the [[symbolic]] in the [[analytic]] [[process]], which introduces the [[Other]] as the third term in the [[analytic]] encounter.

<blockquote>"It is within a three- rather than two-term relation that we have to formulate the analytic [[experience]]."<ref>{{S1}} p. 11</ref></blockquote>

Rather than [[seeing ]] the [[treatment]] as a power struggle in which the [[analyst]] must overcome the [[patient]]'s [[resistance]], which is not [[psychoanalysis]] but [[suggestion]], the [[analyst]] must realise that both he and the [[patient]] are equally subjected to the power of a third term: [[language]] itself.

[[Lacan]]'s [[rejection ]] of [[duality]] can also be seen in his rejection of all [[dual]]istic schemes of [[thought ]] in favour of [[triad]]ic schemes.

<blockquote>"All two-sided relationships are always stamped with the style of [[the imaginary]]."<ref>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Fetishism: The Symbolic, the Imaginary and the Real]]" (with W. Granoff), in M. [[Balint ]] (ed.), ''Perversions: [[Psychodynamics ]] and [[Therapy]]'', New York: Random House, [[London]]: Tavistock, 1956b. p. 274</ref></blockquote>

For example instead of the traditional binary opposition between what is [[real]] and what is [[imaginary]], [[Lacan]] proposes a [[tripartite ]] [[model ]] of [[real]], [[imaginary]] and [[symbolic]].